We Ran Our Free Website Audit Against Semrush & Squarespace — Here's What We Found
We audited Semrush (53/100), Squarespace (54/100), and our own site (51/100). Even industry giants are leaking leads. Real scores, real issues, real revenue impact.
By Outbound Autonomy — May 31, 2026
On May 31, 2026, we ran three real website audits through the Outbound Autonomy free audit tool — scanning our own site alongside two industry giants: Semrush (the SEO toolkit platform) and Squarespace (the website builder platform).
The results are surprising. Even market leaders are leaking leads, loading slowly, and missing basic conversion signals. Here's the breakdown.
Audit #1: outboundautonomy.com (Our Own Site)
Overall Composite Score: 51/100 — Grade F
Yes, we tested ourselves. And we got humbled.
| Category | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Visual & UX | 53/100 | Needs improvement |
| Conversion & Flow | 43/100 | No phone, only 1 CTA |
| Technical SEO | 60/100 | Missing canonical, HSTS |
| Content Quality | 69/100 | Decent, missing case studies |
| Domain & SEO Value | 32/100 | ~3 years, limited backlinks |
| Page Signals (Speed) | 89/100 | TTFB 34ms, 95KB ✅ |
Top Issues Found
- 🔴 No visible phone number — Estimated $800/mo revenue loss. Mobile visitors can't tap-to-call.
- ⚠️ No canonical URL set — Risk of duplicate content issues.
- ⚠️ robots.txt not accessible — Search engines may have trouble crawling.
- ⚠️ Only 1 CTA — And it's below the fold. No above-fold conversion prompt.
- 📊 TTFB: 34ms (excellent) — Fastest of the three sites tested.
What the Audit Report Shows
The Outbound Autonomy audit report displays a dashboard-style page with:
- Overall score prominently at top (51/100, grade F)
- Category breakdown — 6 dimension cards with individual scores
- Issues list — Ranked by severity with estimated monthly revenue loss
- Fix prompts — AI-ready prompt you can paste into Cursor or ChatGPT
- Before/After projection — Showing what your score would be after fixes
- Revenue impact — Concrete dollar estimates
The report is instantly generated — no email, no login, no credit card required.
Audit #2: semrush.com
Overall Composite Score: 53/100 — Grade F
Wait — Same grade as a 3-year-old small startup? Yes. Despite being a NYSE-listed, $1B+ SEO platform, Semrush's homepage scored only 2 points higher than ours.
| Category | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Visual & UX | 53/100 | Same as OA — surprisingly tied |
| Conversion & Flow | 46/100 | Weak CTAs, no booking |
| Technical SEO | 56/100 | Schema score 30/100 |
| Content Quality | 76/100 | Stronger — grade 10 readability |
| Domain & SEO Value | 38/100 | DA ~60, 9-year domain |
| Page Signals (Speed) | 76/100 | 11 render-blocking resources! |
Top Issues Found
- 🔴 11 render-blocking scripts & stylesheets — 6 blocking scripts + 5 blocking stylesheets. Estimated loss: $700/mo from slow paint.
- 🔴 No visible phone number — $800/mo lost.
- ⚠️ 1 broken image —
P&G_logo_m.svgreturns HTTP error. $500/mo trust erosion. - ⚠️ No booking system — $0 in scheduling capability found.
- 📊 Page weight: 324KB — Heavier than OA's 95KB.
Key Takeaway
Semrush is an SEO company whose homepage has a 0/100 score for render-blocking resources and a 30/100 for schema markup. The irony is not lost on us.
Audit #3: squarespace.com
Overall Composite Score: 54/100 — Grade F
The website builder that powers millions of sites scored just 54/100 — only 3 points ahead of our own.
| Category | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Visual & UX | 47/100 | Lowest of the three |
| Conversion & Flow | 56/100 | Best of three, still no phone |
| Technical SEO | 62/100 | Strongest — decent SEO foundation |
| Content Quality | 70/100 | Grade 10 readability, FAQ section |
| Domain & SEO Value | 34/100 | DA ~45, ~4 years |
| Page Signals (Speed) | 78/100 | TTFB 69ms ✅ — but 1.8MB! |
Top Issues Found
- 🔴 Page weight: 1.8MB — Squarespace's homepage weighs 1,817KB (vs. OA's 95KB).
- 🔴 7 render-blocking resources — $700/mo lost from slow first paint.
- 🔴 No visible phone number — $800/mo lost (a recurring theme).
- ⚠️ Title tag too long (68 chars) — May truncate in SERPs. $400/mo lost.
- ⚠️ 1 broken image + 1 mixed content resource — Trust and security warnings.
Key Takeaway
A website builder's homepage weighs 1.8MB and has 7 render-blocking resources. If this is the template, what are their customers' sites doing?
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | outboundautonomy.com | semrush.com | squarespace.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composite Score | 51 | 53 | 54 |
| Visual & UX | 53 | 53 | 47 |
| Conversion | 43 | 46 | 56 |
| Technical SEO | 60 | 56 | 62 |
| Content | 69 | 76 | 70 |
| Domain Strength | 32 | 38 | 34 |
| TTFB | 34ms ✅ | 84ms ✅ | 69ms ✅ |
| Page Weight | 95KB ✅ | 324KB | 1.8MB ❌ |
| Render-Blocking | 2 ✅ | 11 ❌ | 7 ❌ |
| CTAs | 1 | 15 | 6 |
| Broken Images | 0 ✅ | 1 | 1 |
| Phone Number | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
The Common Thread
All three sites — across startup and enterprise — share the same core problems:
- No visible phone number — Every site is losing ~$800/mo because mobile visitors can't tap-to-call.
- Render-blocking resources — Even the fastest-coded sites have 2+ blocking scripts. Semrush has 11.
- No booking/scheduling systems — None of the three make it easy to book a meeting directly.
- Broken images — Both Semrush and Squarespace have at least 1 broken image on their homepages.
These aren't niche issues. They're ubiquitous — and they're costing businesses real money.
How the Audit Works
The Outbound Autonomy audit tool analyzes a website across 6 dimensions:
- Visual & UX — Design quality, mobile responsiveness, image optimization
- Conversion & Flow — CTA strength, form capture, phone visibility, booking systems
- Technical SEO — Meta tags, schema, heading hierarchy, robots/sitemap, SSL
- Content Quality — Readability, freshness, grammar, duplicate content, internal linking
- Competitor Intelligence — Automated comparison, feature gap analysis
- Domain & SEO Value — Domain age, authority estimates, backlink profile
Each issue is ranked by severity and comes with an estimated monthly revenue loss — no vague advice, just dollars-and-cents prioritization.
Try It On Your Own Site
Run your free audit now →
No email. No credit card. No login. Paste your URL, get your score in ~90 seconds.
What you get free:
- Overall health score (0–100)
- 5 category scores (Speed, SEO, Mobile, Accessibility, Security)
- Top 3 critical issues explained in plain English
- Revenue impact estimates
- AI-ready fix prompts you can take to your developer
Upgrade to the $97 Full Report for:
- Full 20-page scored audit with competitor comparison
- Every issue ranked by revenue impact
- PDF export
- Fix cost estimates
Tools We Recommend
We use these tools ourselves when building and auditing service-business websites. Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tools we use and believe in. Per FTC guidelines, you should assume any link to a third-party product or service is an affiliate link.
Semrush →
Semrush is the industry standard for SEO research, keyword tracking, and competitor analysis. For service business owners, it answers critical questions: What are your competitors ranking for? Which keywords actually drive local traffic? How does your site compare to the top 3 search results in your area?
Why we recommend it: If your free audit identifies SEO gaps — missing schema, thin content, low keyword coverage — Semrush is the tool that tells you exactly which fixes move the needle and which keywords to target first.
Pricing: Plans start at ~$139/month.
We may earn a commission if you purchase through our link.
WP Engine →
Most service business websites run on WordPress. WP Engine provides managed WordPress hosting with built-in speed optimization, automatic updates, and security monitoring. For any company whose site goes down during peak season, the cost of downtime far exceeds the cost of managed hosting.
Why we recommend it: Site speed directly affects both Google rankings and mobile conversion rates. WP Engine's managed platform handles the technical side so you don't need a developer to keep your site fast and secure.
Pricing: Plans start at ~$20/month.
We may earn a commission if you purchase through our link.
Webflow →
If your website needs a complete rebuild, Webflow is a visual website builder that lets you design and launch a professional, responsive site without coding. It includes built-in SEO controls, schema markup support, and mobile-responsive design by default.
Why we recommend it: For business owners who want design control without hiring a developer, Webflow bridges the gap. You can build a conversion-optimized site with proper schema, mobile forms, and seasonal landing pages — all visually.
Pricing: Plans start at ~$14/month.
We may earn a commission if you purchase through our link.
Want to see what your site is doing right (and wrong)?
Drop your URL below. We'll scan your entire site and show you exactly what's costing you leads — in under two minutes with no email required.
Free URL analysis
Score your site — and see exactly what needs fixing.
We scan your site and compare you to local competitors. Design, conversion, and technical scoring with specific issues and fix estimates. No email required.
Paste your URL. We'll run a full scan (takes ~60-90s) — no email, no account. The page updates automatically when it's ready.
Design, conversion, and technical signal scoring.
Same-origin crawl map plus screenshot when available.
Optional gated-page context for deeper implementation review.
Want to see what a full audit looks like first? Preview an example audit for a local service business →
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