Website Audit: Solar Strong Planning a Rebuild

The audit at a glance

• Client: Solar Strong, an established solar installer serving Sydney and regional NSW
• Service: Website audit and rebuild brief
• Scope: Tech stack, every page and template, page copy, SEO, design, media, forms and lead capture, plugins, settings and business details
• Method: A strictly read-only review with secure admin access, granted by the owner. Nothing on the live site was changed, and no passwords or API keys were exported.
• Delivered: A complete rebuild brief, a redirect plan, a migration checklist and raw data exports the build team could work from directly

Why audit before a rebuild?

The client wanted a new website. The old one had grown over several years through a theme change, a page builder and plenty of plugins, and nobody had a full picture of what was on it.

A rebuild that ignores the old site can quietly undo years of work. Existing pages rank in Google, enquiries arrive through forms, and photos, reviews and offers sit in the database. We treated the audit as if the old site would be switched off on launch day, so everything worth keeping had to be captured first.

The headline finding: leads were going missing

The biggest problem was not the design. The call-back form shown on every page had no notification email set. Requests were saved inside WordPress, but nobody was ever told about them. At least two genuine call-back requests had gone unanswered.

The other forms had problems too. Phone fields used a number format that strips the leading zero from Australian mobile numbers, so some numbers were saved incorrectly. No form had spam protection. The main quote form had received more than 900 submissions, but the site kept only a count, so the business’s lead history lived in a single email inbox.

That is why our first recommendation was to fix lead capture before anything else: one quote form and one call-back form, both emailing the business, with proper phone fields, spam protection and a tested email connection.

What we found

What was already working well

• A five-star Google rating, with reviews praising clear advice and tidy installs
• A clear range of services and system packages for homes and businesses
• A consistent brand palette and typography that could carry straight into the new design
• Seven established page addresses that already carried search history
• HTTPS, self-referencing canonical tags and a firewall already in place

A good audit should tell you what to keep as well as what to fix. These assets shaped the rebuild brief as much as the problems did.

The rebuild brief we delivered

1. Fix lead capture first: rebuild the forms so every enquiry reaches the business, recover the missed call-back requests and test email delivery end to end.
2. Protect rankings: keep all seven established page addresses, and redirect demo and default pages to the closest relevant page.
3. A lean sitemap: 8 to 10 pages, adding a real services overview, a recent projects gallery and a privacy policy.
4. An SEO foundation: a unique title and description for every page, one H1 per page, local business schema, social sharing images, Google Analytics and Search Console.
5. Cut the plugins: from 18 active plugins down to about 6, each with a clear job.
6. Correct the content: one phone number, one set of warranty terms, accurate system sizes and clean copy, plus ABN and accreditation details.
7. A migration checklist: from taking a full off-site backup through to testing every page and form after launch.

What this means for your business

This business had a lot going for it: happy customers, strong reviews and a clear offer. The problems sat behind the scenes, where a form can fail silently for months and nobody notices until the phone goes quiet.

If you are planning a new website, audit the old one first. You cannot protect what you have not measured, and the fastest win is often fixing what is already costing you enquiries.