The five-minute audit.
Before I quote anything, I do a five-minute read of the existing site with no tools. Here is what I am looking for, and why it predicts everything.
Every new inquiry starts with opening the existing site and reading it for five minutes. No tools. No Lighthouse. No scroll heatmap. Just reading.
What I look for
Whether the first screen answers "what is this and who is it for" in plain language. Whether the second screen earns a click. Whether the third screen makes me trust the team behind the product. If any of those three fail, the project is a rewrite, not a redesign.
Most sites are not broken. They are just talking to the wrong audience in the wrong order.