How I Optimized My Own Website to Score 80+

I preach optimization — but how does my own website stack up?

As a developer, I constantly tell my clients: "Your website needs to be faster", "Your SEO has gaps", "Your CTAs aren't clear enough". But honestly — what about my own website?

I decided to put myself through my own audit. With my own tool MaxMyReport. Ruthless, honest, no sugarcoating. Here's what came out.

The starting point: Score 73 out of 100

My first thought: "It'll be fine. I'm a developer, I know what I'm doing." Spoiler: The score brought me back down to earth.

Overall score: 73/100 — solid, but definitely not what I would recommend to my clients. Here's the breakdown:

Technology & Performance: 78/100

Solid foundation with Next.js and Vercel. But one problem stood out: The tsparticles bundle was over 400 KB. For a nice particle effect in the hero section. 400 KB. That's more than some entire websites weigh.

Also: The manifest.json returned a 404 error because the Next.js middleware was incorrectly redirecting the file to a localized route. A classic "works on my machine" bug.

SEO & Visibility: 68/100

The biggest eye-opener. I actually still had a <meta name="keywords"> tag on my pages. That hasn't had any SEO value since 2009 — Google ignores it completely. Embarrassing when you offer SEO consulting.

On top of that, there were missing FAQ schemas on the service pages and suboptimal internal linking. The pages existed, but they weren't properly connected to each other.

UX & Conversion: 72/100

My contact form was prominently placed — but the real conversion killer was elsewhere: The calendar for booking appointments was hidden. Visitors had to scroll, search, click. Yet a booked appointment is far more valuable than a "Hi, I might be interested" email.

Content & Brand: 70/100

Good content, clean copy — but my USP wasn't communicated clearly enough. Why should someone hire me instead of the next agency? My website didn't answer that question in the first 5 seconds.

Accessibility: 82/100

The best score — but even here there was room for improvement. 22 SVG icons without aria-hidden. For screen reader users, that means: meaningless announcements for every decorative icon. A small detail that makes the difference between "accessible" and "truly accessible".

Market & Competition: 65/100

The toughest category. I wasn't ranking in the Google top 10 for any of my relevant keywords. Not for "AI development Cologne", not for "MVP development", not for "website audit". The content was there, but the visibility was missing.

The quick wins — under 5 minutes per fix

The surprising thing: Most improvements were trivial. No big refactoring, no redesign. Just things you overlook when you're too close to the project.

1. Fixed manifest.json 404

One line in the middleware configuration: Exclude manifest.json from locale routing. Fix time: 2 minutes. Result: PWA support works again, Lighthouse reports no more errors.

2. Removed keywords meta tag

Simply deleted it. No replacement needed. Google officially declared the keywords meta tag irrelevant in 2009. Every second spent on it is wasted. Fix time: 1 minute.

3. Fixed Cal.com deprecation warning

The Cal.com integration was using a deprecated API. An update to the current embed version eliminated the console warnings and improved the calendar's load time. Fix time: 5 minutes.

4. Added aria-hidden to 22 SVG icons

A simple aria-hidden="true" on all decorative icons. Screen reader users are no longer bombarded with meaningless icon descriptions. Fix time: 10 minutes (much faster with search & replace).

5. Overhauled Supabase upload script

The script that uploads audit reports to Supabase had edge cases that led to silent failures. Completely overhauled with better error handling and validation. Fix time: 30 minutes — the most involved quick win.

The bigger changes

Beyond the quick wins, there were structural improvements that required more effort but had the biggest impact.

Calendar as primary CTA

The most important change: The calendar button is now the most prominent call-to-action on every page. Instead of "Fill out a contact form and hope someone replies", it's now "Book an appointment directly". Less friction, higher conversion.

Revenue share model communicated transparently

My business model is unusual: I offer revenue share models where I participate in my clients' success. This was previously hidden in a footnote. Now it's a central selling point — because it builds trust. When I only earn when you earn, our interests are aligned.

FAQ schema on all service pages

Every service page now has a structured FAQ schema (FAQPage JSON-LD). This helps Google display the most common questions directly in search results — more visibility, more clicks, without needing to create additional content.

Improved internal linking

Blog articles now link to relevant service pages. Service pages link to matching case studies. The website no longer feels like isolated islands but like a connected network — exactly what Google wants to see.

The result: From 73 to 80+

After all changes, I ran the audit again. The result:

• Technology & Performance: 78 → 85 (+7 points)
• SEO & Visibility: 68 → 79 (+11 points)
• UX & Conversion: 72 → 81 (+9 points)
• Content & Brand: 70 → 78 (+8 points)
• Accessibility: 82 → 89 (+7 points)
• Market & Competition: 65 → 72 (+7 points)
• Overall score: 73 → 81 (+8 points)

The biggest jump was in SEO (+11 points). And the absurd part: The most effective changes were also the simplest. Removing the keywords meta tag, adding FAQ schemas, setting internal links — all under an hour of work.

The 5 key takeaways

1. You overlook your own mistakes

I work on websites every day. Yet I had a 404 in my manifest.json, a useless meta tag, and hidden CTAs. Blind spots are real — and a systematic audit is the best antidote.

2. Most fixes are trivial

80% of improvements took less than 5 minutes. The problem was never the effort — but that I didn't know the problem existed. An audit makes the invisible visible.

3. SEO quick wins have the highest ROI

Structured data, clean meta tags, internal linking — these aren't sexy topics. But they deliver more than any design overhaul. 11 points improvement in the SEO score, without writing a single new text.

4. Accessibility is not a nice-to-have

The 22 missing aria-hidden attributes didn't bother me — because I don't use a screen reader. For people who depend on them, my website was unnecessarily hard to use. Accessibility fixes cost almost nothing and make your website better for everyone.

5. Regular audits > one-time launch check

A website is never "done". Dependencies get outdated, new best practices emerge, content gets added. An audit at launch is good — but regular re-audits are better. I now plan to check my own website every 4 weeks.

What this means for you

If a developer who works with websites every day has a score of 73 — then the odds are high that your website also has optimization potential. And that's not bad news. It means: You can get significantly more out of your website with relatively little effort.

The question isn't whether your website has room for improvement. The question is whether you know about it.

Want to know how your website scores?

Start your free website audit with MaxMyReport now. In just a few minutes you'll know where your website stands — and what you can specifically improve.

No marketing fluff, no hidden costs. Just an honest look at your website, exactly like I did with my own.

Start your free website audit now