The problem
When a site moves to a new platform, old content comes along for the ride: last cycle’s dates, a phone number that changed, office hours written three different ways, links to pages that no longer exist, and an old logo. Reading every page yourself takes days, and it’s easy to skim past things you’ve seen a hundred times. An AI tool can do the first read of every line and hand you a list to check.
The prompts
Start in a folder
…\AI Projects\Website Audit\
Make the folder
On your C: drive, OneDrive, or an external drive. Your choice.
Open it in the app
Claude: Code tab → under the message box, choose Local → Open folder… ChatGPT: open Codex, click Add new project (or press Ctrl+O), then pick the folder. To add more folders later, open the project menu, choose Edit project, then Add folder.
Say what you want
Use the prompt below. Then open what it saved in the folder.
Say them out loud or type them. Change the words to fit your office. The AI goes and gets the public documents itself and saves what it makes in the folder.
Prompt 1 · Say it or type it
Audit the whole site
Go to our office's website at [Web address] and read every public page, starting from the sitemap if there is one. Skip any page that lists individual voters, like potential-ineligibility notices. Include the title of each PDF we link to and the date printed on it. For big archives like past results and monthly reports, just test the links. Our correct office details are in the Word file in this folder. Flag old dates and past elections, hours, phone numbers, or addresses that don't match our correct details, pages that say different things about the same topic, our office name written different ways, and vague link text like "click here." Test every link and tell me which ones are broken or redirect somewhere else. Save an Excel workbook in this folder with one row per problem: the page, the exact text, why you flagged it, and a suggested fix. Add a second tab that lists every page you checked.
Fill in anything in [brackets] with your own details.
The audit is only as good as your correct-details file. Have it approved before you start.
Prompt 2 · Say it or type it
Brand and wording check
Now check the wording against our brand board in this folder. Flag things like "absentee ballot" where we say "vote-by-mail ballot," headings in all caps, or a casual tone on a legal notice page, and add them as a new tab.
Prompt 3 · Say it or type it
Check again after the fixes
We fixed the problems marked "real" in the workbook. Recheck just those rows on the live site and tell me which ones are still there, gone, or changed.
What you need
- The Claude desktop app (Code tab) or the ChatGPT desktop app (Codex) and a folder called something like
Website Audit. Put it on the C: drive, OneDrive, or an external drive. - Your “correct details” file, saved in the folder: current hours, phone numbers, addresses, email, and how you write your office’s name and the Supervisor’s name and title. Get it approved first. Everything else gets compared to it. Building it often turns up places where your own site disagrees with itself, like two different fax numbers. Settle those before you start.
- Your brand board, if you have one, saved in the folder. A short list of words you use and words you don’t (like “vote-by-mail ballot,” not “absentee ballot”) makes the wording check much better. No board yet? See Brand board from your public website.
- Nothing else. The AI reads your public pages and tests your links itself.
Step by step
- Make the folder and save your approved correct-details file in it.
- Open the folder in the app. In the Claude desktop app, open the Code tab, and in the row under the message box choose Local, then Open folder…. In the ChatGPT desktop app, open Codex, click Add new project (or press Ctrl+O), and pick the folder. See Folder projects for the full walkthrough.
- Say the prompt. For a big site, name one section at a time (“start with the Voting section”). Testing links is the slow part. A polite check goes about one link a second, so a site with a couple thousand links can take most of an hour. Let it run.
- Open the workbook it saved. Check the “pages checked” tab first. If any pages are missing, ask it to review them too.
- Verify each flag on the live page. Mark each row “real,” “not a problem,” or “fixed.”
- Check wording and brand with the second prompt.
- Fix, then check again with the third prompt. The list should be much shorter.
One possible outcome
One run of the first prompt, on a stand-in website for a made-up Sample County with a few problems hidden in it on purpose.
(opens the full version, PDF, 6 pages, 256 KB)Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files download to your phone; the PDF opens first. File names end in -DRAFT because AI output is a draft until a person checks it. Web addresses shown in these samples are made-up and will not open.
Make it yours
- Do it before every major election. Keep the folder, and pair it with the election-cycle website refresh checklist.
- Add accessibility. Run the pages you fix through the accessibility checks too.
- Clean up the brand while you’re at it. See Brand consistency cleanup.
- Go wider. To line up your voter guide, notices, and releases with your pages and with Florida law, see Find contradictions across your own public materials.
Time: by hand vs. with AI
By hand
2–3 days for a full site
AI’s part, measured
About 1 hour
in a test run of these prompts
With AI
2–3 hours
your time, including review
About the measured time: “AI’s part” is how long the AI took, start to finish, in a test run of these prompts on September 27, 2026. It works on its own while you do something else. “By hand” and “With AI” are estimates of your own time.
Honest estimate for a site of about 50–100 pages. Reading every page and testing every link used to be the slowest part, and the AI now does that. Most of the 2–3 hours is you confirming each flag on the live page and fixing it. For a bigger site, audit one section at a time.
Checking the work: what an expert looks for
You know this work, so you’re the best person to check it. Open every file it made and read every page. If part of it is outside what you know, hand that part to someone who knows it. These are the spots that most often need a fix:
- Treat the workbook as a to-do list, not a finished audit. The AI will miss some problems and flag some things that aren’t problems. Confirm each row on the live page. If a row says something is missing from a long page, like a results archive, scroll to the bottom yourself.
- Click any link it marks broken before you remove it. Some sites turn away automated checks, so a working link can look broken.
- Open the ‘pages checked’ tab and compare it to your sitemap or page list. If pages are missing, say so and ask it to check them too.
- Fix problems at the source. If the hours are wrong in a site-wide footer or template, fix it there once, not on every page.
- Don’t delete old pages without a plan. Old addresses may be printed on cards, flyers, or QR codes. Ask your IT staff or web vendor to redirect them.
Last reviewed October 2, 2026.
