SUMMARY: A route audit checks whether every public and member path still moves visitors toward the intended narrative, action, or evidence.
Routes are more than links. They are habits embedded in the site. A menu path teaches priority. An archive path teaches history. A forum path teaches participation. A chat path teaches presence. When those routes drift, visitors may still arrive, but they arrive without orientation.
A route audit asks whether the map still matches the mission.
Audit Targets
Primary routes: menu entries, home page calls to action, archive links, and category pages.
Discovery routes: search snippets, post titles, internal links, tags, and feeds.
Participation routes: forum topics, chat rooms, registration paths, and moderation surfaces.
Recovery routes: login, password reset, error pages, redirects, and dead-end prevention.
Operational Use
Route audits pair well with index memory. Index memory asks what older systems still remember. Route audit asks what the current site is actively teaching now.
Operator Rule
If a route is visible, it is part of the story.
Field assessment: navigation is governance written in links.