A website audit may not sound like fun, but it’s one of the most overlooked tools to grow your business and maximize your marketing efforts. Many times, business owners are so focused on the product that they overlook the channel. Your website is one of the primary channels — if not the primary channel — that customers find you, connect with you, and learn about you and your services.
WHAT IS A WEBSITE AUDIT?
A website audit is essentially a strategic examination of your site’s performance. This can include everything from page and image loading speeds to design function (or UX design) and search engine optimization (SEO) as well as content review.
A good audit will include technical insights such as crawlability errors, broken links, and more.
An Overview of Audit Elements include —
- Loading speed (The large majority of site visitors leave after 2-4 seconds if the pages don’t load.)
- UX design (User Experience)
- Mobile Friendliness
- Crawlability (Can Google find you and access important pages — which allows the general public to do the same.)
- Headers and Meta tags (Are your correct topics prioritized with appropriate heading tags and have do you have meta descriptions for searchability?)
- HTTPS security protocols (Is your site secure? If not, it risks losing visitors and looking professional.)
- Internal linking (Looking for broken links, etc.)
- JS and CSS errors (errors in coding that prevent elements from loading correctly)
- SEO and Content issues or holes (If you don’t have an SEO and content strategy or you have holes, the right customers aren’t finding you — and neither is Google for that matter.)
WHY YOU NEED A SITE AUDIT
What if you could improve your business with a simple review?
That’s the nutshell of what an audit does. It improves your business almost immediately. When you do one or have one professionally done, you will likely find some simple issues that have quick fixes, which provide nearly immediate improvements. Other issues that you find can help you know exactly what strategies you need to do moving forward with content and SEO.
As we’ve covered in this resource, an audit helps you see where your website may have holes and may be working against you, but here are few reasons you need to do a website audit —
- Slow-loading pages cause visitors to abandon your site.
- Poorly designed functions or information prevent visitors from taking the right actions on your site. (You’d be surprised at how many business owners forget basic links even to the contact form.)
- Bad SEO and content plans mean the right visitors can’t find you when they look up services related to yours. Worse than that even, people who do bounce right off your site because you’re not what they are looking for.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WEBSITE AUDITS
Types of Website Audits
There are three parts to a website audit —
- Technical Audit
- SEO Audit
- Content Audit
Website Audit Tools
As we’ve discussed, there are a few different areas to audit on a website to understand how healthy and effective it is. Below are a few reputable resources with a range of free to paid services to help audit your site’s functionality and performance as well ideas for improving the tactics you’re using.
- SEM Rush for SEO Audit Resources
- Hubspot’s Free Website Grader
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Ubersuggest SEO Analyzer
- UpCity SEO Report Card
Not comfortable doing your own audit? Or maybe you want to make sure your audit is full-scale across your entire online presence?
Sometimes it helps to have some professional help — the same way you help your clients. The team at our sister company, Brandlink Media, can do a full-scale custom audit on anything you’re wanting to improve including your social media, website, and all digital marketing efforts in order to help you create an omnichannel experience for your customers – perfect for busy entrepreneurs who may not have adequate time to focus on the back-end, technical things.
Have questions? Book a free consultation call to get insights, information, and a good first step.
STEPS MOVING FORWARD
- If you have a small site, start your own audit by checking basic things such as making sure your navigation buttons work and go to the right pages. Check your social icon links, and try out your Contact Us form to be sure all the pieces are working.
- If these terms and topics feel overwhelming, start by learning more about them. Explore the free Google My Business tools available for you.
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Written by Corrie McGee
Learn the simple formula for identifying your ideal customer and creating a value proposition.
