If you are sick, you go to the doctor. If your car is sick, you go to the mechanic. But what do you do if your website is sick?
You need a website audit. A comprehensive website audit helps uncover blind spots that are preventing you from getting the results you want.
In this blog, you’ll discover a checklist that can help you audit your website to drive better traffic.
Why auditing your website is important
Website audits help a business to recognize its strengths and weaknesses, create opportunities for improvement, and find new ways to help the business stay relevant and move forward.
When should I audit my website?
There are several reasons why you should audit your website. Consider performing a website audit:
- Website redesigns.
- Marketing campaigns or promotional launches.
- New functionalities, plugins, or pages get added to the site.
- On a monthly or quarterly basis.
What’s do I look for when auditing my website?
While there are many ways you can audit a website, for the best results, focus on the following areas.
1. Branding Your Website
Don’t cut corners and throw a website together for the sake of it. A common issue people face when it comes to their website is their branding. A great brand identity is an essential foundational element to your website’s success.
Everything about your site needs to reflect who you are, what you stand for, and how you inspire your customers to take action. Making branding a part of your web design ensures consistency, which supports authenticity.
Think about your own website experiences. Have you ever stumbled upon a website that looked like it was built in the early 2000s? How did that shape your perception of the website? Chances are the outdated look and feel make you question the legitimacy of the brand.
What to check for:
- The logo is located on the website and is appropriately sized.
- The website follows your brand guidelines.
- The font choice is modern and easy to distinguish between headlines and paragraphs.
- Colors and design create a sense of harmony that compels the user to engage and take action.
- The photos, graphics, and iconography have the same consistent look and feel.
2. Usability & Responsiveness
A quality website is clean, well-organized, easy to navigate, concise, modern (in terms of style and layout), functional, and motivates the visitor to do business with you. A bad user experience can be a major turn-off. When auditing the usability and responsiveness of your website, keep in mind the following:
What to check for:
- The page structure contains a mixture of copy, images, and calls to action.
- The website is easy to navigate from page to page.
- The website is responsive and looks great on all devices.
- The website is easy to scan and doesn’t consume lots of text.
- The website loads fast and is seamless from page to page.
- Hyperlinks work as expected.
- Animations do not distract the user.
3. Content & Messaging
From your home and about page to your blog, the content on your website must send out the right message to the right It must attract people and turn their interest into action. Views must become clicks. Clicks must become customers. The good news is that there are lots of ways to improve your website’s content and messaging.
What to check for:
- Content is more on the customer and their pain points and less on you.
- Each page has a goal or purpose.
- Catchy, compelling headlines.
- Excessive word fluff. Less is more.
- Grammar and spelling mistakes.
- Run-on sentences.
- Too many pages.
4. SEO
A website by itself is not enough. In order to be found online, you need Search Engine Optimization. This element is made up of a variety of factors that you can do in order to improve your website’s visibility.
What to check for:
- Every page has a dedicated keyword/theme focus.
- Title tags are on every page.
- Meta descriptions are on every page.
- The URL incorporates your keyword.
- The headlines incorporate your keyword and variations.
- The images have friendly filenames and alt text.
- Broken links and images.
- The website has a sitemap.
- There are proper redirects in place.
- The website has a 404 page.
5. Calls to Action & Conversions
Your website needs to be a lead generation machine. If you never ask your audience to take action, they won’t. There are lots of ways you can help guide your audience and entice them to show interest and engage.
What to check for:
- The calls to action are concise and move users to a path of conversions.
- Buttons are action-oriented and tell the user what to do. For example, “Buy Now”.
- Button colors are consistent.
- Each page provides a directive to the user.
- The website avoids language such as, “Click here.”
- The website has a lead magnet/promo offer.
- I send traffic to my website via other channels such as social media.
6. Analytics
Data is another way you can audit your website. You can use data points to help you make informed decisions on what’s working and what’s not.
There are a variety of tools that can help you analyze your website’s engagement.
What to use:
- Google Analytics is installed and goals are set up.
- The website is verified and a sitemap has been submitted to Google Search Console.
- Heatmaps are on the website to track user’s behavior and how people engage with content.
- Technical audits like Dareboost to help understand site performance.
Need a Website Audit?
Need a professional website audit to help you skyrocket your website’s performance? Get in touch with Woods Creative.