It comes as no surprise that every business, regardless of the size or type, is looking for ways to go online to make its presence known. These businesses are creating a website to sell their services and products to a larger audience. Do you have a website and implementing strategies to rank it higher on search engines? Yet, you are not getting the target audience on your site or having a low conversion rate.
Chances are you might be incorporating plenty of SEO tips and tricks that optimizes your website, increases traffic, and generates more sales. However, no matter how much effort you put into your website, there is always room for improvement. For this reason, conducting a website audit might be an ideal solution to identify issues in your website.
A website audit can help you determine your website’s strengths and limitations, thereby transforming your website from good to excellent. Are you feeling unsure how to conduct your site auditing? No worries, you have just landed in the right place. Read on below to learn the ways to audit your website:
- SEO AUDIT
Undoubtedly, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a crucial part in driving more traffic and increasing search engine ranking. Integrating SEO techniques on your website is an arduous task; you want to make sure you are doing it the right way. Carrying out an SEO audit on your webpages can save your time and efforts from going down the drain. Consider the following points to audit SEO:
- Is the content on your webpage easy to read and valuable to the users?
- Have you incorporated keywords in title and meta tags?
- Do the images and other visuals optimized with relevant keywords?
- Do your webpages consist of sharing options on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?
- Are your URLs reader-friendly and keyword optimized?
- Does your website have a proper XML sitemap making it easy for search engine crawlers to index your pages?
- Does your website have enough authentic backlinks?
- Do your webpages have compelling call-to-action-buttons? Also, how many clicks you get on these CTA buttons?
- TECHNICAL AUDIT
Although an on-page and off-page SEO audits are critical, your website audit is still incomplete if you overlook the technical audit element. If you are not concentrating on improving your website’s technical aspects, chances are your website performance might deteriorate. Thus, you must frequently audit technical SEO to ensure your website functions smoothly. Many people believe resolving technical issues might be a daunting task; however, that’s not the case. You can, without much difficulty, fix your website’s technical problems or take help from a website developer. Below is the checklist of the technical audit with a brief description:
- Do your webpages have crawl errors? These are the errors that show the inability of search engine bots to crawl into your webpage. However, it is advisable to conduct this audit every month.
- Are all of your web pages secure? You can check it with HTTPS status codes. The pages with HTTP URLs will display 4xx or 5xx errors.
- What is the loading time of your website? The slower your webpage loads, the poor user experience, and hence low search engine ranking.
- Is your website mobile-friendly? Google today favors websites that are mobile-friendly in search engine ranking.
- How frequently do you audit the robot.txt file? Ensure you have not marked disallow to your site’s relevant pages that you want search engines to crawl.
- Are you keeping track of broken links on your website? The broken or spammy links can hamper the user experience.
- Does your website have a regular backup? Having a backup can save you from a significant loss and restore data in less time.
- UX AUDIT
The first thing users observe when they visit your website is the feel and look of your site. Thus, your website design can either make or break your overall efforts. It is essential to audit the design and the user-friendliness of your website. Performing a User-Experience (UX) audit on your web page is vital to fixing any issues, reducing bounce rate, and generating maximum conversions. Simply put, your website’s UX design should allow users to find what they are seeking and take appropriate actions. The UX auditing must include:
- Is your website easy-to-navigate?
- Is the structure of your whole website similar? It includes consistent typography, header and text size, navigation, etc.
- Does your website have visual graphics that support your text?
- Is the overall design of the website light and digestible?
- Does your website have clear and easily visible CTAs?
- Does the design of your website is in line with your business goals and values?
- Does your website function properly on all devices, including mobile phones, desktops, tablets, etc.?
- CONTENT AUDIT
Let’s admit it; an effective content marketing strategy can take your website to a whole new level. Publishing relevant content on each page of your website attracts the right audience and improves SEO. After auditing your website design and technical issues, your next step is to focus on content. After all, you don’t want to drive back the audience because of poor content issues. The following is the checklist for content auditing:
- Does your content align with the webpage objective? You don’t want to insert your contact information on the products page.
- Does your content have spelling and grammar issues? These sorts of problems can put a dent in your brand’s reputation.
- Is your content easy-to-digest and properly explains your services?
- Do you have white spaces between your content?
- Does your content include any click-worthy sharing options?
- Does your content also include appealing visuals to keep your audience engaged?
- Are there any eye-catchy titles for your content to entice your audience?
- Do you have duplicate content?
- Are you frequently updating your old content with new stats and figures?
- COMPETITOR AUDIT
There is no denying that auditing your site can reduce glitches and improve your site’s overall performance. However, if you wish to go the extra mile and stay ahead of your competitors, then auditing your competitor’s website might be a wise move. Although you might not have enough access to your competitor’s sites to conduct an audit, you can still assess few points that might help you. Some of the key points that you need to focus on include:
- What keywords are they targeting, and where are they utilizing those keywords?
- What is the length of their content? What are the topics of their content?
- How consistent are they in publishing content?
- What type of call-to-action strategies are they using to generate leads?
- How much attention are they giving to the user interface?
CONCLUSION
Conducting your website audit must be a regular and consistent process and not just an occasional task. By doing so, you can be aware of your website’s areas of improvement before it becomes difficult to handle your site issues. The best practice is to leave no stones unturned by following all the possible steps of auditing. It is important to note it might take several weeks for the initial audit. However, later on, it would be more like a follow-up to keep every aspect of your website on track.