How To Perform A Website Audit

Our websites are an important piece of our business, but do you know when or how to perform a website audit?

When you first decided to build a website, whether you did it yourself or hired it done, you were pretty excited. This was your chance to tell the world about your business. To prepare for the project, you spent a lot of time deciding on:

• pictures 
• content 
• copy
• design
• number of pages
• your packages or services
• overall design of the website

Building a website ends up being a pretty big project. But once you finish it, you only look at when something comes up. By the time the project is complete, you need to pay attention to other things in your business that you put on hold.

One thing you need to keep in mind, however, is that your website is often the first impression your customer will have of you and your business. You want your lead to be impressed by your website and feel like they can’t imagine life without you or your product. After all, this is the mindset that leads to a sale.

For this very reason, it’s important to schedule regular audits of your website. There are several areas you can focus on to complete this task.

Structural

What your customer experiences will most likely determine whether or not you make a sale. If your customer has a bad experience or sees a lot of errors, they may think that the quality of your website reflects the quality of the product or service you offer. 

You also want to make sure your website is easy to navigate and appealing to the eye. I’ve been on websites that are hard to navigate. When I’m struggling to get the information I want, I take my search elsewhere. You don’t want your leads to leave your website before they know about your product or service. Make it easy for them to learn more about you.

A few things to evaluate about the structure of your website include:

• Number of tabs in the menu 
• Check for broken links
• A plug-in for website backup 

It’s important to make sure your website is structurally sound so your visitors have a good experience and can find what they are looking for quickly.

Visual

When your customer visits your website, you want it to be visually appealing so they are willing to spend more time checking out you and your business. If your website provides the customer with the information they are looking for, you are more likely to make a sale.

As you look at your website, take note to make sure:

• Colors are consistent on whole website
• Fonts are consistent and easy-to-read 
• Messaging is clear within first 10 seconds

When things are pleasing to the eye, we tend to hang around longer. Make sure your website is designed in a way to keep its visitors there to see what you offer and how it can make their life better.

Content

While the other areas of a website audit are important, the content you have on your website may be the most important. The structural and visual aspects will help keep your customer looking, but the content is what conveys to your customer that they need you in their life.

Because your website is so vital to the health of your business, you want to make sure your message is clear. If you struggle with writing copy that conveys your message, it’s okay to hire someone to write it for you. Don’t spend time struggling to get your thoughts on paper when someone else can do it in less time.

With a content audit, you aren’t just paying attention to the messaging on your website. You are also making sure that the content is up-to-date. If a page is out-of-date, your lead may feel mislead when they discover the thing they want is no longer available.

Some other things to consider while doing a content audit include:

• Pages that are no longer generating traffic
• Out-dated information
• About page tells who you are and how you can help

Make sure your website content tells the story of who you are and what you have to offer. When a potential client can see themselves as a part of your story, you are more likely to make a sale.

Metrics

Metrics involve the behind-the-scenes details of your website. By tracking metrics over a period of time, you can see which areas of your website are effective and which areas need some improvement. It will also give you an idea on how well your marketing techniques are working. 

Some things to track include:

• Pages with the most traffic
• Where most traffic is coming from
• Most popular blog posts

For more information, check out my previous blog post about tracking website metrics as well as other areas of your business.

Get Started With Your Website Audit

A website audit should be done regularly in order to keep your business information accurate and your website appealing. If you haven’t done one in awhile, you will want to get started right away. I recommend you do an audit at least quarterly. 

At this point you may feel overwhelmed. If you need some help getting started, download my free website audit checklist. It’s a great place to get started, and you may discover other things that may need to be improved.