Building an online presence can be both cheap and easy if you are doing it correctly. Each new website should perform marvelously, right? Wrong! Not all sites perform similarly due to fundamental differences in development and optimization. These are some of the reasons your competitors are bagging all the paying customers, while you are struggling to breakeven.
Why do new websites require auditing?
Even a new website requires an audit. You might think ‘we just build that site,’ but that argument is not good enough. All great websites require almost daily maintenance. Websites are not long-term security deposits that you can finish and never worry about again. These are the primary areas of any website audit –
- SEO
- Content
- User experience
- Technical aspects
Why should you invest in yearly audits?
Performing a complete website audit can help you with the following –
- Improving your domain’s ranks in the search results list and gathering more traffic
- It can save you hundreds of dollars in terms of paid advertising, marketing and lost sales opportunities
- In creating a strategic plan that takes your business goals into account.
How should you audit a website?
You can complete a website audit on your own, or you can hire experts to do the same for you. Today, a number of startups and medium-sized businesses are employing software solutions to complete their website audits. Siteimprove audit is one such all-in-one software auditing program that enables website owners to check which parts of a website are running smoothly and which parts require change.
These are the factors you should check while performing a website audit –
Assessing the performance of a site
While conducting a site audit, you need to begin by reviewing how your target users access and navigate your site. Check your homepage, landing page, blog posts, and general content to determine the level of usability. Keep a keen eye out for your CTA, and links. The correct balance of content, CTA, and internal links can improve your conversion rate.
Next, check the site speed. You can use one of the several free tools for the same. If your site speed is lower than optimal, check for redirects and broken links.
Check your site SEO
First, check the content quality of your site. The website content should appeal to the needs and interests of your target audience. Check your on-page and off-page elements to ensure that you are on the right track. Google algorithms keep changing every year, and that generates rapid recycling of SEO strategies.
Assess your conversion rates
The most critical factor every website thrives for is its conversion rate. Optimization of UX and SEO should result in a satisfactorily high conversion rate. If your dwell time and conversion rates are low, your content, information hierarchy or UX might be to blame. Include visible CTAs in the content to capture the attention of the intended visitors. A conversion rate audit should help you understand which changes are necessary to boost sales.
Optimizing the performance of a website does not always depend on the design only. Several factors work in tandem to determine the performance of a site. An audit can pinpoint the flaws and uphold the necessary changes that can improve the overall function of your site.