A website audit is a way to uncover problems with your website before they get out of hand. Website audits are often time consuming though it may be worth it if you want to protect your website from penalties or low conversion rates.
There are some simple things you can do yourself such as checking for broken links or Analyzing your website traffic. However, if you want a complete and accurate assessment of your website, it is best to hire a website audit service. They will check everything from page speeds to code compliance and give you a full report on what needs to be fixed.
A website audit can be an invaluable tool in keeping your website running smoothly, optimizing for sales or leads and avoiding any penalties. Keep on reading to find out why you need a website audit.
1. What is a website audit and why do you need one
A website audit is the process of assessing a website for problems and vulnerabilities. These problems can be anything from broken links to security issues, SEO problems and UX mistakes. The aim of a website audit is to find and fix these problems before they cause any serious damage.
There are many reasons why you might need a website audit. One of the most common reasons is to avoid penalties from search engines. Google and other search engines regularly update their algorithms, and if your website isn’t compliant, you could face a penalty that will cause your website to rank lower in the search results.
Another common reason for doing a website audit is to improve conversion rates. If your website isn’t effective or appealing to your target audience, they may not be converting into sales or leads. A website audit can help you identify these problems and fix them.
Finally, it’s important to remember that a website is an ever-changing entity. New technologies and trends emerge all the time, and if your website isn’t updated to reflect these changes, it will quickly become outdated. A website audit can help you stay ahead of the curve and keep your website looking fresh and modern.
2. How to do a website audit yourself
If you want to do a website audit yourself, there are a few simple things you can do to get started. Checking for broken links is a good place to start, as they can indicate that your website is not functioning properly. You can use tools like Broken Link Checker to help you find and fix them.
Another thing you can do is do a deep dive analysis of your website traffic using Google Analytics (that is assuming you have GA configured, of course). This can help you understand where your visitors are coming from, what pages they are visiting and how long they are staying on your site. This information can be helpful in identifying areas of your website that need improvement.
Do you ever wonder why your website visitors aren’t converting into leads or sales? It could be that your website design is driving them away. A user experience (UX) analysis can help you identify these problems and fix them before they cause any serious damage. That’s why UX analysis is a crucial part of a website audit. While this process can be complicated, for beginners we suggest using screen recording from Hotjar.
However, if you want a complete and accurate assessment of your website, it is best to hire professional help in the form of a website audit service.
3. What to look for in a website audit report
When you get a website audited, there are a few things you can expect to be looked at. The most common areas are page speeds, security, user experience, and search engine optimization. The audit will identify any problems and provide suggestions on how to fix them. This can be an invaluable tool for improving the performance of your website.
Page Speed
One of the most important aspects of a website is how quickly it loads. If your pages are loading slowly, you could be losing potential customers.
Security Vulnerabilities
Websites are constantly under attack from cyber criminals and spammers, and without the proper security measures in place, your website is at risk.
User Experience
Your website’s user experience is important for two reasons. Firstly, if your website is difficult to use or navigate, visitors will leave. Secondly, if your website looks dated or unprofessional, it will reflect badly on your business.
Search Engine Optimization
There are many factors that contribute to SEO and a website audit should identify the main issues that are holding back your website from ranking higher.
4. How to fix the problems your website may have
If the audit has identified some problems with your website, don’t worry – that’s the first step to solving them. We suggest categorising issues into three groups based on the effect that they have on the main goal of the website.
Critical issues
These are the issues that have the largest impact on the functionality of the website – breaking the website or making it unusable. Fixing these problems will contribute the most to improving performance. This could be something like “Add to cart” buttons not working, or extremely slow page load times (>5-10 seconds).
Severe issues
These issues have a large impact on the website’s functionality. Fixing these problems is important, but you should fix critical issues first. This could be something like website sections appearing “Broken” or specific images not loading.
Notable issues
These issues affect the performance and usability of the website, however they don’t limit functionality. Fixing these problems should be a question of cost – if it makes sense to spend time or money to fix the issue, it should be done. This could be something like missing image alt descriptions, low resolution images or incorrect HTML structure for blog posts.
5. Benefits of having a website that is audited regularly
1. A website audit can help you improve your website’s search engine ranking.
If you want your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to have it audited regularly. An audit will identify any problems with your website’s code, design, layout, and structure that are preventing it from ranking well. It will also suggest ways to fix these issues.
2. A website audit can help you identify and fix any security vulnerabilities.
One of the main benefits of getting a website audit is that it can help you identify and fix any security vulnerabilities. A website is a prime target for hackers, and if your website is not secure, you could be at risk of being hacked.
A website audit will scan your website for any vulnerabilities and suggest ways to fix them. It will also recommend installing security plugins and updates to your website’s software.
3. A website audit can help you improve the user experience of your website.
If you want to improve the user experience of your website, you need to get a website audit. The audit will identify any problems with your website’s design, layout, and structure that are preventing it from being user-friendly. It will also suggest ways to fix these issues.
Conclusion
A website audit is the process of evaluating a website for issues that could be preventing it from performing well. These issues can include security vulnerabilities, usability problems, and SEO errors. Auditing your website regularly will lead to the best results, because it will ensure continuous improvement.
However, if you want a complete and accurate assessment of your website, it is best to hire professional help in the form of a website audit service
