Auditing Isn't Just for Taxes: Why You Need a Website Audit
How is your website performing? If you aren’t really sure, then this post is for you. Spring cleaning is here and whether you’re making a few edits, overhauling your site or just want to check in, performing a website audit is your best way to ensure your site is getting the traffic and conversions you want.
What is a Website Audit?
A website audit is a page-by-page examination of your site’s performance. Typically, an audit is conducted before large-scale search engine optimization (SEO) or a website redesign. Auditing your website can help you better understand whether or not your site is optimized to reach its traffic goals in addition to other useful information, and if not, how you can improve your site to increase performance.
Why should I do a Website Audit?
There are many benefits to doing a website audit. As mentioned, website audits are typically conducted before SEO. By conducting a website audit beforehand, you'll be able to identify any missed SEO opportunities or fix any SEO issues encountered in your site. Auditing also gives you the opportunity to update your keyword strategy to focus on users, rather than search engines. Optimizing for humans first helps you stay on top of the search results without chasing algorithms. This is also a good time to check out your site’s technical framework and infrastructure, ensure your site is easily found by search engines, and identify the user-friendliness of your site.
A website audit also evaluates the effectiveness of your website in regards to lead generation and conversion. A good audit will spot any overlooked opportunities to convert visitors into leads as well as identify deficiencies in your landing pages so you can optimize your pages and add relevant CTAs to boost conversions.
Lastly, conducting a website audit gives you the chance to compare your website against your competitors’. Look at data points like how you're ranking against competitors for keywords and determine potential new sources of revenue.
The overall benefit of doing a site audit is the ability to identify potential issues that are hurting your SEO and conversions. Whether it's broken links, long page load speed times, or something else, identifying and fixing these issues can lead to better traffic and more conversions on your website. Next time, I’ll go over the steps you need to take to conduct a website audit!
Have you ever conducted a website audit? Is your website meeting your traffic and conversion goals? Sound off in the comments!