I was out to a quiet lunch in a cozy hotel lobby with my toddler when the most outrageous thing happened. Across from us sat down the pop star Kesha and her mother. My inner college girl was screaming while the practical adult version of me tried my best to act nonchalantly. It’s not uncommon to come across the occasional musical artist as I live in Nashville after all. Kesha appeared to be enjoying green juice and a chicken wrap while waiting for her hotel room.
Now, my toddler is currently obsessed with anything on wheels; though that thought really didn’t cross my mind… I was too distracted by cutting up a plate of grapes into bite-size pieces for him to eat when suddenly I realized he wasn’t next to me anymore! He had confidently toddled right up to Kesha’s suitcase and proceeded to run down the hallway with it! It took a few moments before reality sunk in and then I quickly jumped up after him.
By this point, both Kesha and her mother were looking at us with equal parts entertainment and confusion – not sure what exactly was going on here! After retrieving Kesha’s suitcase – and apologizing profusely – we made our way back over towards where she still waited patiently for us in amusement (and also probably wondering what kind of mother lets their child steal someone else’s luggage!).
What does this have to do with websites?
Well, your website is like a toddler – if you don’t put in the time to monitor its status, then the to-do list will run away from you. I suggest that every entrepreneur should audit their own website once a quarter. If you can’t do that, review it at least twice a year. In this post, you’ll learn how to review your site and I’ll give you a free checklist to help you out.
These insights are based on my 10 years of branding experience for both service-based and e-commerce businesses. I offer one-to-one consulting, fully-customizable website templates, and heaps of free guidance to help independent businesses with optimizing their websites. Curious if your website is up to snuff? Grab the free Flawless Website Checklist.
What is a website audit?
A website audit is an extremely beneficial process, as it provides valuable insight into the performance of the website and its potential to reach a greater audience. By conducting an audit, website owners can evaluate and improve their website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website speed, user experience, and overall usability. They can also identify potential issues before it’s too late, saving both time and energy in the long run.
Did you know that SEO drives 1,000%+ more traffic than organic social media? Auditing your website helps in improving your ranking on search engines to draw more organic traffic and optimize conversion rates to delight users. It comes with various advantages that make auditing a great investment for website owners of any size. I’m curious to know how often (if at all) you review your website. Comment below with your answer!
How to Conduct a Website Audit
A website audit goes beyond just tracking website performance and SEO rankings. To efficiently optimize website performance, a website audit should be conducted regularly to identify and fix any technical difficulties, SEO problems, visual design issues, user experience malfunctions, or website content discrepancies.
To start off, simply run your website URL through a website audit tool and it will bring up the pertinent information that needs to be addressed. By actively keeping track of technical errors, identifying SEO problems, analyzing the visual design and user experience aspects of your website, and assessing website content accordingly – website optimization won’t be a chore or an afterthought. Regular website audits allow you to easily stay on top of what needs improvement for maximum online success!
Review and Analyze.
When it comes to website audits, the task can seem overwhelming. It’s important to do them regularly in order to make sure that your website is performing as well as it should be. There are a few major categories you should review which can give insight into how well your website is doing:
- Design & usability
- Structural quality (SEO)
- Content
- Security
- Ease of management
“A website without SEO is like a car with no gas.”
Paul Cookson
Design & usability
Does your website look like it was designed when the internet was invented? It is cluttered and difficult to navigate? Does it reflect your current brand and tone? Those are all things to watch out for and take note of during your DIY review.
Structural quality (SEO)
These are the SEO basics such as proper heading tags, page titles, working links, and meta descriptions. Make sure everything is filled out for each and every page on your website.
Content
Audits are also great for making sure that website content is up-to-date and relevant. You should take the time to assess website content to make sure that it accurately reflects your brand and offering. Keep an eye out for typos or delete anything that you no longer offer.
Security
If your site is not secure, it’ll tank its performance. Sometimes browsers, like Google Chrome, won’t even let people access it.
Ease of management
One of the biggest issues I hear from new clients over and over again is “I can’t update my current website on my own…” This should never happen! Sure maybe certain tasks are a little more complicated than others, but overall, you should be able to make simple updates to your own site without the stress that you are going to break something. This is why I love building sites on Showit because it is beautiful, easy to edit, and great for SEO.
After completing the audit, it’s important to analyze how the website performed and create a priority list to address any issues that came up. Tackle these items one by one. If you find that there’s an array of issues holding back your website performance or design, perhaps a website redesign is in order. By investing in website design help from professionals you can ensure your website makes a positive statement about your brand and performs well in search rankings. So don’t be afraid of a website checkup – it’ll help your website reach its full potential!
It’s never too late
Once everything settled down in that hotel lobby and order was restored, Kesha’s mother offered me some advice: “Don’t worry about it Mommy … we all have those moments sometimes.” They then went on to proceed with their meal. All things considered … it wasn’t such a bad celebrity encounter!
Though I’ll leave you with this: I understand being an entrepreneur is tough work and sometimes tasks slip away from you. Don’t worry. It’s never too late to get into the habit of auditing your own website. Simply schedule a couple of hours on your calendar this month to sit down with your website and give it a run-through.
If you found this post insightful, please let me know by pinning it for later and sharing it with your friends!
Now you know exactly how to audit your website, but what about bringing in more sales? I’ve got Why Your Website Isn’t Converting for you to read next to help you with that.
