A Website Audit can be a mysterious concept, but it does not have to be! In this article, you will learn what an audit is (spoiler alert: there is more than one kind!) and why you need to have one done (regularly) if you want your site to be SEO optimized, competitive in the market, and the best that it can be!
If you have a website, then you need to understand what a “website audit” is. If you don’t, it could cost you big time. This is because an audit is the best way to get valuable information and business analytics about how your site ranks in search engines (like Google), is experienced by your users and clients, stacks up to your competitors' sites, and holds up against security attacks and other technical testing procedures.
When people are speaking of a “website audit”, they are usually referring to what is known as a “comprehensive audit.” This type of audit seeks to gather as much information as possible regarding your website and how it is excelling, under performing, or currently broken and/or vulnerable (yikes!).
Now, you may be wondering: “What makes this kind of audit comprehensive?” and “How many types of audits are there?” Let’s find out now!
The Comprehensive Audit (and Friends!)
If you are new to website audits, it may surprise you that there are many kinds of audits that can be conducted on your website. In short, A Comprehensive Audit is simply a combination of several different audit types. It is comprehensive because it gives you the most detailed report for how your website is performing, where it needs work, and where you may be in need of professional help to upgrade, maintain, and secure your site into the future.
Here is a quick outline of the types of audits you could have conducted on your website and a brief summary of the valuable data reports they would provide you.
SEO Audit
What good is your website if no one can find it through a simple search? This type of audit is concerned with how your site ranks in search engines. It looks at your website’s keywords, metadata, web traffic data, and other “under the hood” elements that all play a role in whether your clients and future clients can find you on the front page of Google.
Content Audit
People may be finding your site through search engines and other marketing efforts, but is the quality of the content you are serving going to hold their attention? Is what you are serving your audience good enough to make them want to share it with others? All of this and more can be covered in a Content Audit, which focuses primarily on your posts, images, videos, messaging, and nearly ever other type of digestible medium you are serving up to those who scroll and click through your “stuff.”
Design Audit
In today’s day and age, users will leave your site in a matter of seconds if it does not have an amazing design, subtle animations, and a purposeful use of expressive mediums, such as colors, layouts, fonts, and icons. Oh, and did we mention that it all has to look amazing on mobile, tablet, and desktop screen resolutions? A Design Audit is the best way to get valuable insight into how your website “appears” to users with modern expectations (and the short attention spans that come with them).
Technical Audit
Your website is full of buttons, links, video play buttons and more…but do they all function as intended? Are you accidentally sending your potential clients the infamous 404 Page Not Found error? Did you update a permalink or move content somewhere else on your site without setting up a 301 Redirect (whoops!)? The Technical Audit is there to help you become aware of common mistakes like these, while also providing you detailed information regarding any other bugs or “whoopsies” hiding in your code.
Competition Audit
Have you looked at your competition recently? A Competition Audit could be exactly what you need to get ahead of those in the same niche or business as you. We all want our website to be the best, but what is “the best” in our areas of interest and market sectors? This type of audit conducts research on how your website stands up to the sites of those you are trying to get ahead of in search result ranking.
Security Audit
In case you didn’t know, the internet is constantly being scanned for vulnerable websites by malicious actors. These bad guys want your data, and not only yours, but your clients' as well. How can you know if your site is open to phishing scams, cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), open redirects, and more? If these terms are foreign to you, and/or your site has not been updated in a while or maintained as it should have, this is the audit for you. It will consist of testing your site (with your explicit permission, of course!) for backdoors into your website and its data, providing you with a detailed report of the findings.
How to Get Your Free Website Audit
If you are looking for someone to audit your website (either comprehensively or for a specific type of audit), we are here to help! Schedule a free consultation meeting with us today and we will chat with you about:
- Best practices for conducting your own “do-it-yourself” audit
- Scheduling a FREE Complementary Light Audit of your website. Let us prove what we can do for you and your website!
- Booking our experts for a Comprehensive Audit of your site if you want to get straight to business