What you can do to improve your brand using a website audit?

Do you wish to enhance the internet appearance of your company website? A website audit identifies areas for improvement for your website and brand. It's a means to evaluate the effectiveness of your website using measures including content, design, SEO, site ranking, and usability.

You might need clarification about the actual definition of a website audit. However, it's a terrific approach to evaluate the condition of your website. It thoroughly evaluates your website's functionality, search engine positioning, and speed. The steps are simple:

• Decide why you want to audit your site.

• Choose the ones that suit your situation.

• Carry them out.

So let's review each website audit form before discussing our top three tools to support you!

Why should you conduct a website audit?

Ask your web development team and yourself why you want to undertake an audit before you begin your website. Ask your marketing staff for input on your company website if you can. Based on your circumstance, this technique assists you in identifying improvement opportunities and prioritizing site concerns.

Your website audit checklist

Put on your stethoscope and pretend you are a doctor. Use the following questionnaire to aid with the patient's diagnosis: your website

• What are the goals of your website and brand?

• What works well, and where may it be improved?

• How easy is it to use your website?

• Are people interested in the content on your website?

• Does your website follow the rules for your branding?

• Are search engines able to easily find your website?

• How does it compare to the competition?

You may decide the objectives of your website audit based on your responses to these queries. For example, are you trying to expand your web presence, fix usability issues, or rebrand your company? Are you trying to improve search engine rankings? It's a good idea to frequently consult the general audit checklist we've supplied above as your audit progresses.

The eight types of website audits

Are you prepared to do an audit? Why not five audits? According to your brand, you should do as many website audits as you can.

Design/UX audit

Looking to enhance the look and feel of your website? An audit of your site's design and usability looks at how user-friendly it is. It ensures easy navigation and makes the website's call to action stand out (CTA).

Can you read your fonts easily? If not, customers become lost and leave. A user-friendly, visually appealing website keeps visitors interested and increases the likelihood that they will return. Consider responsiveness.

Are customers grumbling that your company website's desktop and mobile versions offer distinct user experiences?

Usability testing is the most effective method for spotting issues like this. On your website, you essentially watch users—your target audience—perform activities while recording their enjoyment and any process-related pain points. Is it, for instance, taking them too long to make a purchase? To identify further areas for growth, to better understand your audience, and to learn about their online activities, set up interviews with them.

Brand audit

A brand audit examines the compatibility of your website's aims with your brand and your marketing plan. Visitors may perceive a separation between your brand and website if they need to be on the same page; we want something else!

If you own a modern clothes business, your target audience comprises stylish fashionistas. Therefore you'll want to ensure your website is drawing in this demographic. To determine whether or not your site is appealing to them, you do a brand audit. Check if your brand's identity, tenets, and services align with your target market's concerns.

The user experience of your website is also examined in a brand audit. Consider it a measurement tool that informs you of the number of satisfied (and dissatisfied) consumers. A brand audit is an excellent technique to identify areas that need improvement while rebuilding your website.

SEO audit

Are you dissatisfied with your website traffic before starting your SEO audit? Could it make you happier? The visibility of your website on search engines is greatly improved by a good search engine optimization (SEO) audit, which also increases the conversion rate. This can bring in additional clients for your company or increase your visibility to recruiters so they can assist you in finding your next employment opportunity.

Analyzing your site's conversion and retention rates is part of an SEO audit. The proportion of visitors to your website that your conversion rate measures completes an actionable objective. For instance, a 30% conversion rate would mean that out of 100 site visits, 30 would purchase shoes through your online store. The number of users returning to your website over time is compared to determine the retention rate.

Both indicators are helpful, especially for commercial and e-commerce websites. An SEO audit shows the sources of your conversions and the effectiveness with which consumers are turned into paying customers or returning visitors to your website. Higher numbers indicate greater brand loyalty and might reveal customer confidence in your company.

This audit may include using a crawler, a tracking tool that keeps tabs on your website's traffic and keyboard activity. Search engines use keywords to describe the content of your website. The more effectively you employ keywords, the more probable visitors will find your website. Therefore, your website might receive more visitors if you choose effective keywords.

Tags in an SEO audit also measure your site's performance, but what are tags? Well, a description tag gives a brief explanation of your website. In contrast, image tags function as guides that inform web servers how to display the pictures on your website. Your image tags are used in an SEO audit to gauge image load speeds. You must ensure keywords are included in your title tags for greater visibility, as search engines use them to identify sites. Title tags describe the title of a webpage.

Are other websites linked to yours, which might increase the trustworthiness of your brand?

This is another question you should ask yourself while conducting this website audit. Backlinks, which demonstrate how interconnected your site is to other websites, are examined in SEO audits. Links from other websites and companies indicate that many people find your material intriguing.

Technical audit

Concerned about the privacy of your website's users or the security of your website? A technical audit guarantees that your website's SSL (secure sockets layer) security is current. SSL is a standardized mechanism for establishing encrypted, secure communications online. This website audit must be performed regularly to ensure the privacy and security of the information you and your users provide.

A technical audit examines your website's page and picture load speeds in addition to security concerns. For example, the size of the files you're rendering in your design will significantly impact loading speeds.

Consider how frequently we abandon websites when they take too long to load. Slow and unresponsive websites turn away users (not ideal). A technical audit can point out areas of your website's code that can be optimized for quicker page loads, making it simpler for those without high-speed internet connections to visit your site. By analyzing each link on every page, a technical audit also looks for any broken links that may be present on your website.

Content audit

Consider doing a content audit to ensure your website is readable, engaging, and simple. Additionally, it looks for spelling and grammatical errors.

A content audit checks your website pages' language, grammar, and tone. Have you ever abandoned a website because the content needed more clarification or was better written? Language and tone are crucial for this reason. It could make your website more appealing to a wider range of users. Visitors are more likely to stick around if you check the tone of your website. Consider using this as a chance to examine how your tone fits with your brand.

Material audits also examine the organization of your content. Is there a logical page structure and a clear hierarchy? We don't like browsing crowded websites, and we assume you don't, either. Your site gains emphasis from organized material. It makes navigating easier and makes it easier for your viewers to digest your material.

Websites with captivating interactive components, such as games, animation, and video, have enthralled you. However, they must be used sparingly since you want these enjoyable features to be manageable, particularly from the CTA, lest they irritate customers. A content audit can determine these components' impact and reveal your audience's preferences.

Competitive analysis

To identify what you're doing that sets you apart from competitors—and what you're not doing—conducting competitive analysis is a form of a website audit. This is a great chance to use this information as inspiration to set your business apart from the competition. For business-oriented websites, particularly, it serves as a gauge, and HubSpot provides a free competition analysis template.

So what does it do? The name is the hint. By doing a competitive study, you may use data and analytics to analyze how well your site's rank and SEO stack up against the competition. Then, utilize it to determine how to increase traffic to your website and learn what services your rivals are providing that enable them to outshine you (or not).

What your site's rank and SEO look like in comparison to the competition is an excellent question to ask during your assessment. Using data and analytics, a successful competitive study offers valuable insights. For example, what distinguishes them from other companies' visibility? After doing the competition analysis, consider strategies for increasing site visibility.

A competitive study examines the advantages and disadvantages of your website and its rivals. You may use this information to develop a workable plan to help you keep up with or outperform your competitors.

Accessibility audit

Wouldn't it be interesting to have more visitors to your site who come from diverse backgrounds? The audience for your website is expanded, and information is transmitted more quickly when it is accessible. Through this approach, you may determine if people with impairments can easily use your website by testing for ADA compliance.

Additionally, this audit examines color contrast for audiences with vision problems and readability for color-blind users. So that users with screen readers may comprehend your material, give photos alt text. Your website will be easier for users with slower internet connections if the pages are optimized for quick loading.

Social media audit

A social media audit might help you expand your brand abroad and attract more customers. As your company's global network and reach develop, your chances of increasing sales and revenue increase. Furthermore, you may always wonder if a new market for your goods or services will be profitable.

This audit may be used to determine whether the social media links on your website are suitable. For example, your business utilizes a variety of social media platforms. In that case, an audit can help you decide which is best for your brand. The audit measures audience, interactivity, and social media content metrics.

A fun approach to enhance interaction with your material, such as articles, blogs, and videos, is through social networking. By auditing your social profiles, you can improve your social media postings' reach, engagement, and content quality.

Tools to conduct your audits.

You may conduct website audits using a variety of technologies. Some charge for the number of pages visited, while others are free. These tools are a fantastic method to audit your website. Additionally, it is quicker and more convenient and may delve deeper than manual audits. The top three auditing tools are listed below to aid you with your auditing needs.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs offers a collection of auditing tools that check the code of your website for mistakes, page optimization, and broken links. Your HTML and social media tags are also scanned. To figure out how to improve your website for SEO, Ahrefs employs a crawler, a bot explicitly made to index web pages for search engines. They provide tiered price packages starting at USD 99 per month, with use cases from e-commerce platforms to personal websites and small ent.

DeepCrawl

Leading the field of SEO optimization is DeepCrawl. It focuses on keywords and checks the Javascript code of your website to optimize it for search engines and user experience. They supply a well-known crawling service and an adaptable user interface. Still, cost necessitates requesting an estimate for your use case. Due to their emphasis on high-volume performance, auditing business websites is their ideal application.

Site Analyzer

Another excellent website auditing service is Site Analyzer, which examines your website's performance, design, content, and SEO. The design and content quality may be optimized better using this service. It's excellent to see that they audit accessibility because it's a terrific approach to making your website more open to all users.

They have a track record of success, with an average two-month SEO traffic growth of 42%. Individual page analysis is available in Site Analyzer. This function searches each page on your website for key phrases or popular search keywords. Site Analyzer provides rank tracking so you can know how you stack up against rivals. They provide several priced programs that cater to various consumer types.

If you have the time, you may audit a website, which is a good alternative. By performing the audit yourself rather than employing auditing tools, you could save money while developing a better understanding of your target market and brand. If you're going to do it yourself, it's even more crucial to have your checklist ready in advance to keep you on track.

After evaluating your site, as you implement modifications, occasionally step back and check in with your team to see how things are going. Use automatic maintenance platforms if you want worry-free site upkeep. These solutions automate typical website maintenance tasks, including notifying you of broken links and upgrading any themes or plugins if your website runs on WordPress. They also have automated security features like continuous malware, virus scanning, and automatic SSL certification upgrades.

A popular automatic solution for WordPress websites is WP Buffs. They offer automatic site backups, constant security, and after-hours web assistance. You must budget at least USD 80 monthly to use their services.

Moving on from your website audit

Implementing these recommendations on your website is the next step after a successful website audit. Discuss your website audit checklists and issues with the site administrators, designers, and marketers to maintain goal alignment. Ask for opinions. Discuss current maintenance with your developers and site administrators. The auditing process is iterative. It's wonderful to go back and take a step back when moving your website ahead, so feel free to do so.