A Concise, Helpful Guide to Mastering Your Website Audits
Regular scheduled web audits are vital to keep your site running optimally and to ensure that you are offering the best possible user experience to your visitors. As with anything though, there are different approaches to auditing, and in this piece we’ll outline the steps you should take to make sure that your next audit is as effective as possible.
Never skip on your Website Audits
When everything is going well it can be tempting to put off a performance audit till some indeterminate point in the future, don’t do this! Conducting regular website audits is a proactive strategy to ensure that you spot potential problems early on, before they have a larger impact on a site's visibility and user experience. An audit is akin to a health check-up on your website from a doctor, and we all know it’s not a good idea to skip those!
Auditing from an SEO perspective
In terms of your SEO, audits are vital. They bring to attention issues including broken links, inappropriate use of keywords, and slow loading times; all of which can have a huge impact on your site's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
The basic ingredients of an effective Website Audit
Technical SEO Analysis
The first phase is to evaluate current site speed, mobile-friendliness, and secure connections (HTTPS). Once you have a firm grasp on how good these metrics really are, you can then assign resources to areas that need addressing.
On-Page SEO Evaluation
Next, take a look at the quality of your content, as well as keyword optimisation, and meta tags. Here your main goal is to ensure your site’s content is not only providing genuine value to your visitors, whilst also making sure that the search engines are rating it favourably.
Off-Page SEO Inspection
Off-page factors include backlinks and social media engagement, and these help to build credibility, authority and trust. All backlinks should be relevant and linked correctly.
User Experience (UX) Assessment
A site must be easy and intuitive to navigate. It must also be engaging and accessible for all visitors. Here our focus is on the structure and flow of your site, with the goal of making it easier for users to access the information they are looking for.
Your step-by-step Guide to the Audit itself
Begin by conducting a crawl of your site
You can use a digital tool such as SEMrush which can crawl your website for you, and identify areas for improvement.
Review Site Structure
Take a forensic look at how your site is organised, it should be logical and clear with an intuitive hierarchy that users can easily follow.
The all-important Content Analysis
Now check your content for relevancy, uniqueness, and keyword optimisation. There are many 3rd party solutions on the market that can help you here too.
Backlink Reviewal
Closely scrutinise the quality and relevance of all external sites that you’ve linked to.
Performance Assessment
Use a speed test tool to find out exactly how fast your site loads on all devices.
Accessibility
Your site must be easy to use on all devices. Mobile-Friendliness is absolutely uncial as the majority if users will be accessing your site from a smartphone device.
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Actioning findings from your Audit
Conducting an audit is all well and good, but you’ll need to take prompt action to address issues that it has highlighted. Here’s a key summary of the actions you should take:
Prioritise Fixes
Not all audit findings require immediate attention. Create a priority tree of known issues versus their impact on user experience and SEO.
Develop your Plan
Now you should build a detailed plan outlining how and when each issue will be addressed. This may involve content updates, site restructuring, and technical fixes. Don’t be afraid to ask for external help at this stage from an SEO expert.
Continual Monitoring
Regular audits are hugely important and they should never be a ‘one-and-done’. Schedule in your next audit as soon as the first one is complete to ensure that you maintain site performance.
Tracking Metrics
Use analytics to track your site’s performance over time. The data that’s generated will help to inform your next steps and help you analyse any changes made since the last audit.
Web Audit FAQs
How often should you conduct a website audit?
The industry standard advice is to conduct a comprehensive audit at least once a year, with localised reviewal every quarter. But every company is unique, and therefore it’s better to test more regularly if you have a brand new site, or have made significant changes in the last couple months.
Which tools should I use for my next website audit?
Tools incuding SEMrush, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console are all incredibly helpful and easy to use.
Should I perform the audit myself, or should I seek professional help?
While simple audits can be conducted in-house, for the best results we always recommend help from a professional.
How long does the average website audit take?
This depends on the size and breadth of your site. An audit can take anywhere from a couple hours to several weeks.
What is the first step I should take?
Begin by defining your objectives. When you know what your goals are, you’ll know which areas to focus
