But this is not the case. It needs regular audits to keep it a running state. From technical aspects to design, content, lead generation, and SEO, you have to check every aspect thoroughly.
We bring you a list of five points to evaluate in your site audit. Though there are many points, we have picked just five that are of great importance.
Let’s check it out one-by-one.
Website Load Speed
Not only search engines like Google penalize a website with poor load speed but users too. If your site doesn't load fast, people would stop visiting it. As a result, the bounce rate would increase and ultimately nobody would buy.
About 40% of the audience leave the websites that load slow. Online shoppers tend to focus more on the speed of a site than anything else during their buying journey.Many factors hinder the load speed of a website. In many cases, heavy images impact speed.
You can use many tools such as PageSpeed Insights to check the load time of your website across many platforms. You can also check what is working against your website speed.
Luckily, improving on that part isn’t challenging. You will find many tools, tips as well as tricks to improve the load speed of your site. Ultimately, it will boost traffic, SEO and ranking too. Here is a sneak peek into ways to enhance your site’s speed.
- Shrink or decrease image size
- Use cache
- Enhance JavaScript and CSS (Cascading Stylesheets)
- Clean up redirects
- Create an AMP (Accelerated mobile Page)
- Implement a content delivery network
Website Design
The first impression that your brand gets is through your website design. So, when you conduct a website audit, it is essential that you consider design factors. They will decide whether a visitor stays on or leaves your site. Design elements that you should focus on include—
Page structure — every page of your website should include headers, footers, and titles along with navigation bars. If your site misses any or all of these elements, it will be confusing to people. They will go away in no time.
Brand image — the branding of your business reflects the look and feel of your site. If your site doesn't synch with your promotional materials like brochures, flyers, business cards and so forth, it will appear visually disconnected to your visitors. If you are sending an email to your prospects with a logo but if it is not featured on the site, it will create a disconnected image of your brand.
You can design your personal logo and feature it on the site for a wholesome look.
Responsive design — A website isn’t just accessed on the desktop but also across various devices like tabs and mobiles. Hence, the design needs to be responsive to look great on any device. If it looks pixelated on small screens, audiences will run away from such a website.
Elements cohesiveness — Look at your website and think whether it makes sense. Is it consistent? Or, is it bombarding visitors with larger and overwhelming graphics? Does the design compel them to a natural call-to-action purpose or the CTA is placed at the footer section?
Every element of the design should create a cohesive look. Any disconnection will end up making the design bland. Whether you create a logo using a logo maker or get it designed via a professional, it should match the color scheme of the whole site.
Lead Generation
Do you know your website works as a virtual brand ambassador? Besides, it acts on behalf of your salesperson too. When you proceed further in your site audit, supplement it with lead generation tools.
Here is how you can ensure that—
CTAs on each page— typically, home page and product page feature CTAs. However, it is up to you where you want to place your call to action buttons. Well, the best thing to determine it by doing an A/B testing. With this, you can also determine the visuals and content placements.
Take for an example, the HubSpot CTAs. The platform shows off a customized button, based on visitors' data stored in its database. It includes visitors contact info, device, language and more.
CTAs should reflect the content of the page no matter where they are placed.
Are there enough CTAs— does your page have enough number of call to action buttons? These buttons are great for acquiring information. But too many CTAs create a mess on a page and make it look confusing.
Content
Content is an essential component of a website and its marketing effort. When undergoing a website audit, it's important that you check the content. Follow these pointers when assessing your site's content.
Easy and understandable— if you understand your target audience well along with their buying behaviour, preference and other, your copy should reflect each of these aspects. If your site doesn't root into their pain points or provide related solutions, you are missing out on your buyer persona.
Spelling and grammar errors— To err is human, and almost everyone does that. But it doesn't mean the errors should present on your site. It will drive away visitors. You can avoid such a blunder by including other members in your team for reviewing content.
Social sharing buttons— these are the buttons that give your brand exposure. Also, they bring your content in front of your target audience.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO helps your website reach a large audience base. It’s the soul of a site that allows it to rank higher in Google. Therefore, a proper SEO audit is required.
It should have title tags and Meta descriptions that are keyword optimized. Along with appropriate image tags, it should have H1 tags too. Without these basics, the chances of ranking your website higher are less.
Not only title tags but relevant keyword phrases are also important. These are the phrases that users type to look for a product or service related to your business. If you haven't performed SEO analysis to determine what keywords you should use, it's a mistake. You are hindering the success of your site. Look for relevant keywords and include them in your SEO strategy.
Conclusion
Auditing a website isn't easy. Examining technical aspects, designing, lead generation, its content and SEO is challenging. Checking each of these aspects ensures your site works effectively.