How to Conduct Business Website Audits

Author: Kritika Dwivedi

Date: 03rd December 2021

Site auditing is a complete analysis of all the factors that influence a website's visibility and search engine rankings. It is conducted to not only check page performance, but also identify the wide range of functional issues your site may be facing and help eliminate them.

Website audits are an important aspect of business development, and should be done even when you feel you are generating enough traffic or have optimized your website enough. This is so because Google, the leading and most important search engine, is constantly upgrading its algorithm to make rankings a stricter process. If you don't carry out regular site audits, you will not be updated on how to maintain the reach to your target audience, which implies a decrease in traffic and conversion rates.

How to conduct business website audits - What's in it for you?

1. Tools

2. Aspects of website auditing

A. SEO Audit

B. Technical Audit

C. Content Audit

D. UX Audit

3. Conclusion

Tools

There are several tools available online that you can use to check the health of your website. Some of these include:

• Google Search Console

There is a good reason as to why Google Search Console is one of the most popular tools used for website development and auditing. Not only is it free to use, but also the fact that it is the search engine's own service makes it the most reliable tool to audit your website thoroughly in accordance with the best performance parameters.

Not to be confused with Google Analytics, the Search Console service has a greater focus on the website content, data and technical aspects, instead of traffic analysis of external data.

• SEMrush

SEMrush Site Audit is widely acknowledged as one of the best tools for running audit reports for websites as it offers complex analysis and critical insights for enhanced functionality of your site.

Some features of the Site Audit tool include:

• Site Health Score that reveals the website’s health and areas where improvement is needed

• Automated reports for monitoring performance, tasks and progress

• Find instances of broken internal linking

• Security certificates to ensure updated security protocols

• On-page optimization that identifies duplicate content, substandard headings, etc.

• Free crawls for 100 pages

• HubSpot Website Grader

Another free tool, HubSpot Website Grader is known for easy and simple access to its extensive range of features. All it needs is your email and website details to run a complete assessment on the following criteria:

• Security status of the website

• SEO quality

• Traffic analytics

• Mobile friendliness

• Hotjar

One of the defining features of Hotjar is how its users are able to monitor their website’s user interface (UI) meticulously with various features.

With the use of a tracking code, it helps you collect even the most minutely detailed data regarding how people interact with the site. For example, with Hotjar you can identify:

• Areas with highest and lowest click densities

• Pages with highest traffic

• When visitors leave the site or how far they scroll

You can even receive a video file of a specific user’s interaction with your website.

1. Aspects of Website Auditing

Here are the various ways in which you can carry out a complete website audit for your company’s website, and the various elements you need to check for within these methods:

• SEO Audit:

An SEO Website Audit can be divided into two major sections, On-Page SEO Auditing and Off-Page SEO Auditing which deal with issues regarding optimization of the website’s data and proper link-building, respectively.

A typical On-Page SEO Audit checklist may include:

• Meta descriptions, title tags, headers, URL structures and alt tags (for images) that incorporate apt and relevant keywords

• Useful and convenient internal linking

• Using an XML sitemap for improved indexing and making it easier for Google’s bots to crawl

• Creating high-quality, unique content and eliminating duplicates

• Setting up trust indicators such as terms of service, clear privacy policy, etc.

• Availability of easily accessible sharing resources to social media platforms

Here’s an SEO Audit checklist for the Off-Page aspect:

• Ensuring there are enough referring domains that link back to your website

• Keeping regular track of the growth of link portfolio

• Checking the relevance of the backlinks

• Ensuring enough backlinks to content and landing pages

• Keeping track of content sharing and traffic on social media platforms

• Identifying and fixing broken links

• Technical Audit:

Technical audits for your website evaluate the performance (or lack thereof) of the underlying technology of your website. Since it encompasses the entire functionality of your website, it’s one of the most important audits you can carry out. Since both SEO and technical improvements are made to better the site on a fundamental level, there may be some overlaps while carrying out the two audits.

Here are some things to ensure while conducting a technical audit:

• All pages should be optimized for search engine bots to easily crawl and index information

• Proper and consistent implementation of SSL certificate

• Cross-browser testing and mobile-friendly test to ensure proper rendering and fast loading speed across all major browsers and devices

• Removing or fixing broken images

• Updating and patching all software plugins and modules

• Content Audit:

Preparing a good content strategy is imperative for better conversion rates and traffic. Here are some things to look out for:

• Having fully optimized landing pages with single product/service per page

• Inclusion of engaging and relevant visual elements

• Building content around a clear understanding of both brand identity and buyer personas

• Structured, logical content that incorporates user’s jargon

• UX Audit:

UX refers to user experience, which covers the ability of your website’s design and technology to make for a convenient and pleasant interaction with your site for any visitor.

A checklist for UX audit should always include:

• Easy, no-hassle navigation menus

• Proper usage of design breadcrumbs and footer links

• Minimal use of JavaScript

• Incorporating design elements that leads to CTA links

• Use of lossless compression for effortless loading of large graphics

• Try to ensure that all content is not further than 3 clicks from Homepage

2. Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, website auditing is a substantial step in your business development process that should not be missed, and hopefully, this guide can help you understand the various methods and measures of website auditing.

If you want to have your own business website audited to go one step further in achieving your marketing goals, you can contact us through our website or social media. Uniworld Studios will provide you with a free audit report for your website so that you can strategize the developments and implement upgrades accordingly.