A simple guide to performing a technical audit for your website

Auditing your company’s website can improve performance, enhance customers’ online experiences, and help convert more leads. Your website is often the first contact people have with your business, and a poor or frustrating interaction can create the wrong impression. Even seemingly minor flaws like broken links or page load delays can turn customers away.

Technical auditing does not include checking HTML and developer code. Consider additional aspects of the theme, such as SEO, content, design, and mobile responsiveness. Before evaluating your website’s performance and whether it matches your goals, it helps to make a checklist. Here are some basics of a technical website audit and how it can enhance your company’s digital strategy.

See all content

Blog posts, landing pages, product pages, and so on make up the content of your website. You can also have a few videos and FAQ pages. The words on those pages and the context of the videos will raise awareness and bring people to your site.

Yes, some of your long-time customers will directly type your URL and click on the pages they want from the menu. But search engines index and return your site’s content in search results based on relevance and intent. Creating and publishing relevant and useful content is part of the strategy. Growth marketing Plan. The goal is to attract and engage audience members with something informative, entertaining, or helpful.

If online content isn’t ranking well on search engine results pages, it could point to one or more problems. Your content may not include relevant keywords, good meta descriptions, and/or specific text for images. The pages may become unresponsive and very slow to load. Page content can also be of low quality, meaning it doesn’t appeal to your audience’s questions and interests.

Perhaps the information is not as complete and useful as it could be. Copy may be confusing and contain spelling and grammatical errors. Looking at your content from a holistic and detailed perspective can identify which pages to refresh, hit or replace.

Evaluate your site’s performance on mobile devices

Your websites can look great on a laptop or desktop. However, they may not be as attractive or practical on smaller screens. That can be a problem for your business. In the second quarter of 2022, approx 59% of the world’s website traffic Derived from mobile devices. Web designs that don’t load or sync well on smartphones and tablets score poorly on mobile responsiveness.

A page with broken copy and incomplete images will be difficult for viewers to read and follow. Additionally, call-to-action buttons and forms can be challenging to view and click. If your site uses pop-ups, these will prevent mobile users from accessing the meat of the page’s content. Your technical audit should focus on identifying such issues so you can resolve them and improve the user experience.

Some content management systems have preview modes so you can test how designs and templates will look on mobile devices. You’ll see differences in how those designs are rendered on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. If you notice problems, you may need to switch to responsive templates or use the drag-and-drop editor to design some. Many companies use accelerated mobile pages or can optimize mobile pages with design agencies.

Use site audit tools

The idea of ​​checking every broken link and the loading speed of every page can seem overwhelming. Small businesses with fewer employees may not have the time to do this. Site audit tools lighten the burden and make it easy to find technical errors. Website auditing software can verify your main domain and subdomains in minutes instead of days.

Based on the results of the site audit tools, you can see where the missing links, server problems and redirect errors are based on the reports and recommendations. The software shows your site’s load time for each page and identifies security and SEO issues. For example, an audit tool might recommend compressing your site’s images.

Large files can slow down your site and annoy visitors. This can cause consumers to abandon their carts because product pages take too long to load. If customers can’t see page elements like add-to-cart buttons in time, those delays become sales that don’t happen. Site audit tools help identify opportunities to improve site performance so clients can find best practices.

Auditing software also points out security issues, including expired socket layer certificates. When SSL certificates expire, visitors usually receive a warning that the site is not secure. If customers see this, they may think twice about visiting your site, buying from your online store, or sharing personal information. Some may never come back.

Review site navigation and structure

Most, if not all, websites have a navigation structure. They start with a home page and then have subgroups or categories. For example, an online retailer may have subgroups and pages for each product category. The main navigation menu may include links to pages about current promotions, job opportunities, and loyalty programs.

Sites with messy navigation can turn off visitors. That’s because the menus and pages don’t flow in a logical order or structure. Sometimes, navigation buttons in headers and footers may not provide the links that customers want.

Heatmaps and page traffic data can show which pages get the most results. This information shows which categories and links visitors need in menus. But looking at how you’ve grouped and linked pages internally can reveal potential problems with site organization. Making subpages flow logically and web addresses reflect the structure of the page makes a website more user-friendly.

When it’s time for a website audit

Website audits can reveal why companies aren’t achieving their digital marketing goals. Slow load times, expired security certificates, and cluttered designs can lead to high abandoned cart and bounce rates. Sites with technical issues also do a poor job of collecting leads.

If you’re seeing signs that your site is down, it may be time for a technical audit. By analyzing content quality, designing for mobile, using auditing tools, and evaluating navigation structures, you can fine-tune your site and better meet your customers’ needs.