Your Comprehensive Website Audit Checklist [FREE Download]
May 28, 2018Your website is often the first interaction a prospect has with your company. This interaction can go one of two ways: your target persona immediately feels connected to your brand, or your website is just another tab in their browser.
A poorly designed and difficult-to-navigate website can cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, in lost opportunity. We’ve found that an annual website audit is a good practice for companies of all sizes and industries. Whether you’re looking to redesign your website, or looking for opportunities to continually optimize, this comprehensive website audit checklist is the tool you need to ensure you’re leaving your prospects with the best possible impression.
Why do a website audit?
If you need your website to generate more traffic and convert more leads, then you should do an audit. We’ve never met a marketer who is 100% satisfied with their website performance, but even if you’re pleased with the status quo, you should still conduct a yearly audit to ensure that you’re not missing an opportunity to improve performance – and that your site accurately reflects your company, products, and values.
It’s also a good exercise to keep tabs on your competition and identify content gaps. We can guarantee that you’ll gain valuable insights after completing our website audit checklist.
Who is involved in a website audit?
Depending on your business needs, a website audit can be elaborate and detailed, simple and high-level, or anywhere in between. Here are some considerations when compiling a team for your website audit.
The one woman (or man) show
You can absolutely do this website audit on your own. Our downloadable checklist will help as a guide for your research. Set aside a big chunk of time to investigate your website performance, and the digital presence of your top competitors and other companies you admire. Don’t worry if you’re new to this sort of thing; our website audit checklist will give you all the guidance you need.
Internal stakeholders
For larger marketing teams, we always suggest gathering additional insight from key stakeholders at your company. Review your company goals for the year and see how they align with the website. Are you ramping up hiring efforts this year? Get HR involved and review how the careers page is performing, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Is the customer service team bogged down with call center traffic? If so, discuss how the support page is performing and how it can be optimized. You get the idea.
Ask for customer feedback
Do you have a few friendly customers you can ask for candid feedback? We’ve found that including your clients in website-user testing can lead to prosperous results. Your customers are your target personas. If something looks odd to them, it’s probably confusing to your prospects as well. This can be as simple as asking for feedback over the phone, or enlisting a service like User Testing to get candid customer feedback.
Hire a digital agency
If you’re serious about seeing results, we recommend partnering with an agency. A digital agency will have a team of experts specializing in SEO, web design, copywriting, and user experience. This broad range of experience and perspectives will result in a more robust website audit.
Getting Started
At a high-level, here are the five main components of our website audit checklist:
- Benchmark Metrics
- SEO Analysis
- Content Inventory
- Usability Testing (especially important for eCommerce)
- Competitive Analysis
Are you ready to get started and dive deep into your website performance? Our comprehensive website audit checklist will provide the guidance, tips, and tools you needs to run your own website audit.
Download our comprehensive website audit checklist today!