People reviewing their website elements.
By checking your company’s website, you can improve performance, optimize customers’ online experiences, and convert more leads. Your website is often the first contact people have with your business, and a bad or frustrating interaction can give the wrong impression. Even seemingly insignificant issues, such as broken links or page loading delays, can turn customers away.
Technical audits don’t have to consist of checking HTML and a developer’s code. Think more superficial features like SEO, content, design, and mobile responsiveness. Before checking your website’s performance and whether it matches your goals, it helps to create a checklist. Here are some basics of a technical website audit and how it can boost your company’s digital strategy.
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Blog posts, landing pages, product pages and so on make up the content of your website. You probably 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 old customers can type your URL directly and click on the pages you want in the menus. 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 a strategic growth marketing plan. The goal is to attract audience members and engage them in something informative, entertaining, or useful.
When online content doesn’t rank well on search engine results pages, it could indicate one or more problems. Your content may not contain relevant keywords, proper meta descriptions, and/or image alt text. The pages may stop responding and be too slow to load. Page content can also be of low quality, meaning it doesn’t respond to your target audience’s questions and needs.
Perhaps the information is not as complete and useful as it could be. The copy may also be confusing and contain typos and grammatical errors. Looking at your content from a general and detailed perspective can help you determine which pages should be refreshed, removed, or replaced.
Evaluate your site’s performance on mobile devices
Your web pages can look great on a laptop or desktop. However, they may not be as attractive or functional on smaller screens. That can be a problem for your business. In the second quarter of 2022, approximately 59% of worldwide website traffic from mobile devices. Web designs that don’t load well or fit well on smartphones and tablets score lower on the mobile responsiveness scale.
A page with broken copies and incomplete photos will be difficult for the public to read and follow. In addition, call-to-action buttons and forms can be difficult to see and click on. If your site uses pop-ups, they can prevent mobile users from understanding the content of the page. Your technical audit should focus on identifying such issues so that you can address them and improve the user experience.
Some content management systems have preview modes so you can test how designs and templates look on mobile devices. You’ll see differences in how those designs appear on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. If you notice any issues, you may need to switch to responsive templates or use a drag-and-drop editor to design some. Many companies use accelerated mobile pages or partner with design firms that can optimize pages for mobile.
Using site audit tools
The thought of checking every broken link and the loading speed of every page may seem overwhelming. Smaller companies with less staff may not have the time for this. Site audit tools lighten the load and make finding technical errors easier. Website monitoring software can check your main domain and subdomains in minutes instead of days.
Based on the reports and recommendations provided by the site’s audit tools, you can see where missing links, server issues, and redirect errors are occurring. The software also shows your site load times for each page and identifies security and SEO issues. For example, an audit tool may recommend compressing your site’s images.
Large files can slow down your site and frustrate visitors. This can cause shoppers to abandon their cart because product pages are taking too long to load. If customers can’t see page elements like add to cart buttons in a timely manner, those delays become sales that don’t happen. Site audit tools help pinpoint opportunities to improve site performance so that customers can get the best experiences.
Audit software also identifies security vulnerabilities, including expired Secure Socket Layer certificates. When SSL certificates expire, visitors usually get a warning that the site is not secure. Seeing this, customers may think twice about visiting your site, purchasing from your online store, or exchanging personal information. Some may never come back.
View site navigation and structure
Most, if not all, websites have a navigation structure. They start with the homepage and have subgroups or categories from there. For example, an online retailer may have subgroups and pages for each product category. The main navigation menu may also contain links to pages on seasonal promotions, employment and loyalty programs.
Sites with clunky navigation can turn off visitors. That’s because the menus and pages don’t run in a logical order or structure. Sometimes navigation menus in the headers and footers may not provide the links customers are looking for.
Heatmaps and page traffic data can discover which pages are getting the most hits. This information will reveal which categories and links visitors need in the menus. But looking at how you’ve grouped and linked pages internally will reveal potential issues with the site’s organization. Making sure subpages flow logically and web addresses reflect the structure of the site makes a website more user-friendly.
When it’s time for a website audit
Website audits can show why companies are not achieving their digital marketing goals. Slow loading times, expired security certificates, and clunky designs can lead to high cart abandonment and bounce rates. Sites with technical problems are also often bad at collecting leads.
If you see signs that your site is underperforming, it may be time to perform a technical audit. By researching content quality, designing for mobile, leveraging audit tools, and revising navigation structures, you can refine your site and better meet the needs of your customers.
