I can already hear you asking: What is a website audit, and why should I do one? You built your website or hired someone to make it, so aren't you done now? The secret? A website is never done! New updates, features, and design trends come into play regularly. Maybe you were happy with the design a couple of years ago, but are you still content? Is it as effective as it could be, and optimized for mobile devices?

A successful audit will cover the full range of someone visiting your website from the first thing they see ("Point A") to the last action you want them to take, such as contacting you or making a purchase ("Point Z").

These are just a few aspects of a website audit, but you can get a sense of what we'll be covering in this week's podcast. Below is a rundown of the general main sections included in a website audit, which all fall into "frontend" items (what visitors will see) and "backend" items (the behind-the-scenes building blocks of your site):

Branding - Think of your website branding like a storefront window. The look and feel that you present is what will determine how effectively it pulls people in. You want to determine if your logo correctly represents you or your business and delivers the right message. Since this is one of the first things people will see, that leads us to the next item:

Home Page - The first thing I do during a website audit is to browse the home page to get a feel of the general user experience, from the branding to the "above the fold" content (the first things people see). Next, analyze that content: Is there enough/too much? Is the copy presented in a user-friendly way, or is it a single giant paragraph? This page needs to be easy to read and convey what you offer as briefly as possible.

About - A good about page will humanize you, give visitors a sense of who you are, and how and why you created your business. I learned long ago that my about page gets a ton of traffic since people want to know who I am, so I often recommend including an opt-in here to encourage people to sign up for my newsletter.

Services/Products - Whatever it is you offer, you'll want your service or product pages to have a consistent look for ease of use and "scannability." Make sure your copy is easy to digest with smaller paragraphs and bullet points when possible. Including Calls to Action here can get your services and product pages to convert for you.

Blog - Blogs are good for SEO (search engine optimization) and to help position yourself as an expert in your industry. Plus, the more free content that you offer, the better. One of the more important things you should do when auditing is to ensure links inside blogs still function. Especially on older posts, it's common to find broken links. But people can still find these posts useful, so you want to make sure everything still works properly!

If you have a blog already, you'll find that you can get a real sense of the most popular content with your readers by checking your website analytics and using that as a guide for future content and blogs.

Contact - You'll want your contact page to be crisp and clean, simple, but informative. An effective contact page contains your contact info (email, phone, social media, or any avenues you want people to use to contact you), a Call to Action, and physical location if applicable. 

Last are those "backend" items. These are things that visitors don't see, but are vital for keeping your site running correctly and effectively.

Security - Ensure you have an SSL certificate, and if you don't have any security plugins installed, you should! You'll also want to ensure you're using secure passwords, keeping plugins up-to-date, and enabling security options.

SEO - Optimizing your pages and posts for search engines is a must to get the most traction online. If your site is on WordPress, I recommend a plugin like Yoast SEO to help guide you for this step and ensure every page is optimized for maximum reach.

Website audits can take a couple of hours if you're to give every corner of your website a proper look. I recommend a full audit once a year, while general maintenance is an ongoing task that you should do at least monthly.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is! But I am here to help: See the links below to get a free download of my Ultimate Website Audit Workbook! Of course, if you don't have the time or resources for a website audit, we do these all the time, so don't hesitate to contact me to learn more.

View complete details on my blog post!