The 5 Important Steps on How to Do a Website Audit
By Jeff Enriquez
Are you wondering how to do a website audit? Everyone’s going digital and you have decided that your first step is to have your own online presence. You establish your business’ website and complied with all the search engine requirements needed to gain visibility and maximize the platform, so what’s next? Just like a physical store, your webpage would need regular checks and maintenance. This is called a website audit.
Online businesses, brands, professionals, and agencies need to do a website audit on a regular basis. Regulating your content, technical, and search engine optimization (SEO) aspects will help you avoid penalties imposed by the Google algorithm or other major search engines. It ensures you have a great first impression with your audience by maintaining quality standards for your website.
How do you do that? Here are the 5 important steps on how to do a website audit when conducting a website inspection:
1. Content Management & Marketing
Content is king on the internet. It is not only vital for SEO purposes, but also for branding and customer experience. That’s why when you do your website audit, make sure to check if the content is written in a way that makes it search-engine friendly, while still not being too robotic, repetitive, or basically if it feels like it was written by an AI. Relevant information provides context to visitors and customers, so make sure to define your target audience and craft content that appeals to them.
Finding the middle ground between AI-generated content and too much catered-for information can be hard at times, but defining your goals will help you stay on track when you do website audits. Make sure your users know what to expect when they visit your website by presenting them with a clear vision of your brand purpose. What is your digital strategy and how do you see your brand maturing?
2. Technical SEO & Usability
The Technical SEO aspect is one of the important parts of a website audit. Without a proper link profile and on-page structure, users will not easily find your website’s content or even visit your pages that have been properly optimized. The type of webmaster who does not consider technical SEO important for their site’s success is at risk of penalties imposed by Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
The Impact of Google’s Core Web Vitals Update on a Website
Google announced its Core Web Vitals update in 2023 where it states that it will prioritize “high quality and high-value content”. This means that pages with relatively low page speed and bad user page experience (including creating unhelpful content) will struggle to rank on Google. Many websites including ours had experienced a decrease in organic traffic and rankings because of this. This is why website optimization is now more important. Make sure that your Desktop and even the Mobile version of the website are well.
Next, aside from checking the technical aspect of the website, you must also inspect your website if it is outdated. An outdated website will make it hard for SEOs to rank your website.
When doing website audits for SEO, check if your content is easy to read, if you provide clear calls-to-action and navigation, and that there are no broken links or errors on the website. For technical audits, always keep in mind that user experience is key for an online business. Make sure your site has an easily accessible contact form or page and a help section.
3. User Interface & Design
Keep in mind that the way you structure information on your website affects the way users perceive information. Don’t take it too lightly and remember what your goals are when doing a website audit; if you’re a designer looking for quality input from users or potential customers, make sure that it is easy for them to post comments or ask questions on blog posts and news articles. A common mistake is to have too much information on a single page; that’s why it’s important to follow the F-pattern method, which divides a web page into sections. Make sure your website loads fast, and always look for ways to optimize performance.
4. Mobile-Friendly
How do you see your website on mobile? What kind of information could be improved? Some businesses still do not have a mobile version of their site, but they should know that Google’s algorithm has started using mobile-friendliness as one of its ranking factors. When doing website audits, you should never ignore the user experience on mobile devices as it may have an effect on your bottom line in the long run and it is one of the good qualities of a website that Google is looking for.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It’s important to stay up-to-date with new updates and changes from search engines as they have been working hard to keep their algorithms as simple and transparent as possible. To see how a website performed on Google in the past months, an optimal tool to use is Semrush or Ahrefs. These tools can check your site’s rank position, utilize keyword research, and track your overall SEO performance. SEO tools can also display SEO metrics and data in a neat and organized way, which is beneficial in creating a website audit report.
Conclusion
Your website is just as good as your physical store. You invest in your physical store to look good and to attract customers. You change the lightbulbs if you see that it’s starting to lose their spark, you paint the walls to cover stains, you change the tiles when they’re broken, you tighten loose screws, and so many more just to give your customers that next-level experience. Don’t forget to do the same for your website. You need to maintain it properly so that visitors will have that smooth experience when browsing through your content and making a purchase.
Need Help with Website Audit?
If you still feel like you need more help when it comes to website and SEO audits, don’t worry! Talk to the experts! TeamAsia can help you maintain your website and make sure it is always up to the standard of search engines and attracts valuable customers. Send us a message today! You may contact us through our marketing lead, Erika de Leon at erdelon@teamasia.com; +639178813724.
