My website audit service helps small businesses determine if their website is a clunker that’s due for a major overhaul, or, a diamond-in-the-rough that just needs polish. This article helps you identify what elements of your website require the most scrutiny— all with an eye on improving your visitors’ experience, technical performance, security, and search engine optimization.
Website Audit Overview
Like an automobile, a website has many moving parts. And of course, it helps to know what those parts are. For my website audit service, I’ve identified 5 categories that represent the areas of greatest concern:
- Content
- Design
- Technology
- Security
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Let’s take a closer look. I inspect as many as 10 elements under each category in my client website audits. Here, I’m listing 3 under each category, to give you a better idea of what you need to look for.
Website Audit Elements
Content
- Brevity (concise, to the point; no happy talk; no chest beating)
- Scanability (easy to skim)
- Keyword Stuffing (written for humans first— search engines second)
- Etc.
Design
- General appearance (unique; consistent; relevant to target audience)
- Menu and button labels (logically grouped; easy to understand)
- Readability (easy to read; adequate contrast against background images; etc.)
- Etc.
Technology
- Hosting provider and plan (optimized for WordPress)
- WordPress and plugins use (10 or less; current versions)
- Code formatting (developer-friendly; well-organized; easy to work with)
- Etc.
Security
- Backups (files and database backed up frequently)
- Brute force protection and monitoring (block excessive login attempts)
- Strong password enforcement
- Etc.
SEO
- Page speed
- Mobile-friendliness
- Keyword placement (url; first 100 words; h1; h2; etc.)
- Etc.
Preparing for Your Website Audit
Before beginning your audit, I’ll need:
- Access to your Google Analytics account;
- Access to your WordPress dashboard (admin level);
- Access to your website via FTP; and
- Target keywords for the page(s) being audited.
Learn more about Oddo Audit today.