Most website redesign and online marketing projects begin with an online audit. Clients who have never been through this process often wonder whether website audits are really necessary. In many cases, they would prefer to jump ahead to examining new layouts or making plans for fresh social media campaigns.
It’s never a good idea to put the cart before the horse, as they say, and website audits can be an absolute necessity for many products. To understand why, you have to know what they are all about, and what sorts of data they yield.
A website audit is essentially a checkup for your web presence. It’s the equivalent of taking your car to the mechanic and asking them to look at everything. Why bother to evaluate your website, especially if you’re already looking at improving it anyway? Because you’ll learn important things like…
Your Current Website’s Search Visibility
Search engine optimization is a core strategy for most businesses, but many aren’t sure how they currently rank on Google and which search terms are bringing them traffic. With a website audit, we can get to the bottom of these details to build on existing strengths and make a plan for the future.
Whether Your Website Has Old Code or Security Weaknesses
The older your website is, the more likely it is to have outdated code and components like Flash or unused plugins that can cause real security and performance concerns. At the very least, you want to be aware of what’s under the hood on your website; a good audit can also help you find apps that need to be replaced or removed.
How Your Existing Content Looks to Google
Occasionally, we audit a website for new client and find that whoever put the pages online was “borrowing” content from a competitor or industry website. That’s not good branding, and it can cause a site to virtually disappear from Google’s rankings. Additionally, a good website audit will uncover other content problems like keyword overuse and formatting errors.
Whether You Have Minor Technical Problems With Your Website
There are lots of little problems with your website that can annoy both customers and search engines. Pages that load slowly, broken links, and missing images are amongst a few of the most common. We can find and correct these during a detailed website audit.
What New Opportunities You Should Pursue
Auditing your website isn’t just about finding things that are wrong with it today – it’s also a matter of identifying future opportunities for growth and new revenue. You can’t move ahead until you know where you already are, and that starts with a page-by-page review of your web presence.
Whether you need a new website, or just better results from the one you have, going through a step-by-step audit with a creative team you trust is a great beginning point. You’ll be able to identify problems that might be holding you back, along with opportunities to grow going forward.
To learn a bit more about the way this works, or get expert help with your website and online marketing campaigns, contact Biondo Creative today to speak with a member of our team.