Want to crush your business goals? You need to upgrade your website

This post is a part of our digital audits series – a closer look at what it takes to improve your digital strategy.

The words “website audit” can send chills down business owners’ spines – after all, most websites have problems. Luckily, there are simple solutions to some very common website issues. You just need to know what to look for.

Keep reading to discover the main checkpoints of any good website audit.

Easy navigation is essential

First and foremost, your website should be easy to use. It’s all about user experience – navigation paths should be clear and straightforward, broken links should be corrected or removed ASAP and mobile-friendliness is a must. People don’t have time for dysfunctional sites!

Get a little superficial

If your website looks like it was built in 1997 – or even 2017 – you’ve got to bring it up to date visually. First impressions matter; audiences will judge your organization on how good or bad your site looks. Make sure colours, fonts and images are all on-brand!

How do people discover your site?

Once you’ve covered the basics of website audits, it’s time to dig a little deeper. First question: where do your website users come from? Google Analytics can determine how you acquire the majority of your traffic, like your social media posts, your email campaigns or your digital ads. It’s a great tool for identifying your successes – and figuring out what you can do to bring even more traffic to your site.

Top pages hold the keys to success

Which pages are most useful to your audience, and which ones aren’t worth their time? If visitors abandon your website after just visiting your homepage, people are missing out on what else your site has to offer. If an important page (like “services” or “contact us”) isn’t getting any love, it might be hard for people to find, or your copy might not be compelling enough to warrant a click. Listen to what the “Top Pages” section of Google Analytics is telling you, and try to emulate that success throughout the rest of your website.

Speed it up

Nobody likes a slow website. Boost your page speed by getting rid of unnecessary plugins, reducing redirects, optimizing images and even consider switching to a new server if yours just isn’t cutting it. Tools like PageSpeed Insights will test your speed out and tell you how to improve it.

Use specialty software (or hire someone who does)

If you want to dig deeper into what ails your website, you need to spend a little money on software that does the deep dive. Here’s a list of tools to consider investing in:

• SEMRush can tell you how much and what is broken.
• Readable can identify how readable your copy is.
• SERanking will tell you where you rank on search results pages.
• GTMetrix will identify what, exactly, is slowing your website down.
• BuiltWith will tell you what your competitor’s site is built with.
• Hotjar will create heatmaps to show you where people click and scroll, or don’t, on your site.
• Screenfly will give you a preview of how your site looks on desktop, tablet or mobile.

And this just scratches the surface.

Suffice it to say, website optimization is a big project, which is why it’s best to ask for help when you need it. Get in touch with us if you want to upgrade your website the easy way!