In the digital era, an online presence is imperative for businesses of all sizes. From small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) to international commercial juggernauts, it enables them to tap into large, eager online audiences. However, creating a website is the first step toward a notable, visible, and lucrative online presence. As with all business endeavors, oversights, mistakes, and the need for updates will naturally emerge over time. In the case of websites, the best way to proactively identify such issues is to conduct regular website audits. Thus, let us devote this article to exploring this practice and the six most significant reasons for performing a website audit.
Types of Website Audits
First and foremost, let us define our terms. While “website audits” typically refer to SEO and content audits, they have other everyday meanings—thus, other audit types.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit
The primary type of website audit, SEO audit, examines websites in terms of SEO. As Backlinko notes, it considers over 200 search engine ranking factors.
SEO audits may focus on site-level factors, such as:
- Site architecture and sitemap
- Security certificates
- Mobile Optimization
More thorough SEO audits may delve deeper into page-level factors, such as:
- Keyword density
- Content length
- Image optimization
Adherence to SEO ranking factors can always ensure long-term business success, making this type of website audit incredibly beneficial.
Content audit
As the name suggests, content audits are often seen as a subset of SEO audits. They examine on-page content and can provide substantial insights into page-level factors and user engagement metrics. They allow business owners and web admins to identify content gaps and increase conversion rates.
Backlink audit
Another subset of SEO audits, backlink audits, examines backlinks that drive referral traffic. This type typically includes scanning for unlinked mentions, outdated backlinks externally, and broken and dubious links internally.
Design audit
This type of audit can be included in SEO audits or performed by web designers. As the name suggests, it examines websites’ design, ensuring they match the business’s tone while enabling responsiveness and more straightforward navigation. As such, it can also inform SEO practices.
Technical audit
Finally, a technical audit focuses on factors that frequently concern technical SEO. Depending on the conductor, these include sitemaps and robots.txt files but may extend to broken links, content duplication, and others. Of course, thorough website audits frequently include many or all of the above audit types. However, it’s helpful to distinguish them, mainly if you’re operating on a budget or wish to focus on particular aspects.
The biggest reasons to perform a website audit
After examining these different types, let’s explore the six most significant reasons to perform a website audit.
#1 Improving your SEO
Of course, the most self-evident reason is to improve your SEO. By definition, website audits typically aim to improve marketing efforts—either by improving SEO or enhancing content marketing.
SEO audits are becoming a necessary tool to adjust to the ever-changing Google algorithms. A recent example of such an update is the Page Experience update, which expands on ranking factors. While Google reassured web admins that it won’t be substantive, as SearchEngineJournal reported, SEO practitioners urge caution. From the Panda and Penguin updates of old to this new update, an SEO audit can help ensure websites remain optimized.
#2 Solidifying your link strategy and cleaning up obsolete links
Another crucial, albeit more specific, benefit of website audits is carefully examining one’s link strategy. Internal links and backlinks are vital for healthy SEO, but they also improve navigation and produce referral traffic. As such, even if you disregard SEO entirely – which is ill-advised – periodically examining links can be highly beneficial.
Initially, audits will focus on internal links. Invalid links should be removed to facilitate a better user experience (UX) and distributed wisely to avoid frustrating or confusing visitors. These and other factors aside, audits often turn to external links. They will track unlinked mentions, invalid backlinks, and so forth. By addressing both, such audits will ensure both fronts are in order, and your website performs optimally.
#3 Enhancing website usability and navigation
UX is one of the biggest reasons for performing a website audit. The reason is simple: an excellent UX reduces bounce rates, increases conversion rates, and enhances engagement metrics.
Consider, for example, how page speed affects search engine ranking. Conversely, consider how slow loading speeds directly increase bounce rates and thus impact final sales. This metric aside, a poor navigation experience will also frequently drive visitors away. Typical examples of factors that hamper navigation include:
- A poor sitemap
- Cluttered header menus
- Low website responsiveness
Audits will identify shortcomings and help inform practices that considerably enhance UX, benefitting visitors and web admins.
#4 Acquiring deep insights into user engagement metrics
Focusing more on content audits, which can still inform SEO enhancements, audits can also provide crucial user engagement metrics. These range from bounce rates and time on site to pages per session, time on page, and conversion rates.
Naturally, such insights offer an invaluable opportunity to improve your content to better resonate with your target audience. From an SEO standpoint, better user engagement signals inform search engines of your pages’ quality, value, and trustworthiness. From a strictly practical perspective, engagement drives conversions and sales. In either case, catering to your audiences through such insights can only benefit your website and, by extension, your business.
#5 Identifying content gaps
Similarly, such audits can help identify content gaps. While engagement insights can reveal content optimization opportunities, content gaps can inform content creation from its fundamentals.
Content gaps may often include, among others, the following:
- Quality inconsistencies among different content categories
- Underdeveloped content categories
- Inaccurate, outdated, or obsolete information
These and other factors can help inform content creation. Combined with user engagement metrics, these insights can help you pinpoint alluring content subjects and enticing content formats and layouts. In turn, you may shift your content creation focus toward addressing these gaps or capitalizing on new trends.
#6 Building a more robust content strategy
Finally, on content creation, the above may converge into one of the biggest reasons to perform a website audit: building a more robust content strategy.
Indeed, a content strategy hinges on a plethora of factors, including:
- Search engine visibility
- Website usability
- Content creation and keyword focus
- Landing page efficiency, engagement, and conversion rates
- Backlinks
A website audit may offer insights into these and more, consolidating and future-proofing your content strategy. Audits provide immense opportunities for improvement and growth, from creation to promotion and engagement to conversions.
Conclusion
Website audits will typically, but not exclusively, focus on SEO and content strategies. Regardless of their focus, all website audits aim to reveal weaknesses, inconsistencies, and areas that offer room for improvement. Thus, you may use them to enhance your links and website navigation, acquire engagement metrics, or identify content gaps. You may improve or inform your SEO and content strategies, ensuring you’re doing well.
