What is a Website Audit?
A website audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your site’s performance and functionality, including its ability to be found by search engines and users alike. The more visible your site is in search engines, the more traffic it can attract. A website audit should also assess key performance metrics, such as page speed and user experience (UX) scores. A checklist can help you focus on the most critical aspects of the audit.
Why Conduct a Website Audit?
If you’re learning how to build a website, running a full website audit is essential once it’s complete. A website audit is also crucial after making changes to your site. Even minor updates can affect traffic and search engine visibility, so an audit helps ensure nothing is amiss.
A website audit is a straightforward process that should be part of any website management and maintenance routine. Auditing your site regularly helps maintain its health and performance, keeping your site up-to-date and optimised for both users and search engines.
Types of Website Audits
There are several types of audits, each focusing on a different aspect of your website:
General SEO Audit: Assesses how well your site is optimised for search engines.
Content SEO Audit: Focuses on the quality of your content and any content gaps.
Technical SEO Audit: Examines the technical aspects of your site, such as backend issues.
Performance Audit: Looks at page speed, load times, and Core Web Vitals.
UX Audit: Evaluates user experience, including navigation and design.
Why You Should Run a Website Audit
Whether your site is new or has undergone updates, a website audit ensures it performs well in search and provides an optimal user experience. Understanding its performance helps you identify areas for improvement.
For smaller websites, a full audit should be conducted at least once a year. For larger websites with high traffic and numerous pages, a more frequent check (two or three times a year) may be necessary. Mini-audits are also beneficial for keeping track of any issues between full audits, ensuring your site continues to function correctly and stays optimised.
How to Run a Website Audit
Below are the main steps for conducting a website audit:
Assess website performance and page speed
Check on-page SEO optimisations
Evaluate content quality and identify gaps
Isolate technical SEO issues
Test user experience
Monitor website accessibility
1. Assess Website Performance and Page Speed
Your audit should start by reviewing your website’s page speed. Since 2010, Google has prioritised page speed in its search rankings, making it an essential factor to evaluate. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or analytics platforms can help you identify any issues with slow-loading pages. Slow performance can damage your site’s authority, so addressing any delays is crucial.
When performing an audit, bear in mind that mobile and desktop versions of your site may score differently. As Google now uses mobile-first indexing, optimising for mobile performance should be a top priority.
2. Check SEO On-Page Optimisations
For your website to be visible in search engines, it must be SEO-optimised. An SEO audit identifies areas where optimisation is lacking, such as meta tags, canonicals, or alt tags.
Tools like Screaming Frog and Deepcrawl can quickly analyse your website’s SEO and pinpoint areas for improvement. Missing optimisation data is easily fixable and should be one of the first things to address during your audit.
3. Evaluate Content Quality and Identify Gaps
Good content is essential for ranking well in search. Ensure your site has relevant, high-quality content that meets your audience’s needs. Content gaps—topics your target audience is searching for but you’re not covering—can prevent your site from ranking against competitors.
Tools like Ahrefs can help you identify these gaps by comparing your site’s content and keywords with competitors, allowing you to adjust your content strategy accordingly.
4. Isolate Technical SEO Issues
Technical SEO issues such as 404 errors or non-indexed pages can severely impact your site’s visibility in search results. Using tools like Google Search Console and site analytics platforms, you can identify these issues and resolve them with actions like redirects.
5. Test User Experience
It’s not enough to optimise your website behind the scenes; you also need to ensure a seamless front-end experience for users. Conducting a UX audit helps you understand how users interact with your site, ensuring that navigation, content, and calls to action are functioning properly.
Obtaining user feedback is a great way to identify UX issues, which can then be addressed to improve both engagement and conversions.
6. Monitor Website Accessibility
Accessibility ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can fully access your website. An accessibility audit identifies barriers that prevent full interaction with your site. Tools like the Wix Accessibility Wizard can help you resolve these issues and make your site more inclusive.
How Much Does a Website Audit Cost?
The cost of a website audit varies depending on its scope and the tools used. While an audit can range from several hundred to a few thousand dollars, even if you conduct it yourself, some paid tools may be necessary for a comprehensive evaluation.
Popular Website Audit Tools
Here are some widely-used tools that can help with your website audit:
Google Analytics 4: This free tool offers insights into your website’s traffic and performance.
Semrush: Provides a comprehensive SEO audit, including competitor analysis.
Ahrefs: Identifies health and technical issues, such as missing meta tags or 404 errors.
Wix Analytics: Tracks your site’s performance, including traffic and speed.
Other popular audit tools include Moz, Woorank, and Sitebulb.
Website Audit Checklist
Here’s a quick reference checklist to ensure you’re covering all key areas in your website audit:
Website performance: Check page speed and Core Web Vitals.
SEO optimisation: Identify and fix missing meta data.
Content SEO optimisation: Ensure quality content and fill in any gaps.
Technical SEO issues: Pinpoint and resolve errors.
User experience: Test functionality and navigation.
Website accessibility: Identify and fix barriers to access.
By following this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to conduct a thorough website audit that keeps your site performing optimally.
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