A regularly-scheduled web site audit can help you improve your web site, which in turn can help your customers, potential customers, and your staff, be more successful. But performing a web site audit can different things to different people. Basic steps to performing a web site analysis include:
1. Check your web site analytics.
In this context, analytics can mean how many unique visitors visit the site, what pages they look at, and how long they might visit a given page.
Understanding the analytics of your site can pay dividends, particularly if you’re running a site that has advertising. More web site visitors can mean more advertising viewers, which in turn can bring increased sales and profits.
2. Verify that your content is accurate.
Content can become outdated, or can become inaccurate thanks to product innovations and procedure improvements. Verifying content accuracy can keep you from looking bad because you don’t have the latest, most up-to-date information. Testing the procedures on your web site can prevent possible embarrassments.
3. Verify that your content is complete.
We’ve all heard witnesses swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When considering your web site content, don’t leave anything out.
4. Check the navigation of your site.
Useful, accurate, and complete content counts for nothing if your web site visitors cannot find it. When you review the navigation on your web site, check to see how many clicks you need to find a particular piece of information? The fewer steps, the better, and preferably no more than two.
Also, check the navigation using different tools—FireFox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and so forth.
Following these steps, you are obviously focusing on your web site. However, when you perform an audit it’s a good idea to also review competitor web sites.
When you look at these other web sites, ask yourself:
- What do I like about this web site?
- What do I dislike about this web site?
- What can my web site do better than their web sites?
By following these steps, you can begin improving your web site to better serve your audience.
