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Writer's pictureJulianna Francesca

Transform Your Website and Get More Traffic

The most effective way to transform your website is to conduct a little audit of your site. If THe cringe at the word “audit”, stay with me here...

WHAT IS A WEBSITE AUDIT?


No one actually likes the word “audit” and for good reason. Most audits don't bring good things to us.

But marketing audits and specifically website audits, only bring good things.

Read that again!


A thorough website audit will give you valuable information about your opportunities. It will allow you to discover any weaknesses, mistakes, or discrepancies that could be holding you back. If you’re a small business or entrepreneur the time and effort you’ve put into your website are BEYOND valuable to you. An audit will help you ensure your 24/7 sales director (aka your website) is always at the top of their game.

An audit benefits any business looking to grow and build an online presence. It helps from a technical perspective as well as a content and marketing perspective. In sum, a website audit tool will ensure your website is fully optimized.

Your audit will take a temperature check on the most critical parts of your site:

  • Site Health

  • Security

  • SEO (search engine optimization) & visibility

  • Content effectiveness

  • Accuracy and freshness of information

  • Engagement & Conversion

  • Competition

  • OPPORTUNITIES!


If it sounds pretty great to have all those things running smoothly, that’s because it is! When your website works, your business runs better and can grow more easily. In this digital age, websites are crucial to businesses and there are tons of opportunities available to small businesses online. A website will help you identify those opportunities and then give you a clear set of action steps to bring them to life that is uniquely beneficial to your business.


Good website audit tools are the technical audit, the SEO audit, and the content audit. You will hear many web developers talk about SEO because a good website audit will include an extensive SEO audit section, alongside other user experience and design components. But it cannot be understated that a website audit done well will also include a thorough website content audit, also called a website marketing audit. Any website audit tool or guide should include a full assessment of your content marketing: messaging, visuals, branding, etc.


At this point, my guess is you’re ready to hear about how to audit a website. While the DIY Website Refresh Guide covers all this in detail, I personally want to share as much information with you here as I can since you’re already reading my content. The next section will give you a little sneak peek into what’s included in the website audit guide. And for all you type-A people, I added some lists!



BUT FIRST LET ME ANSWER THE MOST COMMON QUESTION I HEAR:

DO I NEED TO PAY FOR A WEBSITE AUDIT?

The short answer is no.


You know your business and your audience best and so the most valuable thing you can do for your website is to understand and then manage all the opportunities. Not knowing what is going on with your website is the same as having an employee who you have no clue what their job is, how they spend their time, or what value they bring. You would never tolerate that type of relationship with an employee, right? So do not settle for that relationship with your website. There is a caveat to this DIY recommendation though.

After you conduct your own website marketing audit (and this is where the I created comes in super handy), if your website audit reveals key opportunities for your site you’d like to pursue, you can make the strategic business decision to hire an expert to help you accomplish them. For example, if you’ve noticed your site needs an SEO (search engine optimization) facelift and you do not have SEO knowledge, it is very reasonable to hire an SEO expert for this. The same goes if you realize you need more compelling content or better images. Hiring a copywriter or photographer or graphic designer would be the smart choice. But the beauty of having completed this audit prior to hiring them is you are now equipped with expert-level knowledge on

  1. Your website strategy

  2. Your brand strategy

  3. Your audience

  4. Your website’s performance

  5. What opportunities you want to pursue

  6. The budget you have available

  7. The outcome you want accomplished by the expert and how you will measure their success

These 7 pieces of information cannot be understated. Knowing this will guarantee you get good work out of anyone you hire. The more strategic and informative you are with the experts you hire, the happier you will be with their work. If you would like to take advantage of the free strategy sessions I offer to discuss how you can do this for your business, please use this link to access my calendar and select a time to chat.

And now for that sneak peek I promised you!


HOW TO DO A WEBSITE AUDIT?


The best website audit tools will include assessments of

  • Website performance

  • User engagement

  • User experience

  • Audience details

  • Functionality

  • Design & Aesthetics

  • Content

And lucky for you I’ve aggregated the best analysis for all of these into 1 thorough yet efficient website audit tool.

I recommend following the flow of the Website Refresh Guide as it is laid out because doing the steps in order will get you the best results - not to mention it is the most efficient way to conduct your website marketing audit.


Not only are there 5 clear steps laid out that focus on each of the most important analyses you need for your website, but I also included a multi-page website audit checklist! The beauty of this website audit checklist is you can use it in 3 different ways:

  1. Before you start your audit, understand how much work you have to do

  2. After you finish your audit to see how much progress you made

  3. As a gut check throughout the year to determine when/if an audit is needed again

The checklist is my favorite part of the tool because you get your entire website marketing audit in a digestible and easy-to-use format. The checklist is divided into sections too so you can decide to work on a specific portion of your audit at one time.


AFTER YOUR WEBSITE MARKETING AUDIT IS COMPLETE…


Most small businesses that have websites have extended their digital presence to include social media as well. This is a very smart move as it gives you access to a wider, more targeted, and more engaged audience. If you are in the social media world and are struggling to figure out if your efforts are paying off…I bet you can guess what I am going to suggest!!

A Social Media Audit of your Accounts! When you’re ready to dive into this, here are some resources for you:

If you are looking to build traffic to your website or boost your eCommerce site beyond social media, I recommend setting up a free strategy session with me. There are incredible tips and tricks for driving traffic that I share with my clients and I would love to work with you to do the same.




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Thank you for reading this post and for choosing to learn a bit more about marketing! We need more good marketers out there and you're taking steps to be part of that elite group. If you have any questions or want to learn more, feel free to check out the rest of the free articles published on this site and shop through the self-guided materials created for you.

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