1 Surefire Way to Improve the Performance and ROI of Your Website — Do an Audit

If you’ve never audited your website (or it’s been a while), chances are you should.

What is a website audit?

A website audit involves analyzing your site to uncover issues that may be hurting your search visibility, negatively impacting your marketing campaigns and turning away visitors. It includes a review of your site’s:

  • functionality,
  • user experience and
  • SEO (search engine optimization)

Why do you need a website audit?

Regular website audits help you identify improvements that can be made to increase traffic, improve engagement and raise conversion rates. According to WooRank, “What separates successful sites is that improvements are constantly evaluated and tested to allow changes to be tracked and measured.”

A website audit doesn’t have to be intimidating

Don’t waste precious resources worrying about every available measurement for your website. Instead:

  • Start by setting clear KPIs and tracking goals and conversions so you can focus on what makes the biggest impact to your business.

  • Then, ensure that everyone involved in promoting and using your website understands the metrics, priorities and how they will impact your ROI.

The investment you make in conducting a thorough, appropriately-focused audit of your site should equate to the improved performance you expect to receive in return. Free tools are great at providing high level stats and hints at what issues your site faces, but keep in mind that those tools cannot FIX those issues.

If you’re serious about making changes to your site that will quantifiably increase traffic, improve engagement and raise conversion rates, then you need to invest in a custom-tailored audit with an experienced digital marketing partner.

What’s Included in a Responsory Website Audit

Responsory will customize your website audit for your organization’s particular situation and objectives. The following are the most common areas of focus:

  • Traffic Analytics

    We look at where visitors are arriving, where they came from, bounce rates, time on page and other engagement stats. How is your analytics tool configured and set for tracking specific goals (e.g. completing a purchase or submitting an email address)?

    Based on the journey you’ve outlined for your visitors, we look at how your site’s design, content and functionality encourage conversion rates. We’re looking to eliminate the issues which cause friction and impair engagement.

  • On-page Optimization

    Are your pages optimized with relevant and consistent keyword use? Are your on-page calls-to-action clear and compelling? Are your response mechanisms performing as expected?

    We look at your content with an eye for SEO, using our Ultimate SEO Copywriting Cheat Sheet as our best-practice guide. We also look for potential clutter and unnecessary content, navigation or functionality. This can give more space for information and calls-to-action, limiting distraction and confusion.

  • Lead Generation

    We review the overall user experience to assess how well your website is optimized to generate leads. This involves taking a close look at lead generation mechanisms, such as calls-to-action and forms. For example, are your site’s forms simple and easy to complete? What is the user’s reward for completing a form? Is there an abandonment issue? We’ll pinpoint the obstacles your users face when trying to engage with your site.

  • Reporting

    We assess the reporting you’re doing on a regular basis. We’ll review your dashboard(s), reports and collection methods and determine if and how improvements can be made.

  • Technical SEO

    We carefully review how your site is implementing the basic but important SEO best practices. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, headings, image alt attributes, keyword density and consistency, in-page links, backlinks, broken links, WWW resolve, robots.txt, XML sitemap, URL parameters, mobile friendliness and speed, custom 404 pages, avatar and more.

  • SEO-boosting Content

    Does your site have a blog? Is it set up to benefit your site users, your marketing goals and your site’s organic search health? If you are blogging, we look at your blog style, posting frequency, titles, categories, images, social media integration and more.

  • Social Media

    We take a look at your organization’s official social media accounts, quantity and quality of your followers, who you’re following and the likes and shares of recent posts. We define how your social presence impacts your website.

  • Competitor Website Analysis

    Comparing your site to those of your top competitors is a great way to walk in the shoes of your customers and prospects. When they’re researching their options, how does their experience on your site compare to that of other players in the field? Again, based on your specific situation, we tailor this analysis for your particular needs. It may be focused more on technical and SEO aspects, or it might require a stronger emphasis on design, functionality or messaging. Or perhaps all of the above.

What does a website audit deliverable look like?

You’ll receive a detailed report that definitively describes your site’s issues and provides comprehensive recommendations to resolve them.

How to get started

When you’re ready to talk about your website audit goals, we’re ready to listen. A candid conversation with Responsory’s digital marketing pros about your pain points is a great place to begin. We’ll discuss your website audit goals and prepare an estimate for you. Typically, a website audit will take 6 to 8 weeks to complete and require a budget that depends on the size and condition of the site.

What will be expected of you

When you engage Responsory for a comprehensive website audit, we will ask you to help us collect the following information:

  • View-only access to your traffic analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, is required

  • Access to your website’s content management system (CMS) is helpful

  • List of key performance indicators for website success and each KPI’s response mechanism

  • List of up to 3 competitor website URLs

  • Description of current and recent past traffic-driving activities: email, paid search, display advertising, social media and offline efforts like direct mail, etc.

  • List of landing page URLs used as part of your marketing activities and description of how they’re being used

  • Documentation related to website marketing plans, audits, performance reports, etc.

  • Target audience profiles/personas (the demographics of the ideal web visitor)

If there are items on this list that you don’t have due to technical or resource issues, don’t fret. When you work with a partner like Responsory, a customized audit can include the development of these essential components. They can be built into the final deliverable!

Ready, Set, Audit!

Are you ready to increase traffic, improve engagement and raise conversion rates for your website? We’re ready to help. Give us a call today.