Audit Your Own Website

Coronavirus has now certainly made an impact on everyone’s lives. But with businesses reopening and everyone heading back to work, you need to once again find your customers.

Now is the perfect time to take a closer look at the functionality, design, usability and relevance of your website, and see where you could make some improvements.

Perform A Content Audit

When was the last time you read through the content on your site? Does it still reflect the company’s mission? Does it still attract the right target audience? Are there any facts that are incorrect or figures that need updating?

In addition to this, is your company contact information still correct? Much can happen over the past year such as new business premises, different or additional phone numbers, or even adding/removing employee profiles from the Team page.

If you have a blog, be sure to review any old posts to ensure the information you have written about is still industry correct for today and not a few years ago. Keep adding new posts, even if it is once a month.

Finally, be sure to add some fresh and new content to your website. Add some new photos of your business, employees and latest projects. You may also wish to get a few new testimonials from some of your more recent clients.

Check Your Links

Make sure any links used on your website still work and don’t go to the dreaded 404 page. A broken link may occur if you delete the page it was linking to or if it is an external link, this page could’ve been deleted or moved.

It is important these are checked regularly, otherwise you could be downgraded by Google if there are broken links in your website and it’ll annoy your website visitors.

Site Navigation and Structure

Remember that not everyone who visits your website knows what you do. Therefore, potential customers need to know about you straight away. While you might think this means throwing everything onto the Home page, having a long scrolling page with tons of information on could actually cause the reverse affect and scare your customers away.

Providing easy, simple navigation with relevant page titles is all you need. Ensure your audience know where to look. Is your navigation menu informative? Are the links easily accessible? Does your menu contain secondary items that can be relegated to the footer area (Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions etc)?

Ask friends and family to evaluate your website for you. Ask them to do a specific task such as send a contact form submission, order a particular item from your shop, or find a specific sentence. From the results, you can ask does the existing navigation and site structure make it easy to find what you’re looking for? Can anything be changed to make this experience more user friendly?

Review Your Website Goals

Are your call-to-action buttons still relevant? Examples of call-to-actions include “Buy Now”, “Learn More” and “Download Now”. Are they placed where visitors can easily see them?

Test On All Browsers and Devices

Does your website still work in all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)? Does it still work on tablets and mobiles? More than half of users visit a website on their phones now, so does everything work as it should?

Are You Reaching Your Target Audience?

Are you struggling with sales/conversions? Perhaps you’re not attracting the right audience. Your website traffic is being tracked by Google Analytics. Furthermore, you can use it to see what journey your audience goes on through you website, what pages they visit, how many pages they visit, and which pages have the most conversions compared to drop-offs.

If you notice a high bounce rate (higher than 50%), it means something is wrong with the page/website. A bounce is when a user lands on a page then exits without moving to another page.

What Are Your Competitors Doing?

What have your competitors been up to? Are they doing something new with their website that appears to be working? Is their site more responsive than yours?

If you’ve got some ideas, or just need some advice to help boost your business in 2020, feel free to drop us a message.