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What's A Website Audit? Everything You Need To Know

September 6, 2020

Growing your brand’s website can be tough. After all, there are so many aspects packed into even the simplest site. A website is a sum of all of its parts-- from its conception down to its layout, all the way to content development, web design, and brand marketing.

Sometimes, it seems as though there are so many moving parts that small business owners end up feeling overwhelmed with keeping track of, maintaining, and improving their site, to the point where goals such as an increased online presence gets lost along the way. Thankfully, business owners don’t need to fend for themselves: all they need is a thorough and comprehensive website audit to get the right idea of where they are and what they should do next.

What Is A Website Audit?

Simply put, a website audit is a process that evaluates and analyzes a given website’s visibility on search engines, particularly on Google.

Website audits usually check your website’s status on the following criteria:

These are some of the many aspects that can be processed in an audit, each based on data and analytics your site has gathered over its course. These aspects are considered important factors by search engine algorithms for ranking your website.

Website audits rely on gathering data and analyzing them, which can take weeks, sometimes even months, for a good and thorough inference.

Why The Need For Website Auditing And Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

One of the key goals of a website is to be found; a site’s purpose is defeated if no one discovers, visits, or interacts with it.

Website traffic can come from many channels such as social media, video promotions, advertisements, and search engines. Search engines potentially bring in a huge amount of traffic, since, unlike most of the other channels, over a billion people use search engines with the purpose to find and discover. Getting your content at the very top of the first page of any search result could lead to many clicks, increased conversions, and, consequently, an uptick in your quarterly revenue. Since search engines are run by algorithms, the purpose of SEO is to make sure that your website has a high likelihood of getting your website to the top of the results of a given search term.

What Is The Expected Result Of A Website Audit?

A comprehensive report is given at the end of every audit. These reports contain data seen and weighed by search engines, and an estimated score of each aspect to help you gauge their quality. These reports not only contain numerical comparisons, but also give detailed lists of discrepancies and action items to help fix problem areas.

Can Business Owners Perform Their Own Website Audits With Automated Auditing Tools?

Many small businesses and startups have started considering automated auditing tools ever since they’ve begun circulating the digital market. Unfortunately, what you see is what you get with these tools, however, as most of them tend to give a simple general overview of your website’s grade in terms of online standards and not much else. What these tools lack are a better discernment of key figures (i.e. data instead of information) and firm grasp on what strategies to apply to the specific issues your website has.

At the end of the day, tools are just that: tools. The human behind the utility and the experience they have using it is what makes the tool effective and efficient, and this very concept is applicable to website auditing, as well. Professionals have a vastly more in depth level of experience with issues that may be blind spots to the algorithms of automated auditing tools, not to mention they often have access to more sophisticated tools that provide more actionable information for you and your business to build upon.

Need Expert SEO?

Have questions about maximizing your business’ online potential? We know, this sounds complicated. That’s why we make it easy. Our monthly SEO services are customized to fit the needs of you and your brand. Contact us today to find out how to get your website found.

The designers, brand consultants, and SEO specialists here at Carrboro Creative are committed to imparting business owners the tools and wisdom they need to ensure that their digital storefronts are of top-notch quality, both in design and functionality.

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