Is your website underperforming? If so, it could be for a variety of reasons. Over the past few years, through our website design business, we’ve been conducting website audits. Through this experience, we’ve compiled a very useful 40-point website audit checklist.
Take a quiet moment to read through this checklist. Grab a pen and write down the areas of your website that need improving.
Website Design
1. Is your website’s navigation menu easy to use?
2. Are your site’s colors, typography and fonts easy to read?
3. Are your website’s images clear and crisp?
4. Is the overall message and feel of your website consistent with your company’s brand?
5. Have you updated your website within the last five years? (if not, it’s likely you need a re-design)
Website Content
6. Is your Unique Value Proposition (how your solution solves a prospect’s problem) displayed “above the fold”?
7. Do you have effective CTA’s (Calls to Action) on every appropriate page that lead your visitors to a desired action?
8. Does your website broadcast an emotionally congruent message between the optics and feel of the site and the emo-connection of the service and personality of the business owner and staff? (Is the “Why” (purpose, cause, belief) of your business almost silent, contrary to the tenets of creating meaningful customer connections).
9. Have you clearly defined the goal for each page of your website?
10. Is it possible for visitors easily see testimonials from current clients?
11. Does a big block of text greet visitors when they land on your website? (Hint: nobody is reading it)
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Website Purpose and Intent
12. Have you created and use a “blueprint” of how your site will achieve your business goals?
13. Have you clearly defined who your website is designed to attract?
14. How will you collect interested visitors information?
15. Do you have an opt-in form strategically placed to collect subscribers?
16. Does your website answer prospect’s questions without much effort on their part (such as a FAQ page or Blog)?
Website UX/Customer Experience
17. Does your site offer a “frictionless” experience for visitors (Do you make it as easy as possible for them to find the info they’re looking for and/or easily find the pathway to purchase or contact you?).
18. Have you tested your website’s Usability to ferret out problems (friction) and improve customer experience?
19. Do you (yes, you yourself) regularly review your site for user satisfaction?
20. Are your landing pages capturing your visitor’s attention and performing as expected?
Website Lead Generation
21. Is your website currently generating leads? If not, why not?
22. What traffic sources are producing the best results?
23. How will you direct visitors and/or interested buyers to your website?
24. Have you created multiple pathways for visitors to take the next step (subscribe, download, get more info, buy)?
25. Do you regularly review Bounce Rate, Top Pages and Conversion Rates?
26. What KPI’s will you track to know that your efforts are successful?
27. What is your follow up process once someone has displayed a certain level of interest?
28. What is your process for after they’ve purchased?
Website Performance
29. Is your site Responsive? (does it perform well on all devices?)
30. Have you added Google Analytics to your website (and review it regularly)?
31. What is your website’s current load time?
32. Have you installed a cacheing plugin to mitigate slow website speed?
33. Have you reviewed your images for size (which effects load times)?
34. Do you have any broken links on your website (and made moves to fix them)?
Website Security and Backups
35. Is your site on Shared Hosting or VPS (virtual private server)?
36. Is your website backed up daily? (in case it’s hacked or it crashes)
37. Are you choosing strong user names and passwords?
38. Do you regularly review Users and remove any that are not appropriate anymore?
39. Do you have anti-spam protocol in place?
40. Have you installed a solid SEO performance tool?
Your Next Steps…
What did you find as you went through this checklist? Are you up for the challenge of taking action on the points you realized need attention?
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