L'website audit is a key yet underestimated step in the process of developing and optimizing any existing website. Before committing to any changes or improvements, it's essential to carry out a full audit to assess the site's current state. This analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses in areas such as SEOA website audit covers a wide range of aspects, from design and ergonomics to marketing and conversion rates, as well as security aspects. By providing an in-depth understanding of these elements, a website audit serves as the foundation for developing an effective strategy that will improve overall performance, user engagement and site security.
What is a website audit?
A website audit is essentially an analysis and evaluation of a website's SEO factors, usability (user experience), conversion rate performance and security. The value of a website audit is that it will help you find and prioritize the gaps that need to be addressed.
What should a website audit include?
The website audit should include an analysis of four key areas:
- Referencing factors
- Design and user-friendliness
- Marketing and conversion rates
- Safety factors
Referencing factors
SEO factors are the technical, off-page and on-page factors that will influence the website's ranking in search results.
In practice, this involves examining the structure to find the correct hierarchy and tags, scanning internal and external links for any off-page issues, and finally examining your on-page content to ensure it's fully optimized for your target keywords.
On-page auditing is a mixture of objective and subjective assessments. While checking content for plagiarism, for example, can be an objective assessment, evaluating the quality and usefulness of content is subjective and requires a trained eye to get the auditing process right.
Design and user-friendliness
As a web designer, design and usability issues will probably be the easiest to examine. This will cover issues relating to how well or poorly the website's functionality works, and how intuitively it can be used. It will also examine whether the brand and website design are consistent with the brand's visual identity.
Marketing and conversion rates
Websites are generally designed to produce financial results for our customers, not just to look good. So we'll need to look at them from that angle too. Marketing performance can be analyzed by browsing the website's content, to see if it serves the reader and generates conversions.
Safety factors
Finally, there are some general security factors you may wish to consider when auditing your website. These include checking whether suitable security plugins have been installed, whether an SSL certificate is being used correctly, and whether there are any other security issues to be resolved on the website, such as a lack of backups.
Why conduct a website audit?
There are four main reasons to audit a website:
- Increase traffic
- Reduce usability problems
- Increase conversion rates
- Improving safety
Increase traffic
Naturally, resolving any technical SEO issues, both on-page and off-page, will help you benefit from higher search rankings and more consistent organic traffic. Often, simple but important fixes to websites can dramatically improve their organic search rankings.
Reduce usability problems
As web designers, we know that usability and intuitive navigation are key objectives. By identifying and resolving usability issues, you'll improve the overall user experience.
Increase conversion rates
After examining your conversion rate, you can make changes to forms, content and user flow to increase their conversion rate. This can include simple modifications, such as making sure a form is correctly formatted, or more complex tasks, such as reducing the exit rate on a key page, reviewing the purchase tunnel...
Improve website security
There is a security risk on sites that live without maintenance. Once you've carried out a proper security audit, you can lock out many of the traps that can lead to spam and other malicious attacks.
How to carry out a technical SEO audit?
The technical audit includes the steps below. Here's a technical SEO audit checklist to get you started:
- Use an audit tool for a quick first pass
- Look for useless and low-quality pages
- Analyze backlink profile
- Check that the website is mobile-optimized and responsive
- View site map
- Check internal links for broken links and structure
- Check Google Search Console
- Check site speed to identify opportunities for improvement
Note that the technical audit does not include keyword-related analysis or keyword performance, which may be part of a more holistic SEO audit checklist.
Use an audit tool for a quick first pass
Fortunately, there are many options for SEO auditing tools. What we're looking for here is to detect quick wins without the need for manual inspection. So it makes sense to use an SEO tool. Tools such as SEMRush or Screaming Frog are perfectly suited to this task.
Search for useless and low-quality pages
Low-quality, content-poor pages should be avoided, as they are detrimental to the crawl budget. This corresponds to the time spent by search engine spiders crawling your site.
Another option here is to test the removal and redirection of certain pages and see how this affects the overall indexing of your site.
With your auditing tool, you should have a list of all the thin, low-quality content pages you can list and potentially remove from indexing. Some of these can also be removed entirely, as they are "zombie" or useless pages in general.
An example of this type of page could be tag pages, unfilled category pages or other pages with light content but which are indexed.
Analyze backlink profile
The backlink profile is also an area where SEO improvements can be made. Google says,
"...if you think you're about to suffer such manual action (due to paid links or other linking schemes that violate our quality guidelines), you should try to remove the other site's links to your site. If you can't remove these links yourself, or have them removed, then you should disavow the URLs of questionable pages or domains linking to your website."
Using a tool with backlink analysis functionality, you can find out which dubious sites are linking to your site. These may be spam or low-quality websites that reduce overall domain authority and may be labeled as toxic or subject to removal by your auditing tool. Each of these would be an opportunity for improvement that you can add to your action plan.
You could also look in your report for backlinks pointing to your website that lead to broken pages, also known as 404s. Keeping these broken pages will result in a poor user experience that will affect your SEO.
Check that the website is mobile-optimized and responsive
This point is essential, and it's always surprising to see that some websites aren't properly responsive on mobile versions.
To get a quick preview of your mobile version, you can right-click > inspect and use the device settings on your web browser to check. More simply, you can browse the site on a smartphone and see if the various elements are displayed correctly and if navigation is fluid.
View site map
A sitemap is a quick way for Google to understand which pages are on your website by clearly presenting the site architecture and links. What we're looking for here is for it to be easy to find, and to correctly profile all the pages on the site.
Most websites use a plugin, such as Yoast SEO on WordPress. Search the sitemap and check that there's only one sitemap, if multiple SEO plugins are installed and the sitemap has listed the website's pages, articles, categories.
Check internal links
There are two things you'll be looking for in internal links: link structure and broken links. Having the right internal link structure can help Google and the search engines to more accurately understand the importance and categorization of your pages. Link structure refers to the way your pages are brought together, which pages are visibly linked, and the location and categories used.
You should be able to get an idea of the overall structure by browsing the pages and navigating to certain sections of the website or using Screaming Frog.
The next thing you need to check is broken internal links. This is also a problem from a usability point of view, but it's also generally bad from an SEO point of view. You run the risk of directing users to broken links, which will encourage them to leave the site.
You can quickly detect 404 urls with ScreamingFrog software. Other tools will help you identify broken links, such as Google Search Console.
Check Google Search Console
For those who probably don't know, Google Search Console is the "mother ship". It's the main place to analyze and understand how Google is currently indexing your website, and if there are any problems associated with this.
An example of a problem might be that, although many pages are indexed, other pages encounter problems and are not retrieved by Google.
Here are a few things to look for.
- Sitemap
- Manual actions
- Safety issues
- Performance report
Firstly, sitemaps are the easiest to check. Go to the Sitemap section of Google Search Console and check that the sitemap has been submitted. If there are no recent submissions up to date, this is a great opportunity to get a very simple nudge from Google by making sure every page has been submitted. Next, take a look at the manual action section to check that there are no pending issues. Here, Google will list any issues, such as penalties for obtaining bad links, that need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
Also take a look at the security issues section for the same thing. If there's spam on the website, it will be indicated in red.
Finally, take a look at the performance report tab. Here you'll be able to see if there are any major problems linked to sudden changes in ranking position or a significant drop in clicks or impressions.
If you find any, you'll probably have to go through the list above to see if it's due to another problem on the website.
Check site speed for improvement opportunities
The next step is one of the most frustrating aspects of any website improvement project: loading speed. Access Google's PageSpeed Insights tool and run a check for both desktop and mobile.
Make a note of the overall scores here, as you'll want to keep them later when you improve the site's page speed. Now you'll need to try and diagnose in a little more detail what might be slowing down the website. For this, you can use Pingdom's Website Page Speed Test to get a more comprehensive report on what can be optimized.
If you find any glaring problems here that need correcting, you can add them to your list of improvement opportunities.
How do you audit a website's design?
To analyze website design and user experience, here's a list of elements you'll need to examine.
Check for the latest website design update
- Check visual consistency
- Checking UX signals in Google Analytics
- Check responsiveness
- Verify user behavior analyses
- Check forms and purchase tunnel
Check when the website design was last updated
This is a fairly simple thing to check. Knowing when the website was last updated, say two years ago, will help you gain an insight into any design changes that may have occurred since then. Even sites that are only a few years old will start to look obsolete pretty quickly, so it makes sense to check when they were last updated.
Check visual consistency
If you have a well-developed brand with a visual identity, you need a graphic charter that lists the UI (User interface) and UX (User experience) elements to be integrated. This will enable you to check the consistency of your site with your graphic charter.
Inconsistencies between the brand identity and the site can give an unprofessional appearance that doesn't reassure the user.
Here are some common areas where design can be inconsistent.
- Unsuitable and non-uniform font sizes
- Block spacing too large
- The wrong favicon for the website
Checking UX signals in Google Analytics
Now that you've checked the visual design, you can move on to analyzing user behavior data.
With access to Google Analytics 4, you can now look at all the main pages of the website and search for key UX signals. Here are just a few examples:
- Commitment rate
- Average length of commitment
- Number of conversions
- Add to cart rate
- Income generated
- Objectives achieved
If your website has many pages, limit your analysis to the first 10 to 50 pages in terms of importance and traffic.
Generally speaking, a low engagement rate will tell you either that the traffic isn't aligned with your target, or that the content of the page itself isn't useful to the surfer.
Check compatibility on mobile devices
Although it seems less of a problem these days, it's still worth checking that the site design is responsive. This can be particularly problematic for tablets, due to the specific display formats.
A site that isn't responsive can pose a problem if it's consulted by many users browsing on mobile and tablet devices, which is usually the case, and you notice that the UX indicators aren't good. This could indicate that you need to check that the site works well on all device types.
Checking user behavior
This is a very interesting analysis that most readers should be familiar with. Behavioral analysis tools, such as Hotjar or Clarity, help you detect whether there are any faulty features or user frustrations.
Analysis elements include :
- Screen recordings (if available)
- Heat maps
- Click zones
What you're looking for here is to find areas for improvement in the user journey or experience. Add them to your list of optimizations.
As this analysis can be time-consuming, you can start with the key pages of your site, or those that are most strategic for your online business.
Check forms and conversion tunnel
These are particularly important elements to test. Make sure that all forms work on a website as intended. It would be a shame if an important form didn't work and opportunities were lost. For an e-commerce site, this concerns the steps from adding to the shopping cart through to order confirmation.
This includes:
- Newsletter subscription (usually in the footer)
- The purchase tunnel, and more specifically the payment process
- Quote requests and contact forms
- The confirmation page when the expected action is completed
How to carry out a website marketing audit?
What you're looking for here are opportunities to increase the number of people who carry out the desired action: call, contact form, quote request, order...
Here are a few points to analyze:
- On-page SEO optimizations
- Goal tracking with Google Analytics
- Click-through rate
- Examine key user paths
Check on-page SEO
On-page SEO can significantly improve your ranking in search results. Check that critical website pages, such as those with high traffic or traffic potential, are properly optimized.
Here are the on-page SEO elements to check:
- H1, H2, H3, etc. correctly used
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- Content length
- The user's intention is satisfied
You can use Surfer SEO to perform a content audit on your most key pages. This tool analyzes Google's top results for density, keyword length, etc. for their on-page SEO factors.
Note that the content audit will use part of your Surfer SEO allocation to perform the audit, so you may wish to do it only on certain key pages.
After the audit, add major optimizations such as length and general optimization of meta titles, etc. to your action list.
Check click-through rates
Click-through rates are a good starting point for analyzing the effectiveness of a page. There are two subjects for which you should check click-through rates.
The first concerns click-through rates on the first pages of Google Search Console. This will help you determine whether you can improve your SEO, by encouraging more people to click on your pages.
The next concerns the actual click-through rates on your key pages. These can be :
- Home page
- Product pages
- Pricing page
- Blog posts
- Contact page
- Other important pages
Analyzing click-through rates on these pages will help you get an idea of the overall effectiveness of your site once a user is on it.
You can also view your purchase tunnel data on Google Analytics 4. Analyze the abandonment rate on key pages and consider whether or not you can improve them by modifying the design or information on these pages. For this type of problem, you'll probably be looking for concerns related to reassurance elements or clarity in the checkout process.
Examine key user paths
Now that you've analyzed goal tracking and click-through rates, you can examine the journey from the visitor's point of view. Choose a few key user paths, such as requesting a quote or placing an online order, and observe the user journey.
This can raise interesting points where improvements can be made to increase conversions. You can use Chris Goward's LIFT model.
The LIFT model explains that there are 5 elements of conversion optimization:
- Relevance
- Clarity
- Distraction
- Anxiety
- Emergency
You can improve conversion by increasing the relevance and clarity of the page or process. Similarly, you can improve the process by reducing user distraction and anxiety. Finally, you can generate more conversions by increasing urgency.
You may want to limit your analysis here to a few user journeys and a few hours each. You can then note any observations for improvement in your action plan.
How to carry out a website security audit?
Security is a major issue for all showcase and e-commerce sites.
Here are the basic points to check for your security audit:
- Security plugins
- SSL and non-secure elements
- Unknown users
- Obsolete plugins
- Backups
Security plugins for WordPress
Security plugins are the backbone of WordPress security. Once installed, they will offer a range of tools designed to close any security loopholes in a typical WordPress website. Check that the website is actually using a security plugin in the first place.
If you are able to modify the website for auditing purposes, you may consider installing a tool such as Defender Security or Wordfence to run initial security scans on the website and view the results.
Both applications will give you a fairly comprehensive report, providing you with a very good overview of any problems on the site. For example, it can uncover malicious files, openings for code injections and spambot visitors. As far as e-commerce sites are concerned, security is even more of an issue to which attention must be paid.
SSL and non-secure elements
Make sure your site has an SSL certificate and that there are no unsecured elements on the website.
SSL and secure elements will help ensure that information transferred between the website and the user is secure and more difficult to collect or modify.
To do this, you can use JitBit's free SSL check, which is a free unsecured content scanner.
Unknown users
Malicious uses can be added to a website without the administrator's knowledge.
Check the website, especially if it's on WordPress, for any users the administrator might not recognize.
Obsolete plugins
Make sure that all plugins and modules are updated on time. On WordPress, for example, you can use the ManageWP tool, which automatically updates a site's plugins.
Site backups
Finally, check that your site has automated backups. Backups are essential for maintaining site security. You need to have instances of the website to which you can easily return before malicious actors or changes are made.
If the website has no backups, the webmaster runs the risk of having to completely rebuild the website, or of losing many newly added features and content if the last backup is too old.
Conclusion
We covered four different areas of a website audit, from the technical point of view for SEO, UX, marketing and finally security.
We hope this gives you a solid foundation from which to build your own website audit checklist.
If you'd like professional support, please contact Soledis!
