It’s no secret that a website requires maintenance to keep it up to date and doing the job it was designed for, yet many of them are often left to their own devices by their owners who after a period of time begin to wonder why their website is no longer performing as well as it once did. Making a website live then forgetting about it isn’t an option if you want to remain competitive: websites need periodic reviews to identify the areas that require attention and a website audit will do just that.

Most if not all web design companies offer a website auditing service, and amongst the areas under scrutiny will be copy, graphics, keywords, usability and calls to action, and even if you think your website is doing ok, an audit might still identify areas where tweaks and improvements could be made.

Old and outdated copy is one of the main offenders but probably the quickest and easiest one to remedy. New content added even on a semi-regular basis plus keywords and search phrases in the right proportions will be enough to keep the search engines happy.

Surprisingly, graphics, despite being an important element are often overlooked even though they will be the first thing that a visitor’s eyes will land on when they enter a website. Images should relate to products or services, but many businesses that change or diversify over time fail to update their website images accordingly; something which also makes a website look rather jaded.

The vast choice of businesses on the web means that good usability is a must if you want to keep visitors on your site because any difficulties regarding finding information or navigating the site itself will see them leave and look elsewhere.

Strong and compelling calls to action should drive visitors to the final stage of the buying process – the checkout – and if your calls to action aren’t doing this to at least an acceptable level then it’s time to review them and make some changes.

A website audit will actually cover far more than has been mentioned here and probably throw up some eye-opening results into the bargain. Whatever problems are found can all be put right but the best way to avoid them stacking up anyway is to have your website audited about once every six months.

Until next time.

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