I am a small business owner, so I know first hand how busy it can be trying to grow a business and the ball often gets dropped on tasks that seem less important. Believe me I get it! But… with the Christmas rush over and the start of New Year upon us, it’s the perfect time to run through a website audit checklist. In an ideal world you should really do these checks monthly but who lives in an ideal world, right?
Disclaimer – this checklist IS NOT a technical checklist (leave that to the experts – aka myself and the team)
This checklist is for business owners and managers. We’ve simplified it down, so you DO NOT need to be technical at all to understand it!
Firstly, why do you need to audit your website? If you want your customers to be able to find you and you want to ensure they have the best possible user experience, it’s important that you audit your website’s performance on a regular basis
The Website Audit Checklist
- Are your contact forms working?
Website forms can and often do stop working, so it’s important you check them on a regular basis. There could be a simple setting misconfiguration, or an email server conflict that you are unaware of. You could very easily be missing out on business if your forms are not working, so it’s an important function to check regularly. - Are your announcements up to date?
It’s a pet hate of mine when I visit a website to buy a product or book a service, and they have old announcements displayed, for example they still have their Christmas hours on display in July! It looks really unprofessional and like they just don’t care. Make sure your announcements are up to date and relevant. - Are your staff details correct?
Staff turnover is a reality, but it’s important that your website reflects your current team (and not Jane who worked for you over 2 years ago). Check your about page to make sure that only your current employees are visible and their role details are correct. - Are there any broken links?
Broken links can lead to a bad user experience, and not to mention poor SEO scores. You can easily check your links using the broken link tool from Ahrefs. When you find them, you can remove them or update them. - Check your domain, hosting, and SSL information and renewal dates
It’s likely you are paying for your hosting, SSL and domain either monthly or annually. They might renew automatically or need a manual online renewal. Despite how important these are for the day-to-day uptime of websites, you would be surprised to hear how many businesses have no idea where they can access these services, how much they are paying, or when the renewals are. If you do not know these details put this on your to do list today!
By ticking off the above points every January your website will remain relevant and up-to-date. Better still, if you have the time try to do a monthly website audit to ensure your customers are always getting the most relevant information.
If you need support with your website, would like a technical website audit, or would like to have a quick chat reach out today.
