As your website grows and technology evolves, it’s essential to keep it in top shape.
If you neglect your site, it can slow down, lose rankings in search engines, or worse – become vulnerable to security breaches. Conducting yearly website audits will help you avoid these pitfalls and ensure your website performs at its best.
Let’s walk through a detailed list of website audits you should perform every year to keep your site healthy, secure, and user-friendly.
SEO audit
Your website might be filled with brilliant content, but if search engines can’t find or properly index it, your audience won’t either. An SEO audit ensures that your site is fully optimised to rank well on search engines.
Start with a keyword analysis. Are the keywords you’re targeting still relevant? Keyword trends can shift, so you want to make sure you’re ranking for terms your audience is actually searching for. Make sure your meta titles, descriptions, headers, and image alt tags are updated with those keywords.
Backlink audit
A backlink audit is a crucial part of your annual website maintenance that can significantly impact your search engine rankings. Backlinks, or inbound links from other sites to yours, are a key factor in how search engines determine your website’s authority.
However, not all backlinks are created equal—high-quality, authoritative links boost your SEO, while low-quality or spammy links can harm your rankings.
During a backlink audit, you’ll assess the quality of the websites linking to yours, identify any toxic or irrelevant links, and disavow harmful ones to protect your site’s reputation.
Regularly performing this audit ensures that your backlink profile remains healthy and contributes positively to your SEO performance.
Related read: Backlink Audit Services
User experience (UX) audit
It’s one thing to get people to your website, but how easy is it for them to find what they need once they’re there? A User Experience (UX) audit helps you evaluate how people interact with your site.
- Start with navigation. Test whether users can easily move through your pages without getting lost. Check your site’s mobile optimisation as well. With mobile devices accounting for more than 50% of global web traffic, a mobile-friendly site is non-negotiable.
- Another critical factor is your website’s page load speed. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix speed issues.
- Make sure your website is accessible to all users. Perform an accessibility audit to ensure you comply with standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), so users with disabilities can navigate your site easily.
Content audit
A content audit is essential for making sure your website’s information stays accurate, relevant, and engaging. Go through your pages and check for outdated content that needs updating or removing.
Think about your audience: is your content still meeting their needs? Is it easy to read? Tools like Hemingway or Grammarly can help you refine readability and keep your writing clear.
During the audit, look for content gaps—areas where you could provide more information. Adding blog posts or resource pages based on these gaps will not only serve your audience better but can also boost your SEO efforts.
Don’t forget to check your internal linking. Links should flow logically from one page to another, guiding users and helping search engines crawl your site more effectively.
Performance audit
How fast your website loads and how smoothly it runs can make or break the user experience. A performance audit helps you identify any bottlenecks slowing your site down.
First, run tests to measure your site’s speed using tools like Google PageSpeed or GTMetrix. Page load time is crucial; even a one-second delay can result in a 7% reduction in conversions, which translates to lost sales or leads.
Review your hosting provider’s performance too. If your site experiences frequent downtimes or slow response times, it might be time to switch to a more reliable host. You should also check that browser caching and image compression are enabled to help improve load times.
Security audit
With cyber threats on the rise, performing a security audit is crucial to protect your site and user data. In the UK alone, cybercrime cost businesses £30 billion in the year 2003.
The easiest step is to ensure your SSL certificate is up to date, securing your site for both users and search engines.
Run vulnerability scans to detect any weaknesses that hackers could exploit, such as outdated plugins or software. Make sure your site’s backup systems are in place and functional, so if the worst happens, you can quickly restore your site to a secure version.
Analytics & tracking audit
Your website’s performance isn’t just about how fast it loads – it’s about how well it’s meeting your business goals. An analytics and tracking audit helps you ensure that you’re collecting the right data to measure your success.
Start by reviewing your Google Analytics setup. Are you tracking all the right events and conversions? Check that your tracking codes are properly installed on all pages and ensure your goals and funnels are set up to measure critical KPIs.
You should also look into user behaviour tools like Hotjar, which can provide heatmaps and user flow data. This will give you insight into how users navigate your site, where they drop off, and how you can improve conversions.
Compliance and legal audit
It’s vital to ensure that your website complies with privacy regulations and other legal standards. In the UK, failure to comply with data protection laws such as GDPR can result in hefty fines.
Check your privacy policy and terms of service to ensure they’re up to date with current regulations. Your site should also have a clear cookie consent mechanism in place, allowing users to opt in or out of data tracking as required by law.
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) audit
Every website aims to convert visitors, whether it’s getting them to sign up for a newsletter, make a purchase, or fill out a contact form. A Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) audit helps you identify and fix elements that may be holding users back from converting.
Run A/B tests to compare different versions of key pages, such as your homepage, landing pages, or checkout process. Even small tweaks, like changing the colour of a CTA button, can significantly impact conversions. Additionally, analyse your form usability—are your forms easy to fill out, and do they work properly on mobile?
Social media integration audit
If you have a presence on social media, a social media integration audit ensures that your website and social channels are working hand-in-hand. Check that social sharing buttons are functional and positioned on key pages.
Also, verify that your Open Graph tags are set up correctly so that your content displays properly when shared on social media platforms. Ensuring these details are correct will make your content more shareable, helping to drive traffic from your social channels.
Don’t forget about competitor analysis
Finally, a competitor analysis audit helps you keep an eye on what others in your industry are doing. Compare your site’s performance, content strategy, and SEO rankings to those of your competitors.
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Did You Know? 81% of consumers research online before making a purchase. Analysing what your competitors are doing can give you ideas for improving your site and gaining a competitive edge.
By conducting these website audits every year, you’ll stay ahead of potential issues, boost your search engine rankings, and keep your users happy.
