Website Review: A Roadmap for Improving Your Site
There are times when a web site review or site audit is a great resource for diagnosing whether or not your website is under performing.
The truth of the matter is that all websites can be improved, including mine.
But if you have major problems, they should be attended to as soon as possible. And you may have major problems and not even know it! But who to ask?
If you ask a web designer or developer — who did not build your site — what they think of your site, most are likely to say it’s just awful. Kind of like the new hairdresser who says, “Who has been cutting your hair?”
It’s not very helpful. Even worse, you can’t tell by just looking at a website whether it’s good or not.
I saw an example of a business that split-tested two different designs. One was clean and professional looking. The other was amateurish and cluttered. The cluttered site out-performed the clean one significantly.
That doesn’t mean I encourage sloppy, cluttered design. I don’t. But I do encourage keeping an open mind and tracking what works and what doesn’t.
If you want to improve your website, but don’t know where to start, find a web specialist to do a web site review or site audit.
When I do a website review, I cover how well a client does in these areas …
• SEO / Organic Search
• Quality of Page
• Design
• Content
• Formatting
• Navigation
• Usability
• Tracking
• Competition
• Trust Issues
• Social Media
• Capturing Leads
• Links Check
• Canonical Issues
There are other more technical issues that can also be addressed and, if necessary, I will go into those as well.
Usually, though, I focus on the basics with an initial review. That’s because a website doesn’t have to be “perfect” to sell. My initial focus is always to “move the needle” and get more sales for my client.
Please note, there are people who fill your in-boxes with “free web site review” notices. Skip those. You want to have a diagnostic that will give you real data in a written report. Some of that data you should be able to take action on immediately. Other items will be critical, but will take more time. You will have to prioritize according to your available resources.
Best of all, you won’t feel like you’re floundering. You will have a solid roadmap for improving your website. With that roadmap in hand, you can always be doing something to improve your site and move the needle upwards on your sales reports.
