Be Audit You Can Be

What is the importance of an audit? More importantly, what is the difference between a content audit and a site audit, and how do they directly impact your website? Audits are particularly important to increase and enhance your user experience, in the end, that is what it is all about right? Whether you are doing a content or site audit, both aim to increase your visibility in search engines, and to find ways to enhance and help you learn about all the unique things that make up your website. Audits are crucial, whether you’re a small or enterprise business, to grow your website’s online presence.

How do you know which audit you should do? Which one is more important and what are the differences between each? Ideally, you would want to do both audits, however, we know this is quite costly and time-consuming to tackle both. That being said, you will want to invest the time in doing one of them, and we suggest beginning with the full site audit.

Content Audit

A content audit is the foundation of content strategy. Without enticing, quality content, you lose the interest of your target audience. A content audit aims to review what your website has in its library. Reviewing the quality and effectiveness of the content and how it aligns with your business’s message and goals, is what it is all about.

The purpose of a content audit is to provide metrics to determine which content pieces correspond to the stages in the go-to-market process. When you do a content audit, you learn valuable information about your target audience and your messaging. What is working, what’s not, where there are duplications of content, your audience personas, and ultimately understanding the effectiveness of your content. With this, you will be able to spot gaps and weak areas, so that you can repurpose existing content, and archive or remove irrelevant pieces so that your content can align with your messaging. This audit is also invaluable when you are planning to upgrade your site. Knowing what content to migrate and what not to, will save you time and money!

With effective content, you can increase engagement in your business. Having the wealth of information a content audit supplies gives your marketing team the keys to driving more leads, traffic, and revenue. All through powerful, quality content.

Site Audit

Knowing the ins and outs of what’s working together and what needs enhancing in your website, is crucial for all user experiences. A site audit will put together a full analysis of what your site is comprised of, giving a better understanding of how your site can be improved. Doing a site audit is one of the most powerful activities you can do to increase user experience, generate higher visibility, as well as understand and then fill the gaps on your site. It is incredibly important for your Search Engine Optimization and any potential website upgrade projects as well.

You may notice that there are many services that offer a free website analysis. While we all think free is better, in this instance, this is not the case. A free online analysis will only get you a basic level report that typically provides little to no value, only truly scraping the surface of your site. Take the time to work with a qualified web development agency, that will help you put together a full report card while walking you through all areas of your site’s performance.

With your report card, a development agency can work with you to pinpoint aches and pains for your website, putting together a strategic plan for improvement. A site audit ultimately identifies problems with a website’s architecture. This process includes:

• User Engagement
• User experience
• Traffic
• Functionality
• Site Health
• Security
• Website Performance

If you are aiming to increase your website’s performance and learn about the key functionality of your website, doing a full site audit will give you the information needed to enhance, improve and stay secure.

Which One Should I Do?

To be perfectly honest, once you have invested in building a website, doing a site and content audit should be a priority. Deciding which one to do first and put as a priority is key, knowing when to do an in-house audit and when to outsource to a development agency will be crucial in gaining valuable information.

Do you need to do a content audit? If your website is primarily content-focused, you should have your marketers invest time in conducting a full audit. A content audit can be done in-house by your marketing team, and although it can be time-consuming, it is beneficial to your online presence. Taking the time to learn more about your target audience buyers’ personas, buying stages, and user experiences will directly affect your future marketing strategy.

What about a site audit? To be blunt, if you have a website, regardless of the focus, you should invest in a full site audit. Outsourcing a site audit to a development agency will provide you with a valuable, in-depth report. A development agency, will help you increase your website’s performance, walk you through the areas of your site that need improvements, as well as make recommendations on what features can be implemented or improved to strengthen your website.

Conclusion

Nothing is more important than protecting the investment in your website. Keeping it up to date and current cannot be achieved if you don’t understand the inner workings of your site. A full site audit will assist you in pushing your website to perform and function to the best of its ability for you and your business. Following up with a Content audit is also a great decision. You will want your SEO rankings to be as high as possible while ensuring your messaging is targeting the right audiences.