Look for These 5 Red Flags in a Website Audit
A website audit is a diagnostic tool that is used to measure the performance of a website. It looks for critical errors that exist on your website, as well as potential areas of improvement in regards to web development and search engine optimization (SEO).
In any case, if you don’t know how to read a website audit, then your website will never improve. Particularly, there are five main red flags you should pay attention to in a website audit.
In this article, you’re going to learn about these red flags in a website audit and how you should navigate these difficulties.
1. Bounce Rate
We mention bounce rate a lot in this blog, mainly because it’s one of the most important web metrics to look at. Bounce rate inexplicably tells you how your website is performing.
It’s simply defined as the rate in which a person leaves or “bounces” on your website without clicking on anything. If a person visits your website and leaves like this, then it’s never a good sign.
Here is a helpful image demonstrating how your bounce rate should look:
As you can see, you should strive to keep your bounce rate below 50%. This way, you’ll keep more web visitors on your website and potentially improve your conversion rate.
2. Website Traffic
Understanding how many people visit your website is not only a confidence booster, but it can also help you determine the next best course of action regarding your marketing strategy.
All website traffic isn’t ideal. For example, if your website is attracting a lot of web traffic and your conversion rate is too low, then you have a problem. Website traffic means absolutely nothing if no one is converting on your site.
3. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is a direct indicator of how profitable your website is. The more conversions your website has, the higher your business’ sales potential will be. A website audit displays your conversion rate and provides insight into how you can improve it.
An acceptable conversion rate is above 10%. Most successful businesses average more than 10%. To stay afloat in your industry, having a higher conversion rate than your competitors is key.
4. Page Errors
Page errors are not only embarrassing, but they’re also damaging to your website. What do you think will happen if someone is about to convert on your website and they see something like this:
They most likely are going to leave your website and never come back again. Unfortunately, page errors can go unnoticed for a while. There’s no telling how much business you’ve already lost if you spot one.
A website audit can help developers identify pages that have been moved to eliminate 404 and other page errors.
5. Broken Links
Internal links are important for two main reasons. For one, they aid the website user. Users can access internal links to travel to relevant web pages much faster than using the navigation bar.
Internal links are also important for search engine bots. These robots travel throughout your website via internal links. When there is a broken link on your website, you’re not only hindering potential customers, but you’re also preventing search bots from indexing your web pages.
A website audit can pinpoint broken links and ensure that you have a cohesive site architecture for SEO purposes.
Featured photo by luis gomes from Pexels
