Are you struggling to gain traction in your online business? You’re not alone. Research shows that 90% of online businesses fail within the first four months of operation. Brick and mortar businesses hoping to earn qualified leads are also tasked with standing-out in a saturated digital marketplace. The good news is your online challenges are fixable with the right strategy, starting with a website audit.

What is a Website Audit?

A website audit takes a comprehensive approach to analyzing your website and its visibility in online search engines. An audit should give you deep insight into your website and your pages. The goal of a website audit is to maximize your success and improve your visibility, conversions, and marketing strategy.

There’s another essential piece to a pro website audit. It’s challenging to see the strengths and weaknesses in your own online business. Business owners are usually too close to their own website to make objective decisions without some outside input. Here are just some of the advantages of a website audit and how it can supercharge your business.

Master Your UX and UI

You’ve probably heard the buzz about User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). Fortunately, WordPress and Shopify templates come with these features baked into their free templates. But that just scratches the surface of what it takes to build and run a successful online business.

UX and UI need to work seamlessly together and interact with one another. Your buttons, links, and CTAs should be easy to find and navigate. But they should also help users navigate through the task at hand and find it comfortable and enjoyable. That takes more than just a pretty template but a strategic approach to collaboration.

Simplify Your Website

Less is often more when it comes to website design and interface. An online business with large photos, graphics, and colors may look gorgeous but could impair your site speed and load time. Your load time directly impacts your Google ranking. The longer a potential customer waits for your site to load, they will likely leave and go elsewhere. Research shows that people expect a website to load in just three seconds or less.

Fix Technical Issues

A website audit reveals valuable information about your technical issues. Duplicate title tags, broken links, multiple H1 tags, and missing image alt tags are just a few areas that a website audit reveals. A few technical issues won’t impair the success of your website, but an influx of combined problems could tank your organic traffic and conversions. A newer business may need a few minimal tweaks, but a long-standing website often has hundreds to thousands of technical issues to address.

Optimize Your SEO

It’s challenging to earn qualified, organic traffic without a rock-solid SEO strategy. Mastering your SEO is a long-game that requires consistency and careful research. A combination of keyword research, understanding search intent, and building up quality backlinks are some of the hallmarks of SEO best practices. But here’s the more significant challenge with SEO. Google’s algorithms change constantly, and industry standards evolve. You need an expert approach to a website audit and viable solutions to make SEO work for you.

Want to see an example of a successful SEO strategy in action? Read more: Xtreme Heaters SEO Case Study: Taking a Seasonal Product with Little Traffic to #1 In Google.

Study Your Competitors

Your competitors offer valuable information on what’s working and what’s not in the online world. Studying your competition’s keyword strategy, UX, UI, and overall site design will clue you into new ways to attract and convert an audience. You’ll need some third-party tools to help glean the insights you’re looking for and a well-trained eye focused on online business. Of course, the goal here isn’t to mimic what your competitors are doing but gather inspiration for how to improve your site.

Increase Your Conversions

The end goal of a website audit is to increase your conversions. An online business without a plan to attract customers and scale isn’t a business. You’re really just an online presence hoping someone will stop by. There is a caveat. A simple online presence is fine if you already have a large following through another channel like Instagram and need a place to send your audience for info.

But if you’re going to be online and want to make more sales, you need a strategy to get there. Commit to dominating your corner of your market share and digital space.

Final Thoughts

A wildly successful online business is possible but requires nurturing and a consistent, proven strategy to gain traction. Ready to speak to the team at Digital Nomad Designs about your online business goals? Book a complimentary call here for questions or to discuss a website audit for your business.