Around 88% of purchasers research online prior to making a purchase yet honing your website visibility can be challenging indeed, considering the fact that there have been up to 70 known Google algorithm updates since 2003 and the value of ranking factors is in constant flux. You may have honed the vitals of good website design — including cracking content, visuals, and keywords, but regularly auditing and updating your site is key if you are to ensure continued visibility. From CMS platform and plugin updates to secure storage and goal conversion tracking and optimization, there are many ways to maintain and improve the success of your site. Read on to ensure you tick all the boxes.
Updating Your CMS Platform and Plugins
CMS platforms ranging from WordPress to Joomla! release updates constantly to tighten security, enhance current features, and eliminate bugs. Make sure all your platforms and plugins are updated to reduce security risks, preserve the integrity of your data, and ensure the continual functionality of your site. Prior to updating, make a backup and hire professionals who are trained to address issues as they arise. Updating plugins, meanwhile, will help eliminate vulnerabilities and strengthen them against attacks.
Creating a Website Archive
Because you may be constantly jigging up your site, uploading and eliminating content, and communicating with clients and followers, creating a secure website archive that is audit-ready and compliant with existing legislation is of the essence. All communications should be archived in a reliable, robust platform that meets data storage requirements. Content should be captured regularly, archives should be easily downloadable, and all content (including JavaScript-heavy apps) should be accessible through an easy Saas platform.
Choosing Reliable Audit Tools
Top website auditing tools such as Semrush, WebCEO, SpuFu, and Screaming Frog enable you to carry out an array of auditing functions such as scanning websites for technical problems, identifying SEO problems, checking for broken links and files, finding duplicated content, assessing page errors and other errors such as poor loading speeds. Many also generate a checklist of current problems that need addressing. Choose a tool that can compare your site with those of competitors, while also helping you find keywords for SEO and PPC and providing tools for more effective advertising campaigns.
Conducting an SEO Audit
Ensuring your SEO is up to scratch involves various steps, starting from crawling your site to work out your position, right through to conducting on-page technical SEO checks. Review your page titles and title tags (making relevancy your key priority), writing meta descriptions that will attract viewers enough for them to click onto your site, and organizing your content well so that viewers can easily find what they are looking for once they arrive on your homepage. Consider offering content to other organizations in exchange for backlinks and review your backlink success via tools such as Ubersuggest, which provide a report on the number of current backlinks to your site.
Evaluating Your Conversion Rate Optimization
When conducting an audit, you should analyze the effectiveness of your website in the areas of lead generation and conversion. Companies wishing to up their conversion rate should observe user behavior via Google Analytics, identify user ‘drop-off’ and ‘abandonment’ points, and work to offer users a slick, streamlined experience. Detail what users are doing when they abandon a conversion point. Are they scrolling the whole page before clicking to another one? Are they leaving the page to visit another one? Tools like MouseFlow and Woopra should be used for insight into customer journeys and trends. They will help you answer key queries – including whether or not users return after viewing your product’s core features, which web entry categories obtain the most views, whether or not live chat functions are improving your conversion rate, the extent to which onboarding emails are boosting conversions, and more. By knowing the ins and outs of your customers’ journey, you can improve their experience and increase the likelihood that your content will be revisited and shared.
Reevaluating Your Content
To keep your website interesting enough to attract new customers and keep old ones loyal, invest time into evaluating past content. Your landing pages, in particular, should possess features such as an impactful headline, captivating imagery, a clear explanation of your products or services, and a compelling call to action. When editing content, ensure that it complies with accessibility standards and ensure that all written content is simple and clear so that audiences feel that they are obtaining authentic value from your site without having to wade through irrelevant paragraphs or scroll down page after page to find exactly what they are looking for.
Website auditing is important if you wish to stay relevant on Google. Algorithms are constantly changing, so conducting regular audits and updates are key. Equally vital is archiving content and data, so you can review communications at any time and rescue or revise past content for future use. If you are selling a product or service, conversion rate optimization is obligatory, since creating new strategies can be futile if you lack awareness about your customers’ journey. Finally, your website should continually be renewed and refreshed with new content and rejigged old content. You may find that a landing page that looked great six months ago needs better images, a clearer explanation, or a more riveting call to action.