If you’re managing a website for your business, it’s not enough for you to make improvements and changes to it based on your gut feeling. You will need hard facts and numbers to make the right call—something that website audits can give you. If you’re not doing them, you’re missing out on a lot of helpful insights! 

A website audit is an extensive analysis of the pages in your website with regards to how they affect your visibility in search engines. It is used to determine if your website is indeed able to achieve what you want it to and if your digital marketing strategy is still on track. The insights you gather after this analysis enables you to make informed decisions when it comes to updating your website. 

If you still need more convincing, here are four compelling reasons why you need regular audits to maximize your website’s potential: 

1. They Help You Determine Your Baseline Metrics 

Regularly analyzing the performance of your website enables you to identify baseline figures which you can refer to for comparisons in the future. Conducting an audit once or twice will not give you reliable numbers; you will need to do it routinely to generate solid baseline metrics. 

If you have identified your benchmarks before making significant changes to your website, it will be easier for you to determine whether those changes improved your performance or not. 

2. They Help You Adapt to The Ever-changing World of SEO 

One of your goals in running a website is to leverage SEO to perform well in search results and be seen. However, you should know that search engine algorithms are always changing and being tweaked. This means that what may work well for you today might not necessarily bring the same results tomorrow. 

For this reason, you need to make sure that your website is able to adapt well to this. A quarterly audit helps you do this by enabling you to keep track of your SEO project. It lets you know how effective your current strategy is and allows you to identify problems quickly so you can address them before they escalate. 

3. They Help You Preserve Your Data

Delaying your website audit may make it impossible for you to access certain data, especially older ones. This is because Google Webmaster Tools can only give you up to three months’ worth of data about the activity on your site. 

If you have not been conducting audits for the past year, you will only be able to access data for the past quarter. The data you will gain will not be as complete and informative as it would be if you have been extracting and analyzing them regularly. 

4. They Help You Ensure Your Site is Always Up-to-Date

If you don’t have performance metrics and insights, it can be easy to assume that the content on your site is performing well. This is where regular audits can be particularly helpful. 

Analyzing your website once every four months allows you to point out if a content is inaccurate and inaccurate, or if it is not getting enough traffic like the rest of your pages. It also gives you an objective reminder if your content is becoming outdated. All of these enable you to execute the right strategies to keep your whole website fresh and updated. 

Bottom Line

For some, site audits sound like an exhausting and time-consuming process. However, they are necessary and incredibly helpful to your digital business strategy. They give you a wealth of information about how your website is performing when it comes to bringing in visitors and converting them into customers. They also guide you in refining your site and present you with an exceptional opportunity for significant growth online. 

Looking for a fast, free and instant website audit?  We offer a free tool that will perform an instant audit and give you a full detailed report of how well your site is performing as well as areas of improvement. 

Perform a free website audit and receive a free report

The Stack Group is a modern digital design and marketing agency based in Massachusetts. We specialize in website design, SEO, and social media management and help our clients improve their digital strategy to drive more business.