Happy New Year! With the turn of the new year, we find now to be the perfect time to evaluate how well your website is performing for your business, starting with your website content. As your website is the hub of your business online, it should be in tip-top shape to attract your audience, convey who you are and inspire action.
How can you ensure your website is ready for the slew of new customers you’ll impact this year? By performing a thorough website content audit, you can find issues in your copy that may be causing potential customers to walk away.
Tips for Performing the Perfect Website Content Audit
A website content audit helps you dig deep into the content on your website. It helps you assess the message your content is conveying and if it fits the audience you’re trying to attract. It also looks at your images, calls to action, readability and more to ensure your website is in line with your goals and voice.
Check for Consistency
Consistency matters, not just in your business but in your content. To start, check for consistency in places such as:
- Your Services page: Make sure the services on this page are correct. If you’ve removed a service or added a service in the new year, make sure these changes are reflected.
- Your marketing messages: The messages you use to market your services should be consistent in all your marketing material including your website.
- Your tone and style: Should your content be professional? Warm? Witty? Whatever the case, ensure your website reflects this in all areas.
You’ll also want to ensure your contact information is correct, that you don’t have misleading calls to action and that you’re effectively communicating your brand throughout.
Consider Your Website’s Readability
Read the pages on your website and consider whether they’re easy to read. Not sure? Read your copy aloud! Are there places in the copy where you stumble? It’s time to make some tweaks.
Not exactly sure what you should fix? Use an online tool such as the Hemingway App to check for passive voice, grade level, word choice and more to enhance the readability of the text.
Review Your Calls to Action
Each website page should have a call to action (CTA) to inspire your audience to take the next step. It’s best to focus on one call to action so your audience isn’t conflicted or confused by too many options. Make sure your CTAs stand out to the eye, are easy to follow and are consistent throughout your website.
Don’t have CTAs on your site? It’s time to add them. Don’t be afraid to tell your audience exactly what you want them to do next. After all, it’s exactly what they’re looking for.
Optimize Your Content
High-performing websites place emphasis on content optimization balanced with value and relevancy. You can help optimize your website content by:
- Using internal links in your copy to other places on your website
- Adding in target keywords throughout your content
- Creating meta descriptions and title tags that are relevant to the content on the page
And so much more! Optimizing your content begins by creating relevancy. As you conduct your audit, ask yourself if the content on each page is relevant to your audience. If it isn’t, it has to go.
Want to dive deeper into your website content audit?
Get your free
7-point website content audit checklist today
3 Quick Fixes to Keep Your Content Current
If you’re looking for a few quick wins at the outset of the year, jump into your site today and make sure these items are accurate:
- The copyright date in the footer of your website
- Your years of experience and/or length of time you’ve been in business
- Your staff list, including photos and bios
Need Help Performing Your Audit?
Performing a website content audit is a large undertaking, especially this time of year. We totally get it. However, to make sure your website is performing and making a great first impression, refreshing your content is critical. To learn more about performing an audit, send us a message!
