Not getting results from your website but not sure what to change? Here’s how to audit your website so you can figure out what the problem is and what to do next.
How to audit your website design
One of the biggest reasons your website might not be driving results is because the design doesn’t appeal to your target audience.
Refer to your buyer personas
Your buyer personas are key to every aspect of your digital marketing strategy and ensure that your marketing materials appeal to the right type of audience for your brand.
Review your website design against your buyer personas to ensure that it aligns with their age, gender, location and other brand preferences.
Compare to competitors
Make a list of competing brands that target the same audience as you do, then compare the design of their website against yours, including:
- Colours
- Fonts
- Imagery
- Navigation
- CTAs
Using this information you can understand what other websites they interact with and what styles they respond to. If your website doesn’t align with these other brands, you should consider redesigning your website.
While it’s important to stand out from competitors with slightly different styles, by taking design cues that they are already familiar with, your audience will instantly feel comfortable using your website from the first time they visit. This means they’ll easily be able to find what they’re after and will be more likely to convert.
Read more: How web design helps (or hinders) your business
Check if you’re consistent
Is your website design consistent with other marketing materials you have out there e.g. social media, emails, print?
Consistency helps audiences to become familiar with your brand, making them more likely to convert.
How to audit your website experience
The next reason your website might not be driving results is due to a poor or unsuitable user experience.
Audit website functionality
First, you need to check that nothing on your website is broken or causing a poor experience
- Pretend you’re a brand new customer and go through the full journey to the conversion (e.g. sale, sign up, or contact) – does everything work? (Check this on a variety of devices and browsers).
- Test your page speed using a tool like GTmetrix – slow page speed can have a huge impact on bounce rate and user satisfaction.
- Check all your plugins and websites have been recently updated with no reported errors.
If you find any problems during this audit, get in touch with your web developer or maintenance company to work on updating your website for optimal functionality.
Compare experience to competitors
If you’re happy that your website works as it should from a functional perspective, you’ll want to ensure that you’re giving customers the same (or better) type of experience they get on competitor websites.
Refer back to your list of competitors and go through the full journey on their websites. Take notes on:
- Steps needed to convert (page clicks, form fills, etc)
- Additional features like pop-ups, banners
- The level of commitment are they asking for (e.g. email address vs payment)
Compare this list to your own website. If you notice many differences it’s likely that while your website experience isn’t broken, it’s not suitable for your target audience.
In this case, you may need to consider changing the user journey for your website. Consider running A/B tests before confirming any changes.
How to audit your website traffic
Once you’ve established that your website looks and functions as it’s supposed to, you need to ensure people – and the right people at that – are actually reaching it. After all, you can’t get results from users that aren’t there.
1.Analyse your existing traffic levels
First, analyse your website traffic (e.g. with Google Analytics) to determine how many visitors you’re getting regularly.
If this number is quite low, the answer is ‘simply’ to increase your website traffic. (Go to step 2)
If you’re getting higher numbers of visitors but they’re not converting, likely, your current visitors aren’t right for your website.
2.Audit your traffic sources
If you have low website traffic or need to revise your strategy, analysing how your competitors get their website traffic is a good place to start. This can give you a rough idea of which channels your target audience uses to connect with similar brands.
A tool like SEM Rush’s Traffic Analytics can give you an estimate of how much traffic a competitor receives from each channel in a month. E.g. if they get lots of traffic from social media but only a little from Organic Search, it suggests that you should put more effort into social media to start with.
Of course, every brand is different. So if you’re already getting decent traffic levels and conversions from other sources that your competitors aren’t – well done, keep going! Instead, explore the high performing competitor channels in addition to your existing channels.
However, if you’re getting traffic that’s not converting you should:
- Pause activity on any low-converting channels that competitors aren’t using
- Continue (and increase) activity on high-converting channels
- Start activity on any competitor channels you aren’t utilising
If you’re using the same channels as competitors but not getting the conversions, move onto step 3 of the audit.
3.Audit your content
If you’ve concluded that you’re using the right channels to reach audiences but they’re still not reaching your website or converting, likely, you’re not using the right content to communicate your key messages to them.
Compare your content against competitors and run A/B tests on:
- Tone of voice
- CTAs
- Assets like images/videos etc
Auditing your website traffic and digital marketing activity can be a highly complex process, if you’re unsure you should enlist the help of professional digital marketers with access to the tools and expertise to develop your digital marketing strategy.
Want help designing a website that will resonate with your audience, generate traffic and convert visitors? Check out our Website Development Archives for more resources on this topic. In need of bespoke help? Get in touch with us to find out more about our web design services.
