The Value of Website Audits
There is nothing like the feeling of a freshly launched website. The content is up-to-date, everything links correctly, and the site functions beautifully. Over time, however, with many competing priorities, it’s easy for the most urgent items to receive attention, while equally important but more involved considerations drop down the list. Audits help bring your website into focus, providing a succinct look at how it is being presented to - and received by - your audiences.
Audits use a combination of fresh eyes and analytics to identify gaps and key opportunities for your website. Understanding where your website needs attention and the next steps involved are extremely useful tools when planning and budgeting for your digital roadmap.
Re-aligning your site
Audits are intended to be the first step in gaining an objective opinion on how a site is performing and how it can be improved. We offer a variety of audit services, each focusing on different, though often overlapping, aspects of a website. Through an audit process, we identify gaps that need to be addressed and opportunities for moving forward.
Depending on your website’s maturity, there are specific audits we can recommend. Some focus on specialized topics like user experience or content, or we can conduct multiple audits at once to gain efficiencies and a more holistic understanding of the opportunities for improvement.
Finding the right audit
The worlds of accessibility, privacy and SEO are evolving rapidly. New legislation, user expectations and algorithms make it difficult to stay informed and up to date. Content and branding can quickly digress with multiple authors and designers, straying further away from the original strategy.
At Affinity Bridge, our audits allow clients to focus on one particular aspect or take advantage of the integrated worlds of user experience, content, accessibility, SEO, privacy and branding. We start every audit (or combination of audits) with a discovery session to learn about your challenges and understand the strategic objectives of your website. We then use tools, analytics and our expertise to assess your site and present our findings.
Here is an overview of some of the audits we offer:
1. User Experience (UX) Audit
As the digital landscape expands and evolves, so too do users’ needs and expectations. Using a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, our strategists align the organizational goals to the user experience and identify gaps between the current and desired user journeys.
2. Content Audit
Content can easily become out of date or off-brand over time due to multiple authors, evolving organizational needs and lack of a clear strategy. A content audit evaluates the visual and verbal content on a website against your audience needs and organizational direction, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
3. SEO Audit
Search engine optimization plays a pivotal role in driving traffic to your digital properties. An audit provides competitive analysis, keyword selection, and optimization of campaigns in a variety of channels. We also can provide training to your internal teams to continue to evolve rankings over time.
4. Accessibility Audit
Digital accessibility is key to delivering a positive experience for all users. Our accessibility audits review your current website to see if it meets best practices and WCAG standards. We provide a report that identifies where improvements can be made so you can deliver a more inclusive experience for everyone who engages with your digital platform.
5. Privacy Audit
Understanding how important data management and security are to your organizational reputation, we are well-versed in helping organizations improve their privacy and information management practices. Our audits review and document how your organization collects, handles and stores information, identify areas for improvement, and help ensure your organizational privacy requirements are being met.
6. Branding Audit
A strong and consistently branded website helps to build trust, engagement, and brand loyalty, and also works to visually affirm your brand proposition and messaging. A branding audit provides a vital opportunity to assess how well your website is representing your brand.
Audits inform strategy
Audits are a great way to gain insight into what your organization actually needs. Once an assessment has been completed, our team can create a comprehensive strategy for implementing the findings and recommendations. Whether it’s determining the right content to feature, the keywords to go after or accessibility adjustments to make, we can create a roadmap that is tailored to your organization’s goals and delivers an optimized experience for your audiences.
If you are curious about what type of audit might be right for your organization, please reach out to us!
