Learn what works and what needs fixing to bring more visitors to your site… and keep them coming back
Your website may have some critical errors that are keeping it from ranking higher on search engines… or driving away visitors that come to the site. It may also have some great features that search engines and humans love. But how do you know what those features and errors are?
Many small business owners create their own websites or have a cousin or friend create one for them. There’s a wide range of free website building tools out there that make it easy for anyone to put up a great-looking website quickly.
A good-looking website doesn’t always bring in traffic
Potential customers search the internet every day for products and services. If a business offering that product doesn’t show up on the first page of search engine results, it doesn’t get a chance to turn a visitor into a customer. Instead, the customers go to the competition with the well-ranked website.
But a well-ranked website isn’t always user-friendly
Some websites do a great job of bringing in traffic, but the visitors get so frustrated trying to find their way around the site that they quickly leave. Frustrating visitors is not a good way to get happy customers.
How can you tell if your website has problems?
In some ways, a website is a lot like a house. When you buy a house you usually get a home inspection. The inspection checks the critical parts of the home to find out if things are in good working order or if there are areas that need correcting. The home inspector provides a written report with findings and recommendations. If things are good, he says they’re good. If they need attention, he recommends corrective actions.
The Website Audit gives you the answers
You’ll find out what’s working well on your website and what areas can be improved. The 50-point checklist will tell you exactly what areas of your website need attention. They’ll be ranked by order of importance so you can attack the most critical problems first.
You can either use the checklist yourself to start making changes or use it to request estimates from other companies. You’ll have more productive conversations with your webmaster to request the changes you need. And you’ll have a roadmap to follow for getting the site changes made.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to be a web geek to understand the report.
No special technical knowledge required
Computer people speak in a language all their own, and it can be intimidating to non-tech types. Every finding will be explained in terms even non-technical types will understand. You’ll understand what the terms mean and why they’re important, which will help you do a better job of making the related changes on your website.
What we look for
The Website Audit takes a balanced look at your website, making sure it’s friendly for both search engines and humans.
First we look at your website from a search engine’s standpoint
Does the site have special code for search engines?
A page that looks great to a human may look nearly empty to a search engine. We check the code on the website to make sure important information is visible and properly identified to a search engine. For example, a human may be able to tell a heading because of its different color or size. But a search engine needs to see some special code around that same heading to identify it.
Does it use keywords effectively?
Even if you have the right code on the page, the text inside the code may not be optimized. Having the right text in the right code can make the difference between landing on page one and page ten of search results.
Does it use images effectively?
Many websites include pictures but fail to make them usable by search engines. A properly used and coded image can both increase search rankings and make the website more pleasant for humans. We examine the images on your site through the eyes of both a search engine robot and a live human being.
Then we look at it with human eyes
Can a visitor easily find their way around the site?
A website may show up on the first page of search results and still not generate enough new customers. Getting visitors to a website is only the beginning. If a site is difficult to navigate or use, visitors will quickly leave and never come back. The report inspects areas of your website that may be helping or hurting the experience of your visitors. Correcting these issues will give visitors a good reason to stick around and keep reading – and that gets them engaged.
Is the site readable?
Some websites show up in search results because they’re crammed with keywords. But the text may be so stilted or poorly-formatted that visitors won’t want to stick around. We’ll look at how human-friendly the text on your website is, to make sure people want to keep coming back to your site.
Does it work the same with all browsers?
Some websites look great in one internet browser, but they may look horrible in a competing browser. Even worse, some websites don’t even work like they’re supposed to from browser to browser. A piece of code that works in Internet Explorer may not work at all in Firefox or Safari. The inspection report includes a “test drive” of your site using the three most popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari) to ensure a consistent experience for most visitors.
What you’ll get
- A written report explaining each element examined on your website, and showing you what’s being done well and what needs improvement.
- A one-hour phone consultation to answer any questions you have about the audit or about next steps.
Premium Option: Unlimited e-mail support for 90 days
As you start making changes to your site based on the audit findings, you may have additional questions come up. When you select the premium option, you can e-mail me any questions related to the audit findings for a full 90 days and I’ll reply within 24 hours.
What you won’t get
As you can see, the Website Audit covers a lot of ground. But there are some things we just refuse to include, and I want to be sure you know about them up front.
You won’t just have a computer looking at your site
There are a lot of free programs out there that will inspect your website. The problem is, they can only see what they’ve been programmed to see. Some details of a website are best looked at by a human being. So while we’ll use some programs to evaluate parts of your website, it will also be audited by a real, live human being who can detect patterns and usability issues that are difficult to define in a computer program.
You won’t get hyped-up findings
Have you ever taken your car in for a free inspection and come out with a list of repairs that exceeds $1,000? Do you wonder how many of those repairs are really necessary and how many are listed just to increase the mechanic’s profit margin?
You don’t have to worry about my making up fake issues just so you can pay me to fix them. My goal is to help small business owners fix their own websites, not to charge them thousands of dollars to do the work for them. I would much rather teach you how to improve your own site. After all, who knows your business better?
You won’t get any technobabble
We can’t completely avoid the use of technical terms in a website audit, but that doesn’t mean you have to know geek-speak to read it. Every technical term will be explained using examples unrelated to computers, so even the most techno-phobic reader will understand the results.
You won’t get a sales pitch
Some companies offer so-called “free” evaluations of your site. And while it doesn’t cost you any money to get those evaluations, it costs you your time while you listen to a sales pitch about the company. To protect my clients from a stealthy sales pitch, I created my personal No-Pitch Promise. The one-hour consultation is strictly that – it’s your chance to ask questions about the report and to pick my brains on any topic you feel is relevant to your website. The only presentation I’ll bring to our meeting is the report findings.
Of course if you want to know about other products I’ll be happy to tell you about them… but you have to ask. If you don’t ask me about them, I won’t tell you. After all, you paid for an audit and a consultation, not a sales pitch in disguise.
FAQ
How soon will I have the report?
Most website audits are completed within 4 business days from the time we receive payment.
How soon will I have the consultation?
You can schedule the one-hour consultation any time after receiving your audit report.
To get the most out of your one-hour consultation, I suggest reviewing the results of your report ahead of time. This way we can spend most of the hour addressing specific questions and helping you create an action plan for making changes.
Will the consultation be face to face?
All consultations are conducted over the phone
Ready to audit your site?
Simply click on one of the buttons below to order your evaluation.
Website Audit |
Standard Option |
Premium Option |
| Evaluate search friendliness |
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| Evaluate user friendliness |
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| Written report |
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| 1-hour phone consultation (a $100 value) |
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Premium Option |
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| 90-day e-mail support (a $150 value) |
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| Price |
$95 |
$139 |
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Select the Premium or Standard audit option below, fill in the fields and click the Buy Now button to pay online with a credit card. |
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