A website audit is a way to identify problem areas of an existing digital product or service, revealing which parts of a website or application are causing issues for users and blocking conversions. As with financial audits, a website audit uses empirical methods to expand an existing situation, and offer heuristics-based recommendations for improvements, in this case, user-centric enhancements. Ultimately, a website audit should let you know how to boost conversions by making it easier for users to achieve their goals on your website or application.
The difference between user testing and a website audit is the direction of the flow of information: an audit assumes problems from a set of pre-established standards (called heuristics) or goals, where user testing figures out problems from observing user actions. A website audit may include user testing in addition to other methods of data collection over and measure them up against heuristics, industry standards, and business goals.
A website audit can help answer the following questions:
And these questions are just the beginning. A website audit can answer all sorts of questions. The questions you ask during an audit will depend on what your goals are.
The greatest benefit of conducting a website audit is that in the end, you end up with a list of actionable recommendations that are based on data for your specific product or service. You can then use those recommendations to better understand your users, implement a redesign (not necessarily of the entire product or service), and reach your business goals.
A website audit includes a review of your product's:
The report generated from a website audit include: