How to conduct a website audit

grodge

Hi everyone.

I look after marketing and the content updates for my employers website.

Tomorrow I will be starting a full audit of the website and I don't really know how to conduct one

I have googled "how to audit a website" http://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=how+to+audit+an+website but I dont know if any of the links are good.

Can anyone point me to some good resource that I can read through.

The website is designed to be accessible and we recently won an egovernment award for accessibility. However it needs to be overhauled for marketing purposes, with loss of any of the current integrity. Hence the reason I would like to do this audit right.

I also look after the analytics, I assume I will need to go through these as well to see where my traffic is bouncing etc.

Any help in the right direction would be great, even its it just a link for someone who knows about auditing websites.

Thanks in advance.

Grodge

PaulPinnacle

grodge wrote: »

I also look after the analytics, I assume I will need to go through these as well to see where my traffic is bouncing etc.

Any help in the right direction would be great, even its it just a link for someone who knows about auditing websites.

After reading the post, I'm not sure what you're actually auditing the website for. From the looks of the comment, it appears like you're not 100% sure either?

Start with the most basic. What do you (as a business) hope to achieve from the audit? This will help you ensure the focus is in the right area and that the scope of the audit is correct. Is the main goal to increase sales? Improve the usability of the site? Achieve higher search engine rankings? etc. etc.

Carrying out a specific accessibility audit would be very different from carrying out an SEO audit, or if it's to be more holistic and cover various different aspects then the level of detail pertaining to each could change dramatically.

tricky D

PaulPinnacle wrote: »

Start with the most basic. What do you (as a business) hope to achieve from the audit? This will help you ensure the focus is in the right area and that the scope of the audit is correct. Is the main goal to increase sales? Improve the usability of the site? Achieve higher search engine rankings? etc. etc.

This^^^ defining the purpose and functions of your site is key: SEO to get found, provide information to customer types (common task flows/roles), provide contact channels, provide accessibility funcs, leverage brand equity/credibility, marketing methods/relationships (online, offline, social media)....

After that there are a few approaches to this, but they depend on the spec and your priorities. Seeing as you haven't really got one, you could start by going through every page and auditing every element and element group from the top to the bottom for issues.

Eg.
Homepage:
HEAD
Meta lang: language sv in source - why? REMOVE
Title: Home | K Leisure - Home has no SEO and little descriptive value; pipe char, how does it screen read for accessibility? Can the title be used better for describing and SEO = yes, CHANGE TO K Leisure Gyms, Sports, Spa and Leisure in Kildare (length 50 chars OK)
Favicon/shortcut link: not found FIX LINK
Inserted links: fine
Meta generator: repeated REMOVE 2nd instance
Stylesheets: no print, no aural ADD

BODY:
Accessibility:
JavaScript font increase BREAKS MULTIPLE LAYOUT ITEMS, NO COOKIE/SESSION function to keep setting through nav; is font decrease required?. Link to main content, Bypass Blocks: Add links to Sitemap, Search, nav? which pages? Treat which links with accesskeys? what accesskey scheme to use? JavaScript disabled fallback? RE-EXAMINE METHODS

Logo: alt tag has 'logo', needed?
Heading: All UC, brand consistency? h1 !important
Location images: 2#
Screen Read as a blind person would hear from top (meaningful sequence): K Leisure logo, K LEISURE, Visit K Leisure Athy, The Gym and Swimming Pool in K Leisure Athy, Visit K Leisure Naas, The Gym and Swimming Pool in K Leisure Naas; excessive repetition, excessive whitespace? no customer oriented content RE-TREAT AND ADD COPYWRITTEN CONTENT (scannable list-like items include benefits, calls to action, keywords/phrases etc. aural stylesheet treatment for headings, brand name treatment consistency etc)

RHS:
WELCOME (no value)
Kildare Sports & Leisure Facilities Ltd. operate two facilities, one in Naas and one in Athy. K leisure is a facility, catering for all levels of ability.
REMOVE (covered by previous issue)

NAV:
Text not indented onrollover FIX

FOOTER:
issues....

....and so on for all your 90ish pages.

After a while you'll start getting a handle on many of the issues and inconsistencies, and their priorities. However, you might not notice some, so it's a good idea to get someone else to have a look and proofread too or better some user testing. Eg. you could easily miss the issue with links in body text not standing out enough (not seeing wood for the trees is common when proofreading your own content) or you might just not have experience in news article PR, copyright issues, better WCAG conformance and a load of other matters.

hth/gl

grodge

Firstly thank you both for the replys.

I will give you a brief background to the site (www.kildareleisure.ie). It was developed in conjunction with the NDA to extend our commitment to accessibility into the digital realm. The site was developed (as far as I know) in wordpress and using a number of accessibility friendly CSS.

I manage content updates for the company and all content on the site needs to conform to NDA guidelines and plain english guidelines. I have completed an Online and Digital Marketing Diploma with the DMI. I hope to put these skills I have learned to use over the next few weeks.

Right now I am going page by page through the site to ensure spelling and grammer are suitable etc and there. Once I know the content is good I will then work on SEO.

I believe in wordpress there is the SEO Ultimate plugin installed, where below each post and page I can edit the title tag and meta descriptions of the page/posts.

I study Marketing in DCU at the moment and as stated completed the digital marketing diploma to add to the skill set.
I have limited web design knowledge, basic html I can understand. This is something I want to improve.

Ok so thats the background.


tricky_D you may have over estimated my web development skills!! Good detective work finding the site btw . I am aware of the zero SEO in the current site, the developer has tried to convince me that search engines only look for original content so thats why the title heads and other meta background stuff is probably empty.
Its unfortunate but most of what you said has gone over my head. apologies if it took you much time to do . Is it possible to explain what your post has said?

Also I'm looking to bulk up my web development skills to a stage where I could offer the full development and marketing and maintenance package to a client. I researched the IBAT web course http://www.ibat.ie/index.php/courses/computing-and-it/web-design-courses-dublin-web-design-dublin.html. Do you if this is a good start or should I look elsewhere. I'm still in 3rd level so a full time course during sept-may would not be suitable.

Thanks again in advance

grodge

I dont believe that the NDA did a test for screen reader. I know from using the reader on my notebook that there is a lot of gibberish before you can get to the main content.

All the best intentions are there in the site, but it seems that there are a couple of loose ends needed to be tied up.

tricky D

I'm not a fan of most real world courses. Most of these courses are a bit out of date, use bad practices and rely too much on product oriented solutions. Just about everything you need is online anyway and the ability to self-teach is fundamental. Best thing is to start at http://w3schools.com then move on from there. Later you can head over to the w3c to learn accessibility properly (WAI). You also need to figure out how to educate yourself using authoritative sources. Viewing the source code too. Using keywords/phrases in Google properly is also fundamental. Eg. don't know what 'Meta lang: language sv' means, Google it, answer is in the first link I get.

As for NDA and Gov, I've always found them pretty much clueless wrt website accessibility. I say that having done a proper AA-rated (almost AAA) one myself for semi-state (now broken after a design 'upgrade'). They seem to think that sticking a BrowseAloud image and link on a site ticks the boxes. Putting yourself in the shoes of a blind person by using a reader like you did just isn't done.

gl

grodge

tricky D wrote: »

I'm not a fan of most real world courses. Most of these courses are a bit out of date, use bad practices and rely too much on product oriented solutions. Just about everything you need is online anyway and the ability to self-teach is fundamental. Best thing is to start at http://w3schools.com then move on from there. Later you can head over to the w3c to learn accessibility properly (WAI). You also need to figure out how to educate yourself using authoritative sources. Viewing the source code too. Using keywords/phrases in Google properly is also fundamental. Eg. don't know what 'Meta lang: language sv' means, Google it, answer is in the first link I get.

As for NDA and Gov, I've always found them pretty much clueless wrt website accessibility. I say that having done a proper AA-rated (almost AAA) one myself for semi-state (now broken after a design 'upgrade'). They seem to think that sticking a BrowseAloud image and link on a site ticks the boxes. Putting yourself in the shoes of a blind person by using a reader like you did just isn't done.

gl

Im a fan of the google to figure out method and dont understand why people cant do this themselves.

So for a beginner to start from scratch what path do you think i should start down. and have you any recommendations for software (eg dreamweaver etc for development). I mention adobe because i am familiar with indesign and photoshop. is there better software to use to get started?

I i did want to learn I would like to do it right from the start . Like there is no point in me sitting down and learning php for example if its no use with out knowing something else.

I have used the w3 school resource before, its very good.

Ill finish up with this as im prob gone a bit off topic at this stage.

Thanks for the advice

PaulPinnacle

grodge wrote: »

I have completed an Online and Digital Marketing Diploma with the DMI. I hope to put these skills I have learned to use over the next few weeks.

Firstly, a quick disclosure. I do lecture on the diploma course with the DMI (though I'm sure grodge would have commented if my name had range a bell and I'd covered one his courses), so wanted to ensure the potential vested interest which may exist was clear to anyone reading my comments.

What you've learned on the diploma should unquestionably stand to you when it comes to optimising a site and your future career in the industry, but I'm sure the lecturers made clear it's only an introduction. The course covers a broad range of topics and especially for something as detailed as SEO, there's only so much that can be squeezed into a 3 hour lecture. It's a great start, but it is only the start and there's a huge amount that needs to be learned above and beyond the lecture(s).

grodge wrote: »

Right now I am going page by page through the site to ensure spelling and grammer are suitable etc and there. Once I know the content is good I will then work on SEO.

From an efficiency point it view, it would make sense to already have a strategy in place (so post the kw research) and to carry this out with SEO copywriting in mind, but everyone will have their own system and techniques so that's not to say how you're doing it is 'wrong' per se.

grodge wrote: »

I believe in wordpress there is the SEO Ultimate plugin installed, where below each post and page I can edit the title tag and meta descriptions of the page/posts.

An element of subjectivity here, but if it's not a tool you've any great knowledge of or preference for, I'd consider looking at some of the alternatives available. My own preference would be for Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin, but regardless of what tool is used it's more to do with how it's used than which tool is used.

grodge wrote: »

Ok so thats the background.

It still leaves the question on why the audit is being carried out, what it hopes to achieve and the main goals/KPIs the site is focusing on?

These really are the building blocks. Until you have a very clear goal, you'll struggle to achieve it.

grodge wrote: »

I am aware of the zero SEO in the current site, the developer has tried to convince me that search engines only look for original content so thats why the title heads and other meta background stuff is probably empty.

I hope from the knowledge you've gained from boards, various other blogs and fora and your training on the diploma course that you're aware this isn't the correct way to go and that changes will be required to optimise the site?

I haven't glanced at the site, but tricky has given you a good high level overview of how to approach it in a systematic manner, depending on what the end goal is (which, again, is the priority in terms of where you start your audit).

Nothing he mentioned is overly complex, it can just appear that way when you see it for the first time. Spend a little time getting to grips with the terms and some of the technical details, it's the type of information you'll be coming across time and time again. As he mentioned, there's a huge amount of information available out there, you don't necessarily need formal courses to learn it.

grodge wrote: »

Also I'm looking to bulk up my web development skills to a stage where I could offer the full development and marketing and maintenance package to a client.

Going off on a tangent here, but if I get a bit of spare time I'll come back with some more site specific stuff later... on the tangent:

While this can be achieved, it's very difficult for a single person to be able to achieve the required expertise in each of the various areas. You're dead right to try and gain a better knowledge of each area, but this is really in terms of understanding what you don't know as much as it is in terms of trying to gain expertise of each area.

As a long term strategy; you might be better off figuring out which areas you enjoy most or excel at (where your real talents lie and which you wish to focus on), which areas you'll need to work with others to bring their expertise on board in order to achieve the best results for both your clients and yourself (avoid ending up as a jack of all trades and a master of none).

The skills and knowledge required for design, development, marketing, SEO, analytics or copywriting don't always go hand in hand. You might have the design and creativity to be a superb designer or writer, while not having the logical or mathematical flair for SEO or analytics.

Consider which areas you really want to pursue and put your focus into those. Trying to achieve them all simply for financial reasons will commonly lead you to provide a poor service in various areas rather than providing an amazing service in your specialist area.