Conducting an Audit for an eCommerce Website: Your How-To Guide

A good website audit can help you figure out what you can do better. You may learn that some things are working well.

Read on to learn more about how to conduct a site audit.

Start With eCommerce KPIs

The first step to conducting an audit of your site is to consider the eCommerce KPIs you want to track. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can include anything that helps you get sales or attain marketing goals.

Every business will focus on different KPIs depending on their industry and other factors. For example, a new business may focus more on visibility and email signups.

Meanwhile, a more established store may focus on eCommerce metrics like sales. Knowing what KPIs you want to track can help you figure out what to prioritize when conducting your audit.

Review the SEO

One of the most important things to review with any eCommerce website is search engine optimization (SEO). This refers to how easy it is for your website to get traffic through search results.

Improving your SEO may help you get more traffic from your ideal customers. Then, you may be able to make more sales in the future.

You should look at Google Analytics and Search Console to see what keywords are getting your site traffic. Consider if those keywords are relevant to what you have to sell.

If not, you may want to target other keywords that will bring in more people who will buy from you.

Look at the Navigation

Another important aspect of eCommerce tracking is website navigation. You may get thousands of views from search, but you need to get those views to buy your products.

Consider how easy your website is to navigate and what you include in your navigation bar. For example, a clothing store may include different categories of clothing in the navigation bar.

You can also make the site easy to navigate by using buttons instead of links. A big button is easier to see and click on, which can help direct website visitors to your product pages.

Analyze Your Content

You should also review your content when conducting an audit on your site. This can apply to your blog posts as well as the product descriptions and any other written content your site has.

In the case of blog posts, consider if those posts encourage people to click to view a specific product. Think about how natural that link is and if the content and product go together.

When analyzing your product pages, consider everything from the title to the description to the image. You may also want to audit the layout to figure out if the layout is ideal for getting conversions.

Calculate the Conversion Rate

You should also look at the conversion rate for your website and overall eCommerce funnel. Take the number of website visitors you get and the number of sales you get in the same period.

Divide the number of visitors by the number of sales, and multiply by 100. That will give you the conversion rate for sales for the month, year, or any other period.

However, you can also calculate conversions for email signups, especially if you want to grow your list. In that case, you would divide the visitors by the number of subscriptions and multiple by 100 to get the conversion rate.

Be sure to track the conversion rate for your most important eCommerce KPIs. That way, you can figure out if your current strategies or working or if you need to change something.

Consider Your Loyal Customers

When conducting an audit on your eCommerce site, you should track returning visitors and customers. Think about if any of your previous customers have placed a second order on your site.

If all of your orders come from new customers, you can figure out why. Maybe you don’t carry a wide variety of products, so people don’t need to come back.

Or perhaps you have a few loyal customers, but you struggle to get more. Knowing this can help you determine if you want to retarget prior buyers with ads for your new products, for example.

Remember Mobile Users

Your eCommerce tracking measures should also cover mobile internet users. Mobile users have made up at least half of website traffic every year since 2017, so your site needs to work on mobile.

Consider if your current eCommerce platform lets you design websites to work on mobile devices. If not, you may want to switch platforms so that you can keep from losing out on traffic.

A lot of people make shopping decisions on their phones or tablets. If you want to be able to make sales, you should have a site that works well on a smaller screen.

You can still design a website to work well on a desktop, and many platforms let you design the versions separately. That way, every user can have a good experience when shopping on your site.

Have an Open Mind

Whether you’re conducting an audit or hiring someone for the job, be open to the results. The purpose of an audit is to help you improve your website and eCommerce business.

You or the auditor may find something that requires a big change, such as a platform shift. Even smaller changes can seem unnecessary at first, but they can make a huge difference.

Being open to ideas that you find during an audit can help you make the most of the process. Then, you’ll be able to make your website better for you and your customers.

Conducting an Audit Made Easy

Conducting an audit on your eCommerce website can be an excellent way to improve your business. You can learn what you’re doing right and where you can improve.

Then, you’ll be able to grow your business in a way that works for you. Just be as open as you can to the results so that your eCommerce business can succeed.

Do you want to see how well your website is performing? Learn how Scoretize works and get a free trial today.