WordPress website audit helps you to make sure that your site is performing optimally. While you may test specific components of your site to determine their functionality, a complete audit is necessary to check how well the website is meeting your company’s goals. This may include checking everything from website functionality to code quality and more.
WordPress website audit is testing the website to see how well it is optimized for performance. It involves checking on specific things such as the speed of loading, where the forms are located, on-page optimization for search, and more. The findings help to identify areas that need improvement for the site to perform better.
Conducting an audit of your website helps you to determine whether it is functioning as expected. You can set a specific criterion for the audience to determine areas that are working as expected and those that need improvements.
The following is a checklist that you can use to audit a WordPress site:
The first item on the list is checking whether the WordPress core software, plugins, and themes installed are the latest version. Since these are updated regularly to fix bugs and maintain performance, and security issues, it is important to make sure the website is using the latest versions.
Faster website speeds enhance user experience and can boost conversions. They also contribute to website performance on search engines, with slower sites being penalized and ranking lower on search engine results pages. You can check the website’s speed using the Google PageSpeed tool, aiming for a website speed score above 90, which is considered to be optimal performance.
New web content and blog posts tell users and search engines that the site is still active. The frequency of posting new content will depend on the goals and capacity of the organization. During the audit, you need to check on the latest content and strategy being used by the organization. It is also important to check the comments to make sure they are not in moderation.
Scanning your website regularly for viruses, malware, and suspicious codes helps to prevent unexpected attached. If the website gets infected or hacked, it can cause financial and reputational losses. WordPress security plugins like Wordfence allow you to audit the security of the website and offer essential website security features.
A website with many broken links can be frustrating to users. When users are constantly being redirected to a 404 error message, they may choose to leave your website and this may have a negative impact on your website ranking in search engines. Using online tools like Dr Link Check can help you determine whether the website has any broken links.
Checking the design and functionality of your WordPress website is a critical part of the audit. You can do this simply by looking through the site and checking whether interactive features like contact forms and buttons are functional. This can highlight any design, code, operational, or formatting issues that need to be fixed or investigated.
Website analytics will tell you exactly how your WordPress site is performing. The easiest way to perform the analytics is to use a Google Analytics plugin MonsterInsights. It allows you to review the analytics without leaving your WordPress site.
A free tool like Ubersuggest SEO analyzer will allow you to check the SEO health of your WordPress site. You can narrow down the analysis to a specific language and country, to see the site’s organic traffic levels, number of organic keywords, and domain score. This gives you a good head start on where to start improving your SEO states.
You can check your website’s mobile compatibility using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and Responsive Test. These give a clear insight into how the website appears on smaller screen sizes and meets the needs of mobile browsers.
Another important aspect of a WordPress website audit is checking the database. With every WordPress website update, the database becomes more clogged up with old content. This may include unused plugins, deleted comments, and more. Going through the database can reveal such issues and help to tidy it up. You can also use plugins such as WP-Sweep to schedule automatic clean-ups of the database.
Conducting a website audit may be overwhelming, especially when you do not have enough time or lack the technical know-how. That’s why hiring a WordPress professional can be your best option. With unlimited WordPress support services, WPDepend will audit your site and optimize it for improved performance. Check out our services or contact us for a free quote.
A seasoned technology writer and marketing consultant with over a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. I specialize in content marketing, SEO, web design, and e-commerce development. I am enthusiastic about using cutting-edge technology to acquire high-quality traffic, generate leads, and increase sales for my clients.
