Where do you start then, eh?
Businesses performing well online has been more crucial than ever for the last few months. Does your online presence help bring home the bacon? We know that time, budget, and resources are limited for many organisations right now, but there’s no point running online ads and having an SEO strategy if your website isn’t up to scratch.
Here’s a DIY guide to cracking on with your own website audit:
So, where do you start?
1) Test your website.
Does it work? This may sound obvious, but there's an elephant graveyard of websites out there right now. Untested and untrustworthy. With hyenas in them. (We've been working at home with our kids for months now, soz). Be Simba. Go check it out and see what's up. Broken links, compromised coding and slow-loading pages are all sure-fire ways to lose engagement and sales. Do some bloody tests! We can help if you need us. (Mufasa?).
2) Get to know your audience.
Do you know who they are and what they want from your website? Or do you just think you know? Don't get me wrong; the think part can be useful. But lots of businesses assume they have a full understanding of their users and, on further inspection, they often don't. Do some proper research, develop a few key audience personas and map out their experience. Keep an eye on what your competitors are up to as well. You can learn a shed load from them about what works and what doesn't.
3) Discover what your website needs to provide.
Once you've got to know your audience and you've tested the basics, you can take a look at the content and business processes of your site. Is the navigation smooth? Is the content engaging? Will it bring you new business? The answers to these questions lie in eye-watering-ly thorough user testing; don't just ask your pals. Knowledge is power, and real change comes with practical insights. And as Rafiki says, "Change is good."
We can, of course, help you with all of this.
This might all sound like too much work for so little time, so we can step in to help at any point. We're research-led. We're not interested in merely selling you a new website. So, whether you need us to crack on and do all of the research ourselves, or design and build something tailored to your findings, we'll get it done.
When it comes to providing attention-grabbing website content, we have four rules of thumb:
- Use headings to break up content.
- Include bullets for optimal readability.
- Keep paragraphs short and front load the important stuff.
- Utilise infographics and animation where appropriate.
This isn’t fully in-depth audit material, but it’s solid ground for you to build on.
Our full review of performance, content and design involves oh-so-fancy-yet-oh-so-important stuff like site speed, SEO, and accessibility. Then we compile a comprehensive report with a sweet set of recommendations, all built with content, audience and targets in mind.
"Sounds nice, but what then?"
The choice to take our research and be on your way at this stage is always available. Or, we can implement our report findings for you, in the most effective way possible. That could mean designing a new interface, or building an entirely new website, or making relevant improvements to your existing site. Maybe you won’t know what you want right away, and that’s cool too.
Drop us a line at hello@bravand.com or via the form below to arrange a chat.
