I’ve spoken with site owners who are keen to get an audit done, and others who politely indicate that they consider them a waste of money that takes budget away from getting things done.
I’m writing this from a web developer’s point of view, so I’m not completely unbiased. But let’s go behind the scenes and see it from a dev’s point of view what an audit can and can’t do.
When to consider a Technical Audit
An audit is similar to a health check. It’s an experienced developer checking your site thoroughly and providing a tailored report that breaks down recommendations into actionable tasks complete with estimates, timeframes and prioritisation. It gives the site owner a sound basis on which to make the hard decision which work to authorise and what the expected outcome is.
Audits are great when a site is perceived to be underperforming. Customers may be experiencing slow checkouts, staff are finding the backend sluggish and the Google score isn’t great which impacts on SEO. Audits can also be great when a site is ready to take the next step, when a business has experienced growth, the database has mushroomed in size and the site needs to be capable of handling the increased volume.
So why not just dive into the “doing”? Tweak some things, try to push the Core Web Vitals up, configure some caching and let’s see how it goes? On small sites that may well work, but on larger sites the risk is that what’s being done isn’t addressing the right problems. It’s trying to find your way in the dark; but when you do an audit it shines a flashlight at the best path to take.
When is an Audit not the right approach?
So when is an audit not the right option? When a problem is clearly known. If your product page has an error, then you don’t need an audit, you need a developer to come in, troubleshoot and fix the error.
The other question you may have is why a developer can’t look at the site and come up with the suggestions based on experience. It takes time to thoroughly review a site and prepare a thoughtful approach. Every site has a unique set of challenges and the value of an experienced developer is to decide which particular method is the best fit. I typically estimate 8 hours for site audits, and that time tends to fly by whilst deep diving into the site’s setup and considering which changes will result in a measurable improvement.
What areas of a site does a Technical Audit look at?
If I have woken your interest in audits, here’s a cheatsheet of what an audit can include:
- Core Web Vitals, the performance benchmark used by Google
- Caching, Hosting (server) performance and CDN setup
- Static file (CSS,JS) and Image rendering
- Core, Plugins and Theme review
- Frontend performance and User Experience
- SEO performance
- Accessibility
I’m excited when I carry out an audit for a client because I know it will bring up new information and insights we didn’t have before; and give us a sound basis to plan the next steps. It’s one of my favourite tasks with every site presenting a new and unique challenge to figure out what’s going on, and where it can be made better.
Ready to give it a go? Chat with your developer, go to Codeable to discuss your project with one of my colleagues, or contact me directly!