When you vet Internet marketing companies looking for the perfect match one of the best things you can do is ask them if they will perform a site audit for you and what that process looks like. It should include all of the items listed below, and ideally, the agency should not only prepare this document for you, they should walk you through it and help you prioritize the items that need remediation. One of the most important jobs that the best Internet marketing companies perform is education. Creating and explaining your site audit should show you the quality of the online marketing firm. You can ask to buy a site audit from them and then observe how they handle it. If they provide a professional and thoroughly helpful service with the site audit, you have a good indication that they will follow through on a campaign for you, too.

Here are top site audit categories you should request in the evaluation that your agency provides:

Code – This mostly includes discussion on impediments to indexing. Internet marketing companies look for a variety of reasons why your site may not be indexed properly by search engines. They will look for server errors, Javascript errors, query strings and much more. Your agency needs to identify these issues if they exist and provide a plan to remedy them. These issues should be given highest priority for fixing as it is paramount to get the website properly indexed before it can have an opportunity to rank for keywords.

Content- This section consists of analyzing the quality of current content, and making recommendations for new content. Commonly Internet marketing companies find a lack of content on clients’ sites, and if there is sufficient content present, it needs to be re-organized and optimized, plus it has to be shared off-site so it can be seen by the widest audience possible. Sharing on social media will be key to keeping the buzz going. In this section Internet marketing companies often recommend the use of an editorial calendar. This is an excellent idea and should have an impact that can easily be measured; i.e., you will be able to gauge reactions to your content and track over time which articles, photos, videos, etc. perform the best with your audience. It is key to write at least some evergreen content so it can be shared several times (this can be done with non-evergreen content, too, but to a lesser extent). Some Internet marketing companies offer extensive content marketing campaigns, and you will notice that they coordinate these content initiatives with the other moving parts of their campaigns. Content is the engine that drives success online. Note how your agency handles this section of the site audit and look for several recommendations that point to the fact that the agency will know how to create content and use it to motivate your target audience.

Social – This portion of the site audit is the complement to the content section. Here the agency should provide direction and compare your social accounts with those of top competitors.There should be discussion of optimal times to post and creation of a social editorial calendar. Your social editorial calendar can actually be a subset of your overall editorial calendar which should be recommended under the content section of the audit. Content creation and distribution (in this case social networks are the distribution channels) has to build into a system that is consistent and that provides value for your audience. These factors will build trust in your business. People want to do business with companies that they trust.

Mobile – Many companies have mobile-friendly websites but still need help in refining them for the best user experience. Often it’s the little things that can make or break mobile user-experience, such as poorly designed navigation. A key point that Internet marketing companies should discuss in a site audit is if the mobile site is providing the core functionality. All the bells and whistles of the main site don’t have to be there. Leading users to conversion is the goal; they don’t expect all the functions of a full website, but they do expect to be able to complete tasks without hitting frustration barriers like having to re-size the screen to navigate, and running into hard to use layouts, forms and other functions. If ever the phrase Keep it Simple was applicable, it is for mobile usability.

Usability – We have already discussed usability in relation to mobile sites. It is key as well with full versions of websites. Internet marketing agencies may detect some usability issues and may even recommend that you take advantage of some services such as Usertesting.com to get website functionality feedback from your target audience. This section of the audit should be highly developed as usability barriers can be contributing to your site’s bounce rate.

We recommend that you obtain a site audit quote from several Internet marketing companies and that you ask what their audit includes. You can use our list above to request a site audit for your company. Organically offers over 16 years of site audit experience to help you succeed online. Talk to us today about your online marketing challenges.