A site analysis gives the site owner a glimpse into its search engine optimization. It reveals its effectiveness to convert.
Unfortunately, very few take the time to do these site audits.
Site owners create content and make small tweaks in hopes to increase traffic and sales. Yet, they are merely placing a band-aid on the real problems of the site.
There are three parts to a site analysis:
- Learning about the market for preparation
- Performing the audit and understanding the reports
- Applying best practices to fix the fundamental problems
These changes are beneficial to every website especially those in the lighting industry. To be frank, is a relatively simple process to do.
Do you want increased traffic and site engagement?
Read on to learn the how and why of doing a website audit to make improvements to your lighting website.
Let’s Begin with a Market Evaluation
Before we can jump into doing these audits, we first need to understand the market. Why?
So that we can adapt the upcoming changes to the consumer in an attempt to improve conversions.
Remember: The purpose of the site analysis is to find the site flaws but ultimately it’s to improve performance (which includes sales).
Online Research
Online research comes from searches for terms and offers within your lighting industry. It will reveal the major competitors and engagement levels these brands have in the marketplace.
Here you will find many platforms to connect with potential leads:
- Forums
- Social media groups
- Video streaming
- Blogs
- Online shopping
Collect competitor marketing copy recording customer dialog will uncover needs in the market. These needs are the business opportunities which gives your lighting company a unique position and brand.
Record this information in a spreadsheet for later use during the site analysis.
Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering their efforts and presence gives you an understanding of their position. It’s performing a site and social audit against your competition to see what’s working.
Example: If you notice an ad from the competition then you could use it as inspiration when developing your own.
Here’s why it matters:
- They’ve already done research
- They’re paying for the ad
The competition wouldn’t run these ads if it was burning money. This lets you reduce the time and energy needed to find refined marketing messages.
The competitor audit will also reveal their strategies with key components of their site. The components would include search engine optimization and sales funnel.
Being a Customer
The easiest penetration method is by becoming a customer to your competition.
Being a customer lets you:
- Experience their sales process
- Contact customer service
- Test their offers
It’s sneaky but an effective way to understand why consumers choose their brand. This provides great insight on how you can make necessary changes.
Forming a Better Plan and UVP
All this information should go into updating your business plan.
It also could and should reshape the key branding elements:
- Logo design
- Tone of voice
- Persona
These changes lend value when refining your unique value proposition. A refinement to the UVP will better convey the value of your offer. The clear message will create higher engagement and a difference in your brand.
How to Perform a Site Analysis
Now we get to the juicy part of performing the analysis. It’s actually quite easy even if you’re not a technical type.
Site Analysis Tools and Resources
There are three essential tools for performing a site audit:
- UserTesting.com
- Google Analytics
- SiteUptime.com
Use these tools by submitting your lighting website information and allowing the tools to collect data for about a month. The month-long data collection will give you better results to work from versus a small window if you chose a single day.
The Benefits of a Site Analysis
What do these tools bring to making improvements?
UserTesting.com has people interacting with your website. They file reports about their experience.
You can watch recordings of the user flow and discover their feelings and hangups with the site. This information is critical for improving website user experience and conversion optimization.
Google Analytics will share several key metrics of the site. Items include acquisition and conversions. It will also reveal crawl errors which harm your SEO.
The best benefit is understanding your popular pages and backlinks. These two will let you improve these efforts to boost earnings.
Then, SiteUptime will let you monitor your website for any errors. The service will help you identify server problems that disrupt the lighting site. It will keep the site online thus preventing lost sales.
What the Site Analysis Report Means
The reports generated through these tools which form into the full analysis shows a couple of things:
- Dead-end pages
- Broken links
- Unoptimized content
- User experience and flow
But, it’s not only the bad stuff — it’ll also share:
- High performing pages
- Positive engagement
- Baseline KPIs
You can perform the analysis and hand the information to freelance SEOs. The SEOs will condense the information into an easy-to-read report if you need.
The report is quite handy when passing it along to the site developer and marketing team.
Using the Site Analysis for Improvements
What do we do with this information?
It’s good stuff that gives us direction but if all we do is read and stuff it away with the other reports then it’s not doing us much good.
Here are some things you can do with the audit:
Website Optimization
The audit will reveal errors and low-performing pages of the lighting website.
This shouldn’t cause panic. See it as an opportunity for growth.
1st: Work on fixing the 404 errors by performing 301 redirects to a new content page or to one that has value.
2nd: Find the top 20-30 pages and update the content and SEO elements to improve the page value and possibility of obtaining higher ranks.
3rd: Strip unnecessary site elements that prevent users from taking action and converting.
4th: Define your unique selling point and value proposition on the cornerstone pages.
5th: Perform A/B testing to tweak page elements for better conversion and site ranking.
6th: Find ways to inject cross and up-sell offers on product pages and after the checkout page for quick wins.
7th: Update the branding and tone of the content to better align with your target demographics and customer profile.
It’s a lot you’ll work through but each change will have lasting improvements in your website performance and conversions.
Lead Gen Improvements
The site analysis, when combined with website analytics, will reveal the hidden lead opportunities. These are the money-makers.
You may think large, outdoor spotlights are the main draw of your lighting site. But, in reality, it’s the led strip light kits that produce the greatest leads.
Use the site audit to refine these areas:
- Email opt-in forms
- Headlines
- Call-to-actions
- Cart abandonment
Then, work off-site by doing:
- Guest posting on industry blogs
- Interviews
- Partnerships
- Ad and marketing campaigns
- Social media marketing
Use the audit to select a dozen of your cornerstone content pieces that already show promise with delivering leads. Then, optimize the pieces and build better backlinks and awareness to them.
Research and Development
Perhaps the best part of doing the audit to your lighting site is the hidden business opportunities you’ll uncover.
Understanding the visitor acquisition and flow reveals a potential for:
- Offer verticals
- Cross-sells
- Higher pricing
These are quick wins based on queries and user behavior. But, it could lead the R&D in developing a new product or service offering based on the demands you’ve discovered by auditing your lighting website.
Extra Actions (While You’re in the System)
It’s a great time to use this analysis as an opportunity to make extra improvements to the website and off-site efforts. You’re already tweaking the backend so why not make a few, extra updates.
The extras could include:
- Realigning brand strategy
- Developing a new content marketing plan
- Updating the website design
The site analysis report may reveal major flaws with the website. You may want to consider rebranding since you’re placing a heavy emphasis on updates. The brand shift comes with a need for a new content strategy and website design.
All this comes full circle to the market evaluation.
You’ll have this opportunity to install unique improvements to set your brand apart. Use what you’ve discovered by reverse engineering the competition to fill gaps in the market.
Doing so will build brand awareness and authority.
The new alignment of the content strategy and complementary web design will keep visitors engaged. The results of these efforts will produce higher lead generation and customer retention.
Closing Thoughts
The lighting industry may not seem exciting to most of the consumer marketplace. But, it is to you. There’s a lot of opportunities when growing your brand and expanding the site effectiveness.
To operate the site blindly is a disaster.
It’s very likely your competition is mostly hands-off with their website. Meaning, it has flaws. These are flaws that create gaps in the market (ones you can fill).
The analysis will provide a shocking glimpse at its faults. But, also major improvements that will benefit your lighting website.
Do yourself a favor: Talk with us about audits to learn how you can grow your lighting website.
