A site analysis gives the site owner a glimpse into its search engine optimization. It reveals its effectiveness to convert.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, very few take the time to do these site audits.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
There are three parts to a site analysis:<\/p>\n
These changes are beneficial to every website especially those in the lighting industry. To be frank, is a relatively simple process to do.<\/p>\n
Do you want increased traffic and site engagement?<\/p>\n
Read on to learn the how and why of doing a website audit to make improvements to your lighting website.<\/p>\n
Before we can jump into doing these audits, we first need to understand the market. Why?<\/p>\n
So that we can adapt the upcoming changes to the consumer in an attempt to improve conversions.<\/p>\n
Remember: The purpose of the site analysis is to find the site flaws but ultimately it’s to improve performance (which includes sales).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here you will find many platforms to connect with potential leads:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Record this information in a spreadsheet for later use during the site analysis.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Example: If you notice an ad from the competition then you could use it as inspiration when developing your own.<\/p>\n
Here’s why it matters:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The competitor audit<\/a> will also reveal their strategies with key components of their site. The components would include search engine optimization and sales funnel.<\/p>\n The easiest penetration method is by becoming a customer to your competition.<\/p>\n Being a customer lets you:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n All this information should go into updating your business plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n It also could and should reshape the key branding elements:<\/p>\n These changes lend value when refining your unique value proposition. A refinement to the UVP<\/a> will better convey the value of your offer. The clear message will create higher engagement and a difference in your brand.<\/p>\n Now we get to the juicy part of performing the analysis. It’s actually quite easy even if you’re not a technical type.<\/p>\n There are three essential tools for performing a site audit:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n What do these tools bring to making improvements?<\/p>\n UserTesting.com has people interacting with your website. They file reports about their experience.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The best benefit is understanding your popular pages and backlinks. These two will let you improve these efforts to boost earnings.<\/p>\n Then, SiteUptime will let you monitor your website for any errors. The service will help you identify server problems<\/a> that disrupt the lighting site. It will keep the site online thus preventing lost sales.<\/p>\n The reports generated through these tools which form into the full analysis shows a couple of things:<\/p>\n But, it’s not only the bad stuff — it’ll also share:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The report is quite handy when passing it along to the site developer and marketing team.<\/p>\n What do we do with this information?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Here are some things you can do with the audit:<\/p>\n The audit will reveal errors and low-performing pages of the lighting website.<\/p>\n This shouldn’t cause panic. See it as an opportunity for growth.<\/p>\n 1st: Work on fixing the 404 errors by performing 301 redirects to a new content page or to one that has value.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 3rd: Strip unnecessary site elements that prevent users from taking action and converting.<\/p>\n 4th: Define your unique selling point and value proposition on the cornerstone pages.<\/p>\n 5th: Perform A\/B testing to tweak page elements for better conversion and site ranking.<\/p>\n 6th: Find ways to inject cross and up-sell offers on product pages and after the checkout page for quick wins.<\/p>\n 7th: Update the branding and tone of the content to better align with your target demographics and customer profile.<\/p>\n It’s a lot you’ll work through but each change will have lasting improvements in your website performance and conversions.<\/p>\n The site analysis, when combined with website analytics, will reveal the hidden lead opportunities. These are the money-makers.<\/p>\n You may think large, outdoor spotlights are the main draw of your lighting site. But, in reality, it’s the led strip light<\/a> kits that produce the greatest leads.<\/p>\n Use the site audit to refine these areas:<\/p>\n Then, work off-site by doing:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best part of doing the audit to your lighting site is the hidden business opportunities you’ll uncover.<\/p>\n Understanding the visitor acquisition and flow reveals a potential for:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The extras could include:<\/p>\n 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<\/a> comes with a need for a new content strategy and website design.<\/p>\n All this comes full circle to the market evaluation.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Doing so will build brand awareness and authority.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n To operate the site blindly is a disaster.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n The analysis will provide a shocking glimpse at its faults. But, also major improvements that will benefit your lighting website.<\/p>\nBeing a Customer<\/h3>\n
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Forming a Better Plan and UVP<\/h3>\n
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How to Perform a Site Analysis<\/h2>\n
Site Analysis Tools and Resources<\/h3>\n
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The Benefits of a Site Analysis<\/h3>\n
What the Site Analysis Report Means<\/h3>\n
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Using the Site Analysis for Improvements<\/h2>\n
Website Optimization<\/h3>\n
Lead Gen Improvements<\/h3>\n
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Research and Development<\/h3>\n
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Extra Actions (While You’re in the System)<\/h2>\n
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Closing Thoughts<\/h2>\n