You track a lot of metrics like conversion rate, product page performance or cart abandonment etc. That’s great but are you sure about the accuracy of your eCommerce website metrics on Google Analytics? Sorry, but I got bad news. 90% of eCommerce websites' metrics break in every six months because your eCommerce website is constantly changing, and your eCommerce metrics have to fit with these changes.
Tracking and improving anomalies on your eCommerce website is actually not so easy. A known solution is getting a consultation or hiring someone to audit your eCommerce website.
Unfortunately, these are not cost-effective or scalable methods for eCommerce website audits.
Don't worry; heybooster is here to help with eCommerce website audits!
You can use heybooster to audit in the configuration of your eCommerce website and get answers on how you can improve all issues that are currently in your eCommerce website.
How To Perform An eCommerce Website Audit?
Websites are no longer just a place to have information about your business, product, and brand online. Today’s websites are also an e-commerce storefronts where visitors can buy your products directly from you. Even though many businesses already use their site as an e-commerce store, most of them aren’t fully utilizing its potential. A recent report found that 58% of all e-commerce sites are not optimally configured to drive sales or performance. This is why it’s important to perform a website audit regularly so you can identify areas for improvement and build on your existing strengths. Here’s what you need to check when auditing your site: The website audit is the very first step before you start any other type of audit. This will help you understand and take note of the following things:
Server Infrastructure: Check if you are using a server that can handle the heavy traffic during peak seasons and also when there are bugs in your website. Having the correct server and bandwidth will help reduce the risk of your website crashing and causing a negative impact on your business.
Server Location: Make sure you are hosting your website in the correct location. This will help you rank higher in local searches, which are a great source of leads. There are plenty of tools and resources available to help you find out if your hosting company is in the right location and if not, where they are located.
Website Structure and URL: Check if your website has a proper structure and URL. This will help you get a better understanding of your website, which can also help you when updating the website.
What Does Include An eCommerce Website Audit?
If you’re conducting an eCommerce website audit, you’ll want to carefully examine several different aspects of your business’s site, including everything from your site’s architecture and design to your site’s source code and user experience. Here are a few of the areas you’ll want to take a look at as part of your audit:
- Source code - You’ll want to carefully comb through your site’s source code, looking for issues that might negatively impact the user experience, such as broken links or a site that takes too long to load.
- Content - Your product descriptions are critical to a successful eCommerce site, as they need to be detailed enough to prompt a purchase yet concise enough that a visitor can quickly read through them.
- Architecture - How your products are organized, how many “categories” you have, and the way your site is laid out can have a significant impact on how easy your eCommerce site is to use.
- User experience - How easy is it for visitors to navigate your site? How quickly do they find the products they’re looking for?
- A/B testing - Are you testing different versions of your site?
- Mobile optimization - How does your site look on a mobile device? Are you optimizing it for the best possible experience?
Why Performing An eCommerce Website Audit Is Important?
There are several reasons to conduct an eCommerce website audit, including:- Discover slow or problematic areas of your site - An audit will help you identify problem areas of your site, such as pages that take too long to load or areas that are too complicated for a new user to navigate. You’ll be able to prioritize fixing these issues. - Analyze your competition - Looking at the eCommerce sites that your customers are visiting will help you identify areas you can excel in, such as the quality of your product descriptions, the number of product categories you have, or the layout of your pages. - Create a company-wide eCommerce improvement strategy - Once you’ve completed your audit, you’ll have a clear idea of what needs work and where your eCommerce site can be improved. - Improve your conversion rate - An eCommerce site audit will help you make changes that will positively impact your conversion rate, such as adding more relevant product descriptions or making your site more mobile-friendly.
What Are The Steps Of eCommerce Website Audit?
There are five main steps to conducting an eCommerce website audit, including: - Define your goals - Before you do anything else, it’s important to make sure you know what you’re trying to accomplish with your audit. Is there a specific area you want to focus on? - Research your competition - Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s time to start researching your competition. What are their strengths? What could you do better? - Identify problem areas - Now that you’ve looked at the competition, it’s time to turn your attention to your site. Start by making note of problem areas, such as pages that are too long or too dense or load too slowly or broken links that lead nowhere. - Create a to-do list - Once you’ve figured out what needs work, it’s time to create a to-do list. Make sure your to-do list includes everything you need to do, from fixing broken links to improving your copy to adding new product categories. - Follow up regularly - Once you’ve completed an audit, you need to make sure you follow up on your to-do list. Otherwise, you risk letting these issues go unaddressed.
Why eCommerce Website Audit Perform Constantly?
A standard eCommerce website audit will tell you what’s wrong with your site, but it won’t tell you how to fix those issues. You may want to conduct a more thorough audit or hire a professional at least once a year (or even every 6 months). There are two main reasons to conduct a more comprehensive audit: - Get expert advice - An expert eCommerce consultant can help you identify areas of your eCommerce site that need work, as well as provide you with expert advice on how to fix those issues. - Identify areas of improvement - You may want to conduct a more thorough audit to identify issues that can be improved, such as the quality of your copy or the number of product categories you have. These issues may not have been issues during your initial audit, but if you want to improve your conversion rate, they’ll need to be fixed.
