What’s a Website Audit and Should You Do It?

Website Audits and Content Audits: What’s the Difference?

If you’re a writer with tech skills, you probably notice the strengths and weaknesses of every website you visit. Have you thought about using that keen eye to win new business? You may want to offer a free audit to attract clients.

Website audits and content audits give website owners valuable information about what is and isn’t working on their website, but it’s important to know the difference between the two. When you audit a website, you’re looking at all of the factors involved with the website’s performance, like traffic, ranking, visibility, SEO, and content. An in-depth website audit looks at each page of the site to assess these factors. A content audit focuses strictly on analyzing the content and assets of a website, or may be directed at specific pages. While a content audit can become technical, it’s often focused on the quality of the content provided.

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What Kind of Experience Do I Need to Do Website Audits?

Freelancers should carefully consider their technical skills before deciding on the type of audit they want to offer. If you have a strong background in UX (user experience), UI (user interface), web analytics, SEO analysis, programming languages, and other technical development skills, you’re in an excellent position to branch out with website audits. 

Writers who do not possess the technical know-how for a website audit can still do a content audit to look for content that’s lacking. If you can substantiate your writing skills, that’s all you need to show you can remove those pesky misplaced modifiers, misspelled words, and inaccurate copy.

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How to Use Free Website Audits to Land Clients 

When you’re seeking clients, you need to balance the information you’re willing to provide for free against the chances of winning a paying client. You don’t want to invest too much time, but you do want to have salient points that will pique a potential client’s interest. Some potential free audit points include:

• Outdated or erroneous content
• Typos and other proofreading mistakes
• Missing content – “Lorem ipsum” isn’t copy
• Broken links 
• Pages throwing 404 errors

Although a website is the public face of most businesses today, optimizing a website is often the last thing on a business owner’s mind—until someone presents them with well-researched observations and suggestions to improve it. Your free audit may be just what’s needed to convince them they need to hire you to clean up their website.

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