Digital audits were all the rage a few years back. Agencies and businesses were scrambling to get their websites, email marketing, and social media accounts properly audited in order to identify any areas that could be improved. However, lately it seems like everyone has forgotten about digital audits. Why is that? And more importantly, should you still bother getting one done? In this blog post, we’ll explore why digital audits have fallen out of favor and discuss whether or not they’re still worth your time and money.
Pardon the cliché, but when it comes to digital marketing, things are constantly evolving. Tactics that worked just a few months ago may be obsolete today.
This means that digital agencies need to be vigilant in keeping up with the latest changes and trends or they risk becoming irrelevant.
So what’s the hot new trend in digital? Audits.
At least, that’s what you’d think if you only looked at job postings and industry articles. But when you talk to people working in the trenches of digital marketing, it’s a different story. Audits are an important part of any effective digital marketing strategy, but they’re no longer a top priority for many companies. Why is that?
Many companies may feel that an audit of their digital estate may flag up issues they don’t want to know about. However these very issues may well be harming their digital marketing, whilst boosting competitors.
Carrying out a digital audit should, at the very least, highlight in a priority order what needs to be addressed. More importantly how the issue should be fixed; an audit that only highlights issues without an action should be avoided.
What low hanging fruit is there – the quick wins?
What is causing fundamental issues?
How secure is my online estate?
These are some of the main areas to look for. I have carried out hundreds of digital audits over the years for small/micro businesses up to PLCs. The one thing I always look for are the areas that can be fixed, or are causing issues. This does not always mean the recommendation is a new website – far from it, i want the current digital estate to work for the customer.
There are similarities that I tend to find across customers’ digital estate. These tend to be a lack of knowledge from the client to ask the right questions, but also the agency not keeping everything up to date; as they should. How many clients are told that WordPress needs to be kept up to date regularly and that there should ideally be some sort of support contract in place. Many clients think that having a website built is it, end of the job. Far from it!!
I always say at the beginning of a website or digital project that “go live” is just the beginning, the hard work starts then.
An audit by an independent will give a much better picture of what is actually happening with no bias. The critical part of an audit though is to act upon the actions; there is no point having an audit carried out and then putting it in the bottom drawer because it is too hard to read.
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