Do you have a WordPress website that feels like kind of a mess on the backend? Maybe someone else built it for you but never explained things fully, or worse – they’ve ghosted you and now you’ve got a site that’s constantly giving you problems.
After your WordPress website has been running for a while, you may find yourself with:
- Plugins you know you might not need, but you can’t tell if it’s safe to remove them without breaking your whole site
- Alerts and warnings popping up about license renewals but you have no idea who bought the license in the first place. Do you need to repurchase something? Are you paying for stuff you don’t need?
- A mess of pages, many of them old and probably unused. They may have been removed from your website navigation but still exist out there for people to find, potentially with outdated or incorrect information.
- Security warnings and other techy stuff you just don’t understand or know how to fix
- A slow-loading, sluggish website that’s costing you customers and cash!
If you’re struggling with a WordPress site that’s feeling like a clunky mess and causing you stress, a website audit & tune-up might be the perfect way to get things back on track!
Why a Site Audit & Tune-up can be Helpful
If you’re tired of things breaking or not knowing how to handle errors or alerts, a website audit is the first step towards getting out of that annoying cycle! Having an expert review your WordPress admin backend will get any urgent issues fixed, and you’ll gain a better understanding of your own website.
Once you have more details about the structure and function of your site, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about future changes. Feeling more in control of your website will help reduce the time, effort, and money you’re spending on your marketing.
What I Review in a WordPress Website Audit
A WordPress audit focuses on the backend of your site, not your website content, marketing strategy, graphics, or anything else on the front-end. My job when doing a website audit is to get ‘under the hood’ and review the stuff that’s powering your website. I’ll take detailed notes and ask questions where I may need more information before taking action on changing anything.
Things I’ll examine on your WordPress website:
- Overall setup & site features
- Plugins & other third-party integrations or tools
- All website forms, including delivery testing & documenting functionality of each
- Page sitemap to determine orphaned pages & unneeded drafts
- Technical SEO setup including URL structure, meta tags, & XML sitemap
- Google integration & indexing
- Website security, including all admin users, firewalls, and malware protection
- Site speed & performance, including a review of caching & image compression options
Your role in a website audit is to respond to questions and give approval for removing or changing things. You’ll also need to provide access to necessary accounts, like website hosting, WordPress admin panel, Google Analytics, or other third-party tools you’re using.
After you’ve reviewed the initial findings, I’ll get to work applying the agreed-upon changes: removing plugins you don’t need, deleting and redirecting old pages, removing users who no longer need access to your website – anything that we’ve identified as things that need to be cleaned up. I’ll also install new plugins that we may decide would be helpful for security monitoring, scheduling backups, or optimizing your website performance.
What’s in your Your Website Audit Report
At the end of the WordPress audit, you’ll get a comprehensive report that documents everything I found, changes I made and recommendations for future improvements or actions:
- Plugin & Theme List
- Forms QA Report
- Sitemap Report
- Technical SEO Report
- Security Summary
- Performance Report
Having your website details documented this way means you’ll always have something to refer back to if you have questions about what a plugin is for, who purchased it, or where that email form gets sent to when a customer fills it out. It can also help with future website changes because you’ll have a blueprint for how things are currently built.
Ready for your Site Audit?
Does all of this sound like something you need for your WordPress website? I’d love to help you get a better sense of what’s happening ‘under the hood’ on your website, clean things up, and feel more confident in the decisions you’re making with it.
What happens after the Site Audit?
After you’ve received your full audit report and your website has been cleaned up, I recommend having a plan in place for regular maintenance and site checks. You can certainly do this yourself, but if you’re like most website owners, it’s not going to be at the top of your to-do list very often.
Here’s everything I recommend doing on a monthly basis to ensure your website keeps running smoothly and efficiently:
- Monthly installation & testing of WordPress updates to core files, plugins, & themes
- Continuous security scans & monitoring
- Full website backups – weekly, saved off-site if possible
- Reviewing any Google Search Console alerts that need attention
- Routine database optimization, spam, & revisions cleanup
I offer a monthly WordPress maintenance service so you don’t have to worry about this yourself! Hiring me to care for your website each month means you can spend more time doing your actual job and less time worrying about that plugin license you forgot about renewing, or whether that security notice email you got is something concerning. I’ve got you!
