Ever heard of a design audit before? If you’re in eCommerce, the answer is probably, if you aren’t maybe not.

Typically, the word audit carries negative connotations, but in this instance, an audit works to the benefit of the business conducting it.

Here’s what you need to know about audits, and how you can benefit from working with an eCommerce website agency.

What Is a Design Audit?

Basically, a design audit is an analysis of how well the website functions, and how nicely it looks. A website audit will take a look at all the functionality of a website to ensure it works smoothly, with all parts accounted for.

Some website design audits focus more closely on the visual aesthetic of the website, rather than just functionality. Full-suite audits will look at both.

Experienced website designers and developers will take an in-depth look at the website to make sure the design is cohesive and consistent, and to ensure that the website encourages an overall positive customer experience while encouraging a journey towards conversion.

What Will a Design Audit Uncover?

If you work with an eCommerce website agency for a design audit, it can potentially uncover issues associated with the following components. An audit will:

• Analyze the overall market as well as key competitors to determine effective strategies
• Ensure navigation is consistent across the entire website
• Ensure that a search bar is always visible in a prominent location
• Audit website content for “scannability” and brevity
• Ensure that the structure is not confusing
• Ensure the accessibility of contact information
• Uncover areas of opportunity where CTAs and urgency plays can be included
• Ensure any relevant buttons describe clear actions
• Ensure the consistency of typography, icons, and other visual elements
• Ensure that buttons, dropdowns, and other navigation aids are easy to find, attractive, and properly contrasted (as well as clear)
• Assess brand integration across the website in terms of color scheme and other visual elements
• Assess responsive design and mobile-friendliness
• Interpret contrast between text and website background
• Uncover broken links and other areas of weak functionality
• Ensure that any images used are relevant and exhibit high quality
• Assess accessibility for users with disabilities
• Ensure that any sign-up processes are easy to follow

These are just a few of the things that an eCommerce website agency’s design audit may uncover, but there are countless others, and all of them serve the benefit of your eCommerce business.

Benefits of a Design Audit

If you’re wondering about how or why you should work with an eCommerce website agency for a design audit, here are some of the potential benefits of doing so:

• Discovering and identifying issues with usability
• Boosting user engagement
• Enhancing the user experience, increasing overall customer satisfaction
• Improving branding
• Producing more leads, registrations, sign-ups
• Reducing user frustration, helping to mitigate support cases
• Encouraging a higher conversion rate

Overall, a design audit can help you find your website’s wear areas, particularly those that you might not have known about, and make it clear how they might be fixed.

Working with an Experienced eCommerce Website Agency

While it’s conceivably possible to do a website audit on your own without any professional help, a more reasonable course of action would be to work with an experienced eCommerce website design agency to do the audit.

Working with an eCommerce web design company for such aim (or an eCommerce website development agency) has other benefits, too. Many of these eCommerce agencies offer other services that support long-term growth, such as search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, email marketing, and PPC management, all of which can help improve marketing efforts with the goal of growing your online business.

If you’re looking for a full-service digital agency, consider none other than 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency, with experts that specialize in all the top eCommerce platforms as well as all major digital marketing channels.

You can learn more at their website (1DigitalAgency.com) or by contacting them at Info@1DigitalAgency.com.