When we perform a site review for clients, we look at all aspects of the site. When tasked to look at a website for a customer, we will look at it from multiple angles. We look at the end user or customer on how the website works for them when not logged into the site. We then look at how the website acts and performs to customize to the users experience when logged into the website. We will look at the administrative interface as well. Although having your customers being able to gain access to your site, navigate efficiently and purchase your products and services having an administrative side that is not efficient for your employees can also cost your organization. We look at each role administrators can play so that we can provide as comprehensive review as possible.
A small subset of the areas that we look at are below and with the list, growing based on type of audit the client desires. As we go through each item for each page of a website, we list all deficiencies found. Along with the deficiencies we will also presented some recommended solutions along with the anticipated effort to remediate the item.
The core audits that we have been performing are search engine optimization (SEO) audits, security audits, and server performance audits. These can be separate items or combined audits. An audit can range from a few hours to several hundred hours depending on the level that the client desires.
Accessibility
- Content Embedded in Flash
- Frames Site Construction
- Session ID's Requirement
- Cookie Requirement
- Cookie Acceptance Requirements
- Privacy statement
- Terms and conditions statement
- Entry page requires verification
- Page errors
HTML Source Code
- HTML Compliant with the latest HTML standards
- CSS Compliant with the latest HTML standards
- JavaScript code Analysis
- Responsive Design and form factors supported (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile)
Analytics
- Have
- Used
- Gathering the right amount of information
- Marketing tracking
Images
- Compression
- Correct Type
- Image and file size optimization
- Alt Text
Internal Linking
- Related linking structures
- Recommendation engine
- Cross-linking and category linking
- Nofollow use
- Consistent linking
- Canonicalization
- Anchor Text
Main Navigation Elements
- Top navigation
- Side navigation
- Image based navigation
- Footer navigation
- JavaScript Navigation
- Excessive Links in Navigation
Primary Content Element Integrity
- Duplicate content across pages
- HTML page titles
- Meta Tag Elements
- Header Tags H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6
- JavaScript usage
- Search engine standards conformance
- AJAX
- Page size
- Lack of body content
- Use of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Redirects and Server Delivery
- JavaScript Redirect
- 302 Temporary Redirect
- Meta-refresh Redirect
- Redirect Chains
- Proxy Content and URLs
Robot Directives
- Robots.txt file is blocking spiders
- Lack of a Robots.txt file
- Robots Meta-tag is blocking spiders
- Use of link canonical
- Use of specialty meta tags
Security
- SSL use
- Viruses
- Malicious software
- Known security holes and vulnerabilities
- Third-party add-ons
- Use of external files
- Cross-site scripting
- PCI compliance
- SQL Injection
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Black hat techniques
- Page speed
- Body content
- HTML sitemap
- XML sitemap
- "Spammy" content
Site Architecture
- Deep Folder Structure
- Internal Linkage Profile
- Link Count per Page
- Link Depth
Site Performance
- Rewrites and Redirects
- HTTP Requests
- Static file delivery
- Compression
- Page load times
- Source order
- Blocking
Site Search
SQL Server
- Customer data secured
- SQL Injection
URL Structure
- Keyword use
- Directory structure
- Directory number and names
- Limited use of parameters
- Long Dynamic URLs
- Session Tracking in URLs
- Use of Session IDs in URLs
- Domain Strategy