Creating and building your Showit website on your own is hard work. But what happens if, after all the hours, months (or even years) you’ve spent putting it together to make it look good, you’re not even sure if everything works? Our secret to getting it right every time is a Showit Website Audit.

Prior to launching a Showit website, we always follow our 14-Step website audit Checklist, which is the best way to ensure you never have any surprises on launch day.

Before we start – missed a part of our Ultimate Showit Series? Catch up below.

• What is Showit & how does it work?
• Your Top 10 Showit Q&As
• 15 Showit Shortcuts (you need to know!)
• 8 Ways to Personalise your Showit Template
• 3 Ways to Create Client Testimonials in Showit
• Showit Step-by-Step Template Training Series

Firstly, we’ll explain what a Showit Website Audit is. And then share our exact Website Audit list. A list that took us years of trial and error to create. Are you ready to learn all our insider tips for a stress-free launch? Let’s get started.

How to avoid nasty unexpected surprises on-site Launch

Imagine this – you have just launched your Showit website and told your followers about your new site and business venture. They come to your website and, it’s not functioning correctly.

That’s a terrible first impression for you and your brand!

As a designer, working on the backend part of your website can feel scary. But, for your site to work, it has to be built correctly, giving your viewer a stress-free visit where every button, link and feature does what it’s supposed to do.

Sometimes you just need an extra set of (experienced) eyes to check your site and ensure you’ve done everything correctly before launching.

This experienced set of eyes is what’s also known as a Website Audit.

What’s a Showit Website Audit?

Think of a website audit as an experienced set of eyes that gives a thorough inspection of your site before you launch.

An audit aims to ensure everything you have set up on the backend of your website has been done correctly.

So that when someone visits and performs an action (such as clicking on a link, or button or leaving a message in the contact form), each task functions perfectly.

How much more relieved will you feel knowing that when you hit the publish button, everything function you created has a working tick of approval?

When we conduct an audit, we prepare a detailed guide for our client.

It includes the errors and issues we discovered along the way, along with explanations of how you can correct them.  We don’t make any of the amends ourselves but guide them on the corrections.

We conduct an audit on every website template we create (we can do that for you here), and there are 14 areas we always examine before we hit publish.

Our Showit Website Audit Checklist

1. Correct use of heading tags.
   Doing this is the best practice for best SEO, navigation and readability.
   
2. The correct stacking order of your design elements.
   Again, another best practice for SEO, Google and screen readers.
   
3. Correct setup of Text boxes.
   By doing this, you won’t get any reflow issues on Apple or Android devices.
   
4. The locking options are correct.
   We check this so that your page elements expand out on larger screens like iMacs.
   
5. Large images have the correct locking options.
   Doing this will help avoid stretching and scaling – which are very common on Tablet sized screens.
   
6. Menu items are set up correctly and functioning.
   We also give suggestions on where the best place to use invisible buttons is for your mobile design.
   
7. Within the main text, all links are set up.
   Another important part is to ensure the links are functioning correctly.
   
8. Complete Showit Contact Form setup check.
   When we do Showit Website Audits, we don’t cover email provider form setup checks. But, whether you’re with Flowdesk, Mailchimp, Convertkit etc., it’s a good idea for you to check them.
   
9. Links to other pages.
   We go through every single link that goes to another page on your website. Ensuring they have been set up and are functioning correctly.
   
10. Links that scroll to other canvases.
    These links also need checking to ensure they have been set up and are functioning.
    
11. Image galleries.
    Whether the images are in a portfolio or on the home page, we check them to ensure the correct setup.
    
12. Blog Page.
    Think of this page as the overview of all the blog posts you’ve ever written. Here we check setup is correct to enable you to get the most out of SEO.
    
13. Blog Post Page.
    Once you click on an individual blog post on the blog page, the next step is the blog post page.
    From here, we check setup is correct from the correct heading tags to image alt tags. Following the best practices will help your overall SEO.
    
14. Blog Category Pages.
    This section (like the previous blog sections mentioned above) needs to be checked and ensure the setup is correct.
    
    
    With our Showit Website Audit, we don’t test any integrations outside of the Showit Platform. E.g. setup of your Flowdesk, Mailchimp or ConvertKit, or any other external platforms you may be using on your site.

Want an experienced set of eyes to check your website?

That’s where we step in.

To begin with, we’ll ask you a few questions about whether there are any areas on your website that need special attention. Then, we’ll provide you with a detailed guide on the errors and issues we discovered, and finally, explain how you can correct them.

Note that we don’t make any of the amends for you. Instead, we guide you on the corrections.

Here’s what one of our Website Audit customers had to say.

“We have been building websites for many years but this was our first time using Showit. It was great to have Tom audit the site when we had finished and make sure everything was perfect before we launched it. He clearly has a lot of knowledge in this area and his feedback was invaluable as well as his fast turnaround times.”  Sarah, Mino Design & Digital

Want to make sure everything is perfect with your Showit Website? We’d love to help.

You Did it!

That’s a wrap on our How to have a Stress-Free Launch with our Showit Website Audit. Have you ever considered (or heard of) a Showit Website Audit before? How do you feel about it now? Is it something that could help you? Let us know. And in the meantime, follow us on Pinterest for more blog posts like this.

Here’s what we covered in this blog

How to Avoid Nasty Unexpected Surprises on-site Launch
What’s a Website Audit?
Our Showit Website Audit Checklist
Want an experienced set of eyes to check your website?

Where to now?

Want more Showit Website Tips? Check out the blogs below.

1. The simple colour rule to make your website look amazing – Find it Here.
2. 3 Ways to Create Client Testimonials in Showit – Learn them here.
3. Our Showit Step-by-Step Template Training Series – Take Me There.

Want more Showit Tips?
Grab our cheat sheet – 15 Showit Shortcuts

Save time and frustration building your website by using our 15 Showit Shortcuts. We’ve included both keyboard and icon shortcuts to make the process smooth and easy. Get it Free Here!

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