For garden businesses ready to thrive online, a website audit is your best tool for growth. Like pruning roses or turning compost, auditing your website isn’t just a technical exercise—it’s about spotting opportunities, clearing away what’s holding you back, and setting up for a bountiful harvest of traffic, leads, and clients.
Why Website Audits Matter
Your website is your garden’s digital front porch. If it’s messy, slow, or hard to find, customers will look elsewhere—even if your products are superb. Audits help you unearth and fix problems, improve rankings on Google, and create a better experience for every visitor.
Step 1: Set Your Goals and Gather Data
Before diving in, identify your business goals:
- Do you want more website visitors?
- More email sign-ups?
- Higher sales or bookings?
Use analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to benchmark where you are now. Record metrics like total visits, bounce rate, top pages, and conversion rates.
Step 2: Crawl Your Website
A crawl is like walking the garden beds row-by-row. Use tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or free online analyzers to scan your site for:
- Broken links
- Crawl errors (pages Google can’t see)
- Duplicate content
- Slow-loading pages
Fixing these boosts search rankings and keeps visitors happy.
Step 3: Audit Content and SEO
Great garden businesses educate and engage. Review:
- Blog posts, landing pages, product/service descriptions
- Use your focus keyword (website audit for growth) naturally, and include related terms
- Meta titles and descriptions: make sure every page has unique, descriptive text
- Heading structure: use H1, H2, H3 headers to organize content
- Internal links: guide users deeper into your site with relevant links (from tips on tomatoes to booking your landscape design consult)
Step 4: Analyze Technical Health
Performance and mobile friendliness matter more than ever:
- Test site speed with Google PageSpeed Insights
- Ensure your site is responsive on all devices (mobile, tablet, desktop)
- Remove unnecessary plugins or scripts that slow the site
Use Core Web Vitals for deeper insights.
Step 5: Check User Experience (UX)
Can visitors quickly find what they need (services, contact, blog)?
- Streamline navigation menus and make calls-to-action clear (Book a discovery call!)
- Test forms for errors (perhaps try them yourself or ask friends)
- Look at your site from a customer’s point of view—is it pleasant and easy?
Step 6: Examine Backlinks and Off-Page Reputation
Backlinks are like recommendations from trusted garden experts.
- Use Ahrefs or Moz to review which sites link to yours
- Remove spammy or irrelevant backlinks if possible
- Focus on building high-quality links from reputable gardening or local business sites (guest posts, local news, partner pages)
Step 7: Compare with Top Competitors
Visit your competitors’ websites:
- What are they doing better?
- Are their pages faster, better designed, or ranking higher?
- Take notes, then adapt ideas in a way that suits your own business brand.
Step 8: Gather Feedback
Invite trusted customers or friends to test your site:
- Is anything confusing, slow, or broken?
- Use their feedback to make improvements.
Step 9: Take Action—And Track Results
Make a list of fixes to prioritize. Biggest impact first: speed, broken links, and SEO tweaks. After implementing them, use analytics and SEO tools to monitor improvement over time.
Final Tips for Continuous Growth
Auditing isn’t one-and-done. Schedule regular reviews—just like seasonal gardening tasks. Reward yourself as you see growth in traffic, engagement, and sales.
Need help performing an audit or writing growth-driving garden content? I charge $500 for an audit of up to 5 pages and a report of good and bad items. I include concrete steps you can take to improve. Email me at stephanie@gardencopywriter.com or set up a free discovery call to get help.
