DIY Website Audit: Use These Free Optimization Tools to Improve Your Site

Millions of websites exist on the internet today, but not all of them get the desired traffic and views. There can be many reasons why a website performs poorly. Fortunately, there are many free website optimization tools available online to help them.

You can use these tools to optimize every element of your site. Moreover, it will also benefit your SEO and paid advertisement campaigns.

Let’s start!

Here’s Why You Need A Website Audit

Website optimization is a means of improving a site’s performance by using tools, sophisticated strategies, and trials to generate more traffic, increase sales, and expand income. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential element of website optimization.

The method helps get various sections of your website to place high in the SERPs for particular keywords and makes it easy for prospects to discover your brand. On-page SEO is also important in this case. This method guarantees that your website’s visitors have the best user experience possible, enticing them to perform the desired action and turn into a lead.

However, SEO isn’t the end-all-be-all of web optimization. A more holistic web optimization service understands that a successful site optimization combines various disciplines, including:

  • Site Speed
  • Accessibility and User Experience
  • Conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools
  • Traffic / SEO Improvement Tools
  • Analytics

The Benefits of Website Optimization Done Right

The primary purpose is to optimize these elements to increase traffic and conversion rates. Especially since 53.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search. However, many businesses and website owners directly jump to marketing campaigns before optimizing their sites. As a result, their efforts go in vain.

Additionally, you can have the following benefits by optimizing your website:

Increased Traffic

If your website stays at the top of search engine result pages, it’s easier to get impressions and clicks. As a result, your high-ranking on-search engines will help the site receive many visitors.

But that requires you to work on creating keyword-relevant title tags and meta descriptions that can entice the visitors viewing these in search results. Ultimately, these descriptions and tags boost website views, so your website receives approved web traffic.

Cost Efficient Marketing

Optimizing a website is an efficient technique for increasing the number of visits to your website. Your website will receive the most views and interactions if it remains at the top of search engine result pages. Consequently, your high search engine ranking helps the site get many visitors.

During website optimization, one should develop helpful and keyword-relevant meta descriptions and title tags and then try to show these in search results sites. These descriptions and keywords also increase website views, ensuring your website gets legitimate online traffic.

Create Brand Awareness

Your website is your identity, and optimizing it is a surefire way to boost your website’s brand value and recognition online. By achieving a top ranking on search engines, your site will not only receive a large number of visitors and traffic, but it will also acquire confidence from people.

Because a website with a better search engine ranking is considered more trustworthy, and people become more familiar with its goods and services. Push your website and its content to search engines, allowing users to see your website and content and connect with your business.

Boost Conversion Rates

The method of raising the proportion of conversions from a mobile app or website is known as conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO entails developing ideas for components in your website or app that can be improved and then verifying those theories through multivariate testing and A/B testing.

11 Website Optimization Tools To Help You Enhance Your Site

Get These Free Optimization Tools For Your Website Inside Blog

Our top website optimization tools are available freely online. These include:

1. GT Metrix For Site Speed

GTMetrix is a web page speed tool that allows users to optimize page load speed. All you need to do is enter any URL and click “Test your site” to launch a basic site speed test. You’re also presented with a drop-down on each recommendation to learn how to make your page load faster.

Features

  • Quickly Analyze any URL
  • Dashboard, Filters, and Tags to organize reports
  • Access to seven global testing locations
  • Monitoring of trends analysis and historical tracking
  • Alerts for performance issues

Pros

  • Comprehensive recommendations and analysis
  • Reliable information on website speed, load time, and performance
  • User-friendly interface

Cons

  • The score can be overly optimistic
  • Need a pro account to unlock mobile devices, browsers, and test servers

2. Google Search Console for Traffic and SEO Improvement

The Google Search Console is a free search optimization tool geared towards improving traffic and SEO, among other aspects. You can measure SEO performance and view backlinks, keyword impressions, and clicks. You can also check speed and crawling errors.

Features

  • In-depth Keyword analysis
  • Remove URLs you don’t want to be tracked from Google search results
  • Monitor your website’s traffic
  • Optimize your ranking
  • Site audit and diagnostics

Pros

  • Detailed and accurate reports
  • Samples out SEO issues to improve the ranking
  • Consistently tracks search results

Cons

  • Data can be inconsistent with Google Trends and Analytics

3. PageSpeed Insights for Traffic and SEO Improvement

PageSpeed Insights (PSI) analyzes a page’s performance on mobile and desktop platforms and recommends how to enhance it. It tests website page speed on desktop and mobile.

Features

  • Multi-domain support
  • Integration with web analytics tools
  • Optimizes your website for local SEO
  • Optimized for Social SEO
  • Performance alerts

Pros

  • Desktop and mobile analysis
  • Easy-to-read-results
  • Helpful tips to improve performance

Cons

  • Unable to test statistics from different locations
  • The interface is mostly designed for technical users

4. Pingdom for Site Speed

Pingdom by SolarWinds is a SaaS-based web app performance tracking tool. It monitors your website’s speed and user experience, and also alerts you of issues that could affect your site. This tool for web optimization boosts your website’s speed via its page speed monitoring service.

Features

  • Real User Monitoring (RUM)
  • Dashboards and reporting
  • Developer-friendly API
  • Alerts and notifications
  • Uptime monitoring

Pros

  • Quick alerting of outages
  • Easy-to-use dashboard
  • Good summaries of monthly uptime

Cons

  • iOS app lacks functionality
  • The dashboard can be a little slow

5. HotJar for Accessibility and UX

Hotjar is one of the simplest applications you can use to track how people actually use your site. Features include heat mapping, graphic session recording, convert funnel analytics, form analytics, feedback questionnaires and surveys, and usability testing.

Features

  • Web analytics
  • Heatmap and session recording
  • Customer journey analytics
  • Digital experience intelligence
  • Surveys and forms building

Pros

  • Free trial
  • Free version
  • No set-up fee

Cons

  • 30 days of limited data on the heatmap
  • Difficult to troubleshoot the exact cause of potential issues
  • Incomplete tracking

6. VWO for CRO

VWO is a premium A/B testing and optimization tool for businesses that want a trusty partner in scaling their campaigns. It allows them to perform qualitative and quantitative visitor research, create an experimentation roadmap, and execute continuous tests on their digital domains. While pricing can get expensive for businesses with complex needs, you can start with the free version and scale from there!

Features

  • Complex A/B testing
  • Audience Segmentation and targeting
  • Results and analysis
  • Goal tracking
  • Test reporting

Pros

  • Complex Landing page customizations
  • Runs multivariate tests
  • Accessible Design & Interface

Cons

  • Potential Bugs on PDP pages
  • Could benefit from more flexible contracts

7. Ahrefs For Traffic/ SEO Improvement

Ahrefs is a scalable and flexible traffic and performance marketing software designed for SMEs. The Ahrefs Site Explorer provides a suite of tools including on-page SEO and backlink analysis, domain comparision tools and online brand mentions tracking. Some of these are available for free!

Features

  • Free Keyword Generator
  • SERP ranking tracking
  • Backlink & Authority Tracking
  • Page grader

Pros

  • Their Free Tools can still be very useful to businesses starting SEO
  • Find where you’re ranking for critical keywords compared to competitors
  • Find potential issues with your SEO.

Cons

  • No free trial for the main tool.
  • Limited results unless you subscribe to a paid version

9. Cloudflare Zaraz for Analytics

If you’re relying on third-party solutions for your website, Cloudflare Zaraz can significantly boost your website’s speed by not running the tag code in the browser. Zaraz loads third-party tools in the cloud, away from browsers, improving speed, security, and privacy.

Features

  • Cloud Hosting for your site’s 3rd party tools
  • Privacy and security

Pros

  • Improves your site’s speed, privacy, and security.
  • Ease of use

Cons

  • Its potential downtime can leave you without access to critical tools.
  • You don’t have complete control over your own infrastructure

10. Optinly for CRO & Forms

Optinly is a goal-based window application designed to make the lead-generation process as simple as possible. Moreover, Optinly may also decrease cart abandonment, gather consumer input, boost cart worth, and do various other things.

Features

  • Fullscreen overlays
  • Countdown pop-ups
  • Dashboard
  • Lead capture
  • Email marketing

Pros

  • Good customer support
  • Ease of use
  • Value for money

Cons

  • Doesn’t have direct integrations with several commonly used softwares

11. Matamo for Analytics

Matomo is an open-source website analysis tool that allows customers to track online, mobile, and intranet sites. It’s basically a Google Analytics alternative that safeguards users’ privacy with advanced privacy features and a data ownership strategy.

Features

  • Form Analytics
  • Heatmaps
  • Acquisitions
  • Real-time data updates
  • Privacy complaint analytics

Pros

  • Straightforward to use
  • Simple to install
  • Basic analytics and dashboard functions

Cons

  • Only 3 free custom parameters
  • No cloud hosting is available

Conclusion

You can’t just focus on one thing when working on improving your website. It’s essential to work on all factors, including site speed, accessibility, and user experience, conversion rate optimization, traffic / SEO improvement, and analytics. Taking all of these things into account, you will be able to draw and engage the right people to your site!

Share This Story...

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest

Camilla | Marketing Specialist

Camilla works hard to ensure that the Marketing strategies and executions are on point and data-driven, not only for our clients but internally at Profitable Media as well. She’s been coming up with innovative ways to reach and engage audiences for over 8 years.

Picture of Camilla B. <br><span>Digital Marketing Specialist </span>

Camilla B.
Digital Marketing Specialist

Camilla works hard to ensure that the Marketing strategies and executions are on point and data-driven, not only for our clients but internally at Profitable Media as well. She’s been coming up with innovative ways to reach and engage audiences for over 8 years.

Related Posts
Boost Your Membership site with these membermouse integrations
Make Your Bottom Of Funnel Marketing More Effective

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let's Talk Today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

© Copyright 2009 – 2023 |   Profitable Media, LLC    |   All Rights Reserved    |   Privacy Policy   |   Terms & Conditions
  408.596.4676           Email Us
Vlad P. Marketing Specialist at Profitable Media, LLC

Vlad Popirda

MARKETING SPECIALIST

View Profile

If you’ve been swayed, convinced, or otherwise persuaded by the writing on our page or in some of our emails, chances are Vlad was the man behind it.

Be it Social Media Management, Marketing Strategy, PPC Ads, or Copywriting, you can rely on him to get the job done.

With a Bachelor’s in Marketing and a Master’s in Advertising, his life’s work is to leave this world better than he found it, and he aims to achieve that by putting his talents in the service of the right people and helping businesses make a difference in the world.

Outside of working hours, you may find him singing Britney Spears songs at karaoke nights, or exercising his creativity in varied ways, such as playing chess, designing board games, playing guitar, or playing Dungeons & Dragons with his mates.

Alisa Villanueva Account Manager at Profitable Media, LLC

Alisa Villanueva

ACCOUNT MANAGER

View Profile

Alisa is the glue that brings all the parts of our operation together. The one always keeping an eye on the bigger picture. The person that makes sure that it all works smoothly and on schedule, giving everything an artistic spin and flourish with her keen eye for design.

With her background in sales, customer service and art, it’s no wonder her strength is in communicating with people, be they our customers or us, her team.

While juggling her different tasks (Project Management, Web Design, Quality Control, Customer Service), one thing never changes: she will use her artistic sense to make a project unique and she will hear out the person she is working with, understanding their needs and wishes while integrating and tying them all together to create an outstanding final product.

When she’s not tuned in to her work, you’ll find Alisa taking ordinary things and making them beautiful. In her artistic endeavors she explores many different mediums of expression, like painting, ceramics, dance, and cooking. Among these, her dancing stands out, as she is part of a salsa dance performance team, doing gigs both locally and nationally.

Her dream is to travel and explore different cultures, which she is always doing from home by cooking and trying out various cuisines from around the world.
Short Excerpt:
Alisa is the one that makes things work smoothly and on schedule, giving everything she does an artistic spin and flourish with her keen eye for design.

With her background in sales, customer service and art, it’s no wonder her strength is in communicating with people, be they our customers or us, her team.

Zach Warshawsky Chief Operations Officer at Profitable Media, LLC

Zach Warshawsky

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

View Profile

Zach manages the operational side of our business and coordinates all the work done by our team. He designs technical architecture and always keeps an eye towards the future, making sure his solutions are scalable. He applies his skills in all sorts of fields, such as Project and Team Management, Sales Funnels, Web Technology, Split Testing, Automation and CRM.

If there’s one trait he shares with Henry, it’s passionate problem-solving. Although he has been working for over 25 years in Sales, Marketing, Management, Team Building and Customer Service, perhaps his relevant business credentials start even earlier. At 15, he started a business selling and installing car stereo systems before he even had a driver’s license. Armed with a reseller’s permit and a passion for business, he started down the path of entrepreneurship and hasn’t looked back since.

With four amazing children and a wonderful wife in his life, his goal is set: provide the best possible life for them that he can. To that end, he works hard on helping clients scale their businesses through the use of cutting edge digital marketing tools.

His weapon of choice on this quest is not a coincidence, for his knowledge of technology is certainly top-notch. This can sometimes be a blessing and a curse however, when the Apple Genius Bar can’t solve a friend’s problem, it’s Zach’s phone that gets lit up.

To unwind, he spends time with his children, goes on weekly dates with his wife and is passionate about crafting culinary art… he unwinds and loves creating amazing home-cooked meals for his friends and family!

Henry Hamamjy Chief Executive Officer at Profitable Media, LLC

Henry Hamamjy

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

View Profile

One of the two men that started it all, Henry has a knack for judging character and managing the internal structure of our team. The go-to guy for when business owners hit a roadblock, he is well known for offering unique, scalable solutions to any issue that presents itself. 

With a background in Sales, Marketing, Management, People Development and Leadership, he puts it all to good use in the service of his clients and fellow team members, helping them better themselves. 

He’s a born problem-solver, breaking any seemingly impossible task into achievable actionable items.  He has successfully helped dozens of businesses expand to the 7-8 figure level, by designing and implementing extensible, supportive and responsive infrastructure that his clients could then leverage to their fullest advantage. 

At work, he loves helping our customers make their dreams a reality, taking businesses to the next step of success, guiding them all the while. Outside of work, he enjoys a good meal with friends and a nice Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. He also likes travelling with his family and exploring different cultures and finding out more about our world. Having dreamt of becoming a soccer player when he grew up, he has since traded that sport for another, namely golf, which he partakes in whenever he gets the chance.

Little known fact, he won the Atomic Spicy Food Competition when most of the people quit after just a couple of bites. Scientists have yet to come up with an explanation.