As the season comes to an end now is the perfect time to review and plan for next year and one thing to look at is your website. A website audit allows you to look at your website from different points of view and looking at different factors, from deign to usability, imagery, content and how it is all presented.

Wedding website Audit – What to do

Your website is your shop front and if you are found via google, social media, or wedding venue directories, couples are likely to review and interactive with your website along that journey.

Website Design and User Experience

First thing to consider is the website deign and experience, and this should be done twice, tested and reviewed on a desktop computer and then tested the same way again on your phone, your website maybe easy to use, read and view on your desktop PC, but most couples are using their phones, and it could be a while different experiencer on there and not so good, so make sure you check both.

Overall Website Design – Review the website’s visual appeal, branding, and aesthetics. Does the website match your brand and style of venue, the audience you are designing your venue for.

Navigation and Structure – Evaluate the website’s menu and navigation bars for clarity. Is is easy to get to the main pages, are there lots of buttons and is it clear how to contact you. Tasks to try:

  • How quick and easy is it to see where you are located?
  • How quick is it to access your contact details?
  • Find out about accommodation?
  • How do I find out if you are pet friendly?
  • How do I find out pricing and what is included.

Page Load Speed – Speed is important so test the website’s loading speed on different devices and browsers. Identify any slow-loading pages and look to make improvements, is the site slow overall or perhaps pages with large photos, perhaps these could be optimised.

User-Friendly Features – Review the availability of user-friendly features like search functionality, contact forms, and interactive maps. Evaluate the ease of accessing important information, such as venue details, pricing, and availability.

Pricing – How easy is it to see pricing? Couples want to know instantly a cost so they can see if it is within their budget, it doesn’t have to be full pricing and packages, but at least a starting guide price, this helps couples know if they can afford this and also help qualify leads and helping to prevent couples from enquiring where your venue is not within their budget.

Content Review

The design and user ability is focused on function and form, and this is important, however it also links to content, the best looking website in the world will always struggle with poor content and imagery, and vice versa, amazing content on a dated looking poorly designed website can also have a negative impact, so both must be reviewed and considered when auditing your site.

Quality of Content – Does your copy tell a story, does it match and style, feel and voice of your venue, the content of the copy is important but they way it is read and said is also just as important. When reading your website how does it make you feel, does it have the information you need or is it all fluff?

Imagery and Multimedia – Photos are crucial, they can instantly show the style, feel and vibe of a venue, beautiful imagery can help a couple fall in love with your venue before they have even seen it, every year you should review your photos, are they up to date and could they be better.

Video is becoming more and more important, from drone shots of the outside and surrounding areas, to tours and interviews with key members. such as the planner, manager and chef. Be sure to invest in this type of form, great for your website, sending to couples and also being used on your social media.

Testimonials and Reviews – Review the presence and authenticity of client testimonials and reviews.

Read – 6 Content Ideas For Your Wedding Venue Blog

SEO and Online Visibility

Search engine optimisation is still very much important and key today, searching London wedding venue, or wedding venue in Barcelona, you want to ensure your venue is being found for your local area.

What would couples search to find your venue, do keyword research to see what couples are actually searching, do you come up for those terms?

Read our guide to SEO Tips For Wedding Venues

Conversion and Lead Generation

The final part and the most crucial, the best looking website with engaging copy, beautiful imagery that have couples eager to contact you to book a viewing, but what next? How?

Call to Action (CTA) Assessment – Make sure you have clear calls to action on your website, contact link and then what you want couples to do, book a viewing now,  request a call back, download our brochure, get a quote. The text is important but so is the color, make sure it stands out the and text is clear on the button.

Contact Forms – You may have a contact form but is it quick and easy to complete, does it autofill to help the user fill it in quicker, does it have the key fields to help you help them, and finally does it work?!

Test the functionality of contact forms and assess their user-friendliness and also ensure that submitted forms are delivered to the appropriate channels and members of staff.

Recommendations and Action Plan

So there are lots of things to consider and review when auditing your website, so here is an action plan of the steps to take now:

  • What needs updating? Are there improvements to be made to the website or phone version?
  • Could the copy be refreshed or updated?
  • Update or add new reviews and testimonials
  • How does your website rank on Google?

If your website is in need of an update then now is the time to review everything, branding, social media and all imagery, new website copy, photos and design can make a big impact, however you want to ensure it ties in with your brand and then your offer marketing channels. social media pages, other website you market on, brochures and videos etc.

Tip: For your wedding website redesign start with your copy, hire a copywriter to create the copy for the pages, then the site can be designed and built around this as well as new imagery you could get taken. By building the site based on the copy, the flow of the copy and text created can be kept and allows the site to highlight this for each of the pages as opposed to shoe horning the copy into a site design.