This is a good way to connect the dots between the organization\u2019s marketing channels, from its Facebook page and website to its Instagram, Twitter, and Google ads. It also brings consistency to your communications and online presence, ensuring that your core messages are effectively conveyed wherever they appear. A good brand audit can make the whole brand portfolio appear more cohesive \u2014 which is something that most companies lack.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-001.png\")
<\/p>\n
Source: AZ<\/a><\/p>\n Well, to make sure that your website design will keep users coming back for more and you achieve your business goals, you need to conduct a thorough visual audit. Why don\u2019t we highlight the main reasons for it:<\/p>\n Ensure Consistency<\/strong><\/p>\n Visual elements play a vital role in perception and brand messaging. When we talk about consistency, we mean that your advertisements, brochures, and websites should have the same tone and relay the same brand message. Everything from your website design to the marketing materials influences the user experience. And if you do not deliver a consistent user experience, your brand\u2019s growth can be affected. Without consistency, users will have trouble discerning your brand from the competitors in the market. This means you need to reinforce familiar features and design patterns every time you communicate with your customers.<\/p>\n Source<\/a> Understand Brand Perception<\/strong><\/p>\n The way stakeholders and users perceive the visual aspects of a company’s brand is known as brand perception. Brand perception is built on several factors, such as brand image and brand associations. Some of these associations are positive, and some are negative. Auditing brands is a great way to discover your target audience’s associations when looking at your brand. It’s also a way to take an honest look at your digital presence and assess whether it’s delivering on your corporate branding and digital marketing goals.<\/p>\n Source: Medium<\/a><\/p>\n As the world, we live in, and the way we work becomes increasingly digital, having a visually engaging website is one of the main ingredients for success. Carrying out a design audit can help you understand if you communicate visually enough. There are two main reasons why it is necessary to communicate visually: 1) most consumers like visuals more than written information, and 2) a lot of written information can not be understood by people.<\/p>\n A well-planned visual audit of your competitors’ websites is an essential piece of the digital marketing puzzle. It will give you insights into their visual marketing and enable you to compare their visual assets with your own. Moreover, it would also be worthwhile to analyze why certain companies are more successful than others \u2014 this can help you understand what they are doing well in branding. Then you can apply those insights to your own marketing strategy.<\/p>\n A brand visual audit is a vital part of the overall audit strategy. It will identify if there is consistency in your brand\u2019s visual identity. It can also help you find unwanted, unnecessary gaps and inconsistencies that are confusing to your users. If done right, it will also give direction regarding what needs improvement based on research and analytics.<\/p>\n 1. Building a Framework<\/strong><\/p>\n As the first step of a design audit, it\u2019s important to consider all the visual elements that need to be audited across platforms in order to make your site cohesive and UX-friendly. To improve the user experience, you should also analyze the website\u2019s aesthetics and any possible technical issues. By doing so, the website will communicate your brand message more effectively and support users in achieving their goals. Once you’ve established the scope of your visual assets, make a well-organized list of everything that needs to be reviewed. It may include everything from the colors and styles of your logo to how you display images, text, and media.<\/p>\n The list can be the following:<\/p>\n Source: Behance<\/a><\/p>\n At the same time, it is necessary to understand how your competitors position themselves and their brand identity. It\u2019s worth having a look at some of them so you can adopt their best features or even suppress them.<\/p>\n 2. Evaluate Current Status<\/strong><\/p>\n When doing a visual audit of your website, it\u2019s good to start by evaluating its current status and making decisions about what you will change, how you will change it, and when it should happen.<\/p>\n Give your website a quick checkup with the help of an SE Ranking audit<\/a>. In a matter of seconds, you will receive a valuable pile of data that contains the overall health score of the website, its all existing issues, including the ones with performance, loading speed, mobile optimization, CSS and JS problems, etc. This tool also measures Core Web Vitals, which represent the quality of the website\u2019s UX.<\/p>\n Source: SE Ranking<\/a><\/p>\n How does a website audit look like<\/p>\n Besides technical audit, check all colors, fonts, pictures, and overall style of the website’s visual content.<\/p>\n 3. Take into Account Your Customer’s Viewpoint<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are a website owner, you are likely to be biased when looking at your website. To objectively assess your website, the best way is to talk with people who do not have any ties with your company and let them give you an honest opinion about their experience with your visual assets.<\/p>\n You can do this through surveys, reviews, polls, or just casual conversations with visitors of the website. Emailing or calling clients can also help you get plenty of valuable information. The goal of customer interviews is to understand how your business looks through their eyes, what they like and dislike, and what can be improved and why.<\/p>\n 4. Analyze Competitors\u2019 Visual Content<\/strong><\/p>\n If you want to improve your visual content, the next step will be finding out what works and what doesn\u2019t for your competitors\u2019 websites. To do that, you can follow the same steps as in the brand visual audit, namely, identifying competitors, then gathering all their visual assets, analyzing them, and compiling results in a holistic brand audit report so that you can go back to it at any time.<\/p>\nWhy Should You Carry Out a Visual Audit?<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-002.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nExample of consistent online presence<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-003.png\")
<\/p>\nTo Understand if You Communicate Visually Enough<\/h3>\n
To Know What Your Competitors Are Up To<\/h3>\n
How to Conduct a Brand Audit of Your Website?<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-004.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-005.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-006.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.logodesignteam.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/blog-007.png\")
<\/p>\n