If you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or avid hobbyist, it’s not unlikely that you’ve created a website. And one of the most popular avenues for achieving this is through the open source content-management framework, Drupal. In fact, it’s really not just the small fish that have embraced Drupal. More than a million websites run on the framework and some of the most popular sites on the worldwide web have been built in Drupal—think The Weather Channel, Whole Foods, and Serial Podcast. And while Drupal is an excellent tool for sharing your products, services, stories, values and beliefs with the world, there are still additional precautions you need to take. A Drupal audit is the ideal method for taking these precautions and identifying what you’re doing right on your website, as well as where you can improve.

Why Are Drupal Audits Necessary?

1. Performance:

This is the most straightforward reason websites are audited. The administrator wants to see how to make the website faster so that users waiting time is cut down, leading to fewer frustrated customers and more sales.

2. Site Contents And Structure:

Some organizations or individuals have certain expectations of their website. They want it to do certain things and react in specific ways. A Drupal audit can go through the site to check all of these expectations off of the list and ensure that all components are acting appropriately.

3. Optimal Configuration:

Before websites are released to the public, many companies like to ensure that the website is operating perfectly. This doesn’t just mean that everything works, but that everything works in the best way that it possibly can.

4. Improvement:

Some individuals and companies like to get Drupal audits completed on their websites so that they can identify ways to make it better. Maybe the website has been around for a few years and it just needs a few nuts and bolts changed or maybe the site isn’t receiving the amount of visitors that the administrators would prefer. Whatever the case, making the website better will always be beneficial.

What Can You Expect From An Effective Audit?

1. Consistent Responses:

A good audit will give you consistent responses every time. If a function is tested and nothing is changed about the function, it should give the exact same result the second time it is tested.

2. Quantifiable Information:

The information that it provides shouldn’t just be vague statements about performance, structure and configuration, such as the website is slow. Rather, it should state the exact amount of time functions take and the precise results the functions produce.

3. Contextual Awareness:

Depending on the purpose of the website, it should be able to complete and not complete certain tasks. The audit should not have an expectation of either but should be formed around the environment that it is auditing. For example, a development environment should have development modules enabled. On the other hand, a production environment should not.

4. Clear And Actionable Recommendations:

The results and recommendations should be easy to understand. The audit should produce simple steps that can be taken to improve performance, configuration, content, or whatever else is desired to be improved. An audit should not just include what has been done wrong, but also how it can be fixed.

What Aspects Of A Drupal Website Are Audited?

1. Content Structure:

Many Drupal audits will examine the content structure of the website. This means that it will examine how the website breaks down the content and classifies it. Some pages may not be easy enough to find, and should rather be put in the main menu. On the other hand, the main menu could also be too topic heavy, and some content should be linked to in other locations. The audit will help identify these problems to create a balance for users so that they can easily locate content without be bombarded.

2. Performance And Speed:

During this portion of the audit, the website’s responsiveness and speed will be examined. If there are any lags or functions that are unresponsive, the root cause is identified. The problem could be as simple as the website not running on the latest version of Drupal or that caching is turned off. Or, it could be a more complex issue, such as unnecessary modules needing to be disabled or Javascript files needing to be aggregated.

3. On Page SEO:

Search engine optimization is the currency under which most websites operate. If a website isn’t optimized for engines like Google, it won’t rank well. A Drupal audit can identify how to improve the SEO—think keywords, broken links, quality content, and more.

4. Overall Functionality:

This aspect of a Drupal audit is essentially an overview of everything a website does. It checks to make sure that every function works, from the links to the videos to the various tools and modules. It identifies anything that is outdated, missing or broken.

5. Best Practices:

There are best practices for Drupal that get updated on a regular basis. These can be difficult to keep up with, especially for those who don’t specialize in website creation but rather use Drupal for alternative business or hobby purposes. An audit dives into the taxonomy, configuration, modules and code of a website to make sure it’s utilizing the best and most up to date practices and standards.

6. Code And Security:

Security is arguably the most important reason to get a Drupal audit. If a website takes customer information or contains proprietary designs and knowledge, it is essential to keep this safe. The Drupal audit analyzes websites for their vulnerabilities, as well as to ensure that the necessary security features are both installed and properly functioning.

To find out more about an audit for your website, as well as other valuable website services, please contact us.