Tom Compton of Industrial Shelving Systems on Working with a Website Audit Agency
10.24.24
E-commerce websites are business-critical. These platforms push past geographic barriers, streamline sales operations and unlock key insights — but only if they are functioning properly. Hidden challenges in SEO and user experience (UX) slowly frustrate users, driving them away in favor of platforms that are easier to find and navigate.
Tom Compton, president of Industrial Shelving Systems (ISS), had concerns about his website performance, so he turned to Paradigm for a comprehensive website audit in 2024. Read on to see how our website audit agency delivered actionable insights for ISS.
Website Audit Goals
Industrial Shelving Systems was founded in 1961 and, in the decades since, has expanded to serve clients nationwide. Times have been good, with recent years marked by steady growth for both ISS and ISS Material Handling. However, leadership began to notice that the website was not performing as well as it had in the past.
“We had probably five years of steady growth with sales, visitors, rankings and everything,” Tom said. “Over the year prior to reaching out to Paradigm, we found a stagnation in sales and downward trends in visitors and rankings.”
Tom wanted to isolate reasons for declining sales and trends, as well as establish a baseline for website performance. He felt a website audit agency’s perspective would yield website updates capable of redirecting trends in sales, visitors and keyword rankings.
ISS outlined four primary goals going into the website and keyword audit, including:
- Ensuring the site is healthy and not missing any crucial information or elements
- Leveraging data from GA4 and SEMRush to inform on site performance
- Gaining clarity on the sales funnel to determine where customers are being lost
- Improving UX/UI with clear, actionable recommendations
Paradigm’s Process
The audit process began with an Initial discovery meeting with ISS and Paradigm. Experts from each of our departments, including UX design, SEO strategy and technology, attended the meetings to establish expectations for the audit results.
Together, our website audit agency team gained insight into ISS’ background, website challenges and aspirations for future website updates. Tom shared that these initial meetings created a trustworthy line of communication and put leadership at ease with the project.
From there, we collaborated with ISS’ internal team to gain administrative access and begin analysis. Specifically, the Paradigm experts:
- Assessed UX/UI design, technology, SEO and e-commerce performance
- Identified gaps between the website’s current state and industry best practices
- Compiled immediate recommendations for improvement
Paradigm’s Presentation
The audit presentation dove into four main categories: website performance, SEO, e-commerce analytics and user experience (UX). Our website audit agency team supplied key takeaways on category-specific concerns, such as:
- Traffic Channels + Devices
- Top-Ranking Content
- Authority + Backlinks
- E-Commerce Funnel Activity
- Conversions
- Website Navigation
The end of each section presented clear-cut action items to guide ensuing website updates. To provide a few examples, we recommended reimagining content on pages with high exit rates, increasing social media output to attract engagement and marketing individual product pages in paid promotions.
“We were extremely impressed by the level of detail,” Tom said. “It was above and beyond what we were expecting. Different subject matter experts — from UX to software technology and website development — were part of it and presented their expertise.”
Paradigm also evaluated existing strategies in paid search ads and SEO. Our findings revealed that ISS was succeeding in some areas of its marketing strategies. Clarity from a website audit agency empowered the organization to press on with website updates and move the needle forward.
“In some areas, it validated that the strategies we were working on were on the right path,” Tom said. “We’re not spinning our wheels on something that wouldn’t be valuable to user conversions on the site.”
User Experience Insights
User experience involves every element visitors will interact with as they traverse your website. Without proper UX, visitors will grow frustrated with your website and ultimately fail to submit forms, purchase products or contact your team. Through a comprehensive website audit, Paradigm unveiled UX items of concern the ISS team had overlooked.
“Your team pointed out a lot of elements that inhibited user conversion and ultimately sales of our products: text that was too long or hard to read and different things taking too many clicks for a customer to get to what they were looking for,” Tom said.
Tom also noted that the ISS team was unaware of Google’s Material Design guidelines as well as current web content accessibility guidelines. They had become so familiar with the website that it was tough to see potential pitfalls in design and functionality. Partnering with a website audit agency offered fresh eyes to view the website as new audiences would.
“We get so entrenched in the day-to-day that having an outside perspective navigate the site was beneficial,” Tom said. “Having you recommend critical user experience elements that were hurdles for the customer opened our eyes.”
Search Engine Insights
The ISS team had made a conscious effort to implement SEO-centric website updates the year prior. During our analytics and keyword audit, strategists dove into ISS’ standings on search engines. The resulting recommendations involved increasing relevance through content creation, improving backlink profiles through technical SEO services and expanding reach through new keywords.
Tom and his team were excited to incorporate these recommendations into their SEO strategy but discovered they needed more information from our website audit agency to accomplish their goals.
“We realized after the audit that we did not have a clear understanding of how Google Analytics worked,” Tom said. “It can be hard to Google questions about GA4, so it was nice having an expert to reference for questions and ensure we were tracking analytics appropriately.”
After the analytics and keyword audit, Paradigm assisted ISS in refining its analytics platform to track high-value metrics. Our strategists also answered all remaining follow-up questions — helping ISS feel at ease navigating the platform and using data to inform future website updates.
Final Thoughts
Throughout the entirety of the audit process, Paradigm remained invested in Industrial Shelving System’s success. Tom praised Paradigm for being a fully engaged and communicative agency partner. By enlisting a website audit agency, ISS gained clarity around its website performance and identified straightforward paths to improvement.
“The Paradigm team knows their craft and explains everything in great detail,” Tom said. “They had an answer to every question we had and were extremely knowledgeable in each category.”
Partner with a Website Audit Agency
The first step to organizational success is turning a critical eye to your website. Regular website and keyword audits ensure you stay up-to-date with industry standards and algorithm changes. Ultimately, frequent updates boost your brand’s visibility, enhance user journeys and drive more traffic.
As a website audit agency, Paradigm provides critical analysis and website updates that keep brands competitive. Contact our team to uncover actionable insights for your organization.
