What is a digital audit?

A digital audit is a structured review of your digital footprint. Which is a fancy way of saying it’s a way to review your website, SEO, content, social media, and paid advertising. 

One of our favourite things about a digital audit is that it’s completely objective. It exists to identify gaps, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities. As a team we use it as the foundation (or baseline) for all of our work. It helps us as your (perhaps soon to be?) digital agency to understand your current position, before making recommendations or building out a strategy. 

What we often find within a digital audit are points we call ‘digital friction’. This can appear in many forms, for example: the purpose of your website is to capture leads for your service business. When we undertake an audit on your website, we land on the home page and within the first block of content, there’s no clear call-to-action to either contact or enquire about your relevant service. In our eyes, that could be a major opportunity missed for you to capture leads and minimise immediate site drop off. Now, multiply this example by 10’s or 100’s of other ‘one percenters’ across your digital presence, and that’s potentially some major gains being left on the table for your business!

Why completing a digital audit matters for your business

Things move quickly in digital, algorithms change, design trends evolve, teams shift focus. What worked six months ago might now be underperforming or completely disconnected from your current goals. Without an audit, you risk building on the wrong foundations. You might be ranking for the wrong keywords, spending money on ads that don’t convert, or presenting a fragmented brand across your channels. An audit gives you perspective so you’re not just active online, but effective.

Unfortunately, something we frequently come across is digital auditing being overlooked in the working environment. Essentially, the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” approach. A digital audit isn’t something that’s going to generate you revenue upfront, it’s something that’s going to save you in the long run and ensure you’ve got a solid (and consistent) digital presence.

What should you be looking for (when doing a digital audit)?

There’s no universal checklist, but a strong audit should include:

SEO and visibility

• Are you being found for the right terms? Are the fundamentals in place, metadata, page speed, indexing, content structure?

Website performance

• Is your site doing its job? For a service business, that usually means capturing leads. Is it intuitive, persuasive, and fast?

Brand consistency

• Does your digital presence feel cohesive across every channel? Inconsistent messaging or visuals can dilute trust (and look tacky).

Content alignment

• Are you publishing with purpose, or posting for the sake of it? Content should support your broader goals.

Social media relevance

• Are your channels still aligned with your business? Not every platform makes sense for every brand.

Paid media effectiveness

• Are your ads structured well, targeting the right people, and converting at an acceptable cost?

Even small inconsistencies or inefficiencies in these areas can hold your digital presence back. When going through the above for your own business, try to be as objective as possible. Put yourself in the shoes of your consumer and try to replicate the experience they would have with your brand across its digital touch points, and most importantly, if things don’t make sense (or seem right) to you, then they definitely won’t to them.

After the audit: take action

Every client engagement at Kings Digital starts with a digital audit. It helps us uncover opportunities, flag issues early, and build strategies based on actual data, not assumptions.

Whether you’re a local service provider or a national brand, the principle is the same: get clear on where you are before deciding where to go.

An audit on its own is just information. The real value comes from what you do with it.

That might mean tightening up your website, realigning your brand voice, or rethinking how you use paid media. If you’ve got the team and expertise to make those changes internally, great. If not, get support from a team that can. Because clarity is only useful if you’re willing to act on it.