WordCamp Philadelphia 2019: Website Auditing

Slides and more information from our talk at WordCamp Philadephia 2019, where Drew Poland is giving a lightning talk on Website Auditing.

WCPHILLY2019 - Website Auditing Process by Drew Poland

Audit Checklists

These are not meant to be exhaustive but rather a starting point to take and expand or remove from.

Client/Admin Audit Checklist:

• Where is the site hosted?
• Is DNS at the host, registrar, or elsewhere?
• Are there any custom DNS settings? (mx records for email, subdomains/A records at other hosts)
• What 3rd party tools are being used? (Email collection, analytics, a/b testing, heatmaps)
• Are there content managers? Editorial calendars? What does the posting schedule look like?
• Any back office tools or systems integrated with the website? (stock management, accounting, employee portals, etc)

Development Audit Checklist:

• What updates need done? (plugins, themes, WordPress core)
• Is active theme a custom or child theme?
• Analyze and examine theme:
  • Does the template structure follow the proper hierarchy? (wphierarchy.com)
  • Overridden templates (any overridden templates for a plugin like WooCommerce or Events Cal Pro)
  • Functions are organized and make sense
  • Nothing alarming or stands out as a serious needs to be addressed asap issue
• What plugins are running and can some be removed or replaced with custom functionality?
  • If there are a lot you can use get_plugins to spit out a list of all plugins (codex)

• Posted by:

  Drew Poland on October 4, 2019

• Category: Resources, Speaking