Whether it is the human body, any species, or a website, the proverb ‘health is wealth’ holds true for everything. When considering website health, the success of any business depends significantly on this factor. A robust and well-maintained website contributes to a strong online presence, drawing in customers and boosting your business, making it a vital element in ensuring overall success.
So, What is a Website Health Score?
A website health score is like a number that shows how well a website is doing in terms of performance, user experience, and search engine optimization. Different tools may have different ways of figuring this out. The scores usually range from 0-30, which is weak; 31-70, which is fair; 71-90, which is good; and 91-100, which is excellent. It is a simple way to see how healthy and effective a website is. This score definitely helps the website to know where it stands. For maintaining a healthy website, it is essential to consider the following key factors:
Factors to Consider While Checking the Health of the Website:
Mobile Usability:
Mobile usability is of utmost importance, with the increasing number of users accessing the internet through mobile devices, it is crucial to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. You can check your website’s mobile usability using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, which will analyze its responsiveness, viewport, and other technical factors. Ensuring your site displays correctly on various mobile devices without requiring additional code is essential. By optimizing your website for mobile usability, you can provide a positive user experience and improve your site’s chances of ranking well in mobile search results.
Security Issues:
An insecure website is not only a user security risk but can also negatively affect your search engine rankings. Periodically check the “Security Issues” section in Google Search Console for any warnings. Address security issues promptly to prevent potential harm to your site’s reputation. It is recommended to update your site’s security frequently to ensure that your website stays protected and avoids potential damage to your site’s reputation.
Sitemap:
A sitemap is an XML-based file that lists all the pages on your website. Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console helps search engines discover, crawl, and index your web pages more efficiently. This improves the visibility and accuracy of your website in search results. Keep your sitemap updated whenever new content is added to ensure search engines know the latest changes.
Structured Data:
Structured data markup helps search engines better understand the content on your web pages. This structured data can be enhanced with Google’s Structured Data Testing tool, which assists you in identifying any potential errors and provides recommendations to make edits where necessary. This tool will help ensure that your search engine results pages (SERPs) are optimized for the best possible experience for users and search engines.
Robots.txt:
Reviewing and testing your robots.txt file using Google Search Console is essential to ensure that search engine properly crawl and index your website. Once you sign into your Google Search Console account, enter the URL of your website’s robots.txt file in the inspection field and click “Enter”. This will prompt Google to inspect the file and report any issues encountered.
There may be a few common issues, like checking if the robots.txt file is blocking essential resources like CSS and JavaScript. Check if the order in your robots.txt file is correctly formatted and verify that the URLs listed in the file are valid and connected to your website’s structure. By thoroughly reviewing and testing your robots.txt file within Google Search Console, you can identify and resolve issues that might hinder search engines access to your website’s content.
Page Speed Optimization:
Page speed optimization is a critical factor that impacts user experience and search rankings. To analyze your site’s speed and receive actionable recommendations, you can utilize Google PageSpeed Insights. Go to the Google PageSpeed Insights website through your browser. Once there, enter your website URL in the provided space and click on the “Analyze” button. Google PageSpeed Insights will then analyze your website and give a speed score for both mobile and desktop versions.
As you scroll down, you will see specific recommendations tailored to improving your website’s performance. These recommendations include optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, minimizing render-blocking resources, and improving server response time. A concise explanation will accompany each recommendation, and you will find detailed information about each recommendation by clicking them. Implementing these recommendations can enhance your website’s performance, provide a better user experience, and improve your search engine rankings.
Duplicate Content & URL:
Duplicate content and URLs can confuse search engines and dilute the visibility of your pages. Canonical tags are HTML elements that specify the preferred version of a webpage. If your website has duplicate content across multiple URLs, you can use canonical tags to inform search engine that a specific URL is the authoritative one that should be indexed and ranked. This action can prevent duplicate content issues and ensure search engines focus on the desired URL when determining search results.
Manual Actions:
It is essential to periodically check the “Manual Actions” section in Google Search Console for any directives against your site. This section provides information about any manual actions Google took to address issues or violations of their quality guidelines on your website. If you find any manual actions listed in this section, addressing and resolving the issues mentioned is important. Google provides specific details and recommendations on how to fix the problem and regain consent with their guidelines.
To resolve manual actions, you should carefully review the issues identified by Google and take the necessary corrective actions. This may involve fixing technical errors, removing or modifying content that violates the guidelines, or adjusting certain aspects of your website. Take the recommended actions provided by Google, fix any violations or errors, and submit a reconsideration request through Google Search Console. This will ensure that your website meets Google’s guidelines.
Regular Audits:
Regularly auditing your website for new issues and staying informed about updates in Google’s guidelines is crucial. Google’s algorithms and best practices constantly evolve, so keeping up with any changes impacting your site’s search engine optimization is essential. By taking a proactive approach and staying aware of updates, you can ensure that your site remains optimized for search engines and maintains its visibility in search results.
Wrapping Up:
Checking your website’s health regularly is like ensuring it’s in good shape for online success. Just as we take care of ourselves, keeping our website healthy involves fixing technical errors, updating content, and staying updated with current trends is must. Regular website health checks are essential to adapt, grow, and thrive in the ever-evolving digital space.
