As a business owner or marketer, you probably already know that having a strong online presence is vital for your success. However, it's not just about having a website up and running; it's about ensuring that it performs well and meets the needs of your target audience. This is where a site health score comes in.
In this article, we'll explore what a site health score is and why it matters. We'll also provide some practical tips and tools to help you understand and improve your site health score, so you can ensure your website's success in the competitive digital landscape.
What is a site health score?
A site health score is a metric which assesses the overall performance, accessibility, and SEO-friendliness of your website. It takes into account various factors. By measuring and analysing these factors, you can get a comprehensive view of how well your website is doing and identify areas for improvement.
Factors that Affect Site Health Score
Your site health score is determined by many digital attributes that impact the overall performance and user experience of your website. Here are some of the most common factors that influence your site health score:
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Page Load Speed: This refers to how quickly your website loads and how long it takes for users to see your content. A slow page load speed can lead to a high bounce rate, which negatively affects your site health score.
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Mobile-Friendliness: With the majority of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is important. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices, it can result in a poor user experience and hurt your site's health score.
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Security: Your website's security is essential for protecting your users' data and preventing cyber-attacks. A secure website has an SSL certificate, uses encrypted connections, and regularly updates its software.
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Content Quality: The quality of your website's content, such as its relevance, uniqueness, and readability, can impact your site's health score. Good content can improve user engagement and search engine rankings.
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User Experience: Your website's user experience refers to how easy it is for users to navigate, find information, and complete tasks. A positive user experience can result in increased engagement, conversions, and a better site health score.
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Technical SEO Optimisation: Your website's search engine optimisation (SEO) can significantly affect your site health score. SEO practices such as keyword research, on-page optimisation, and link building can improve your website's visibility and search engine rankings.
How to Determine Your Website Health Score
Conduct a site audit
To start, the first step is conducting a thorough site audit. This audit aims to identify the total number of errors and warnings present on your web pages. Most of these errors and warnings can negatively impact user experience and result in downgraded web pages that may even get banned from search results.
Elements of a site audit
A website audit will provide 3 types of information:
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Errors
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Warnings
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Notices
Errors:
The error section of the site audits provides you with the issues of the highest severity. A few examples of possible error warnings could be:
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Broken JavaScript and CSS files.
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Duplicate meta descriptions
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Mixed content issues
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Broken links
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Duplicate title tags
Warnings:
Warnings are issues of medium severity, examples include:
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Images with missing alt attributes
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Issues with unminified Javascript and CSS files
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Broken links on HTTP pages
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Pages with low text-to-HTML ratio.
Notices:
Notices are minor issues with the website. A few examples may be:
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Pages with more than one H1 tag
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Links with no anchor text
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Incoming internal linking
Improving your web pages can lead to optimised content, which, in turn, helps boost your search engine rankings.
Tools for Checking Site Health Score
Here are some popular tools that business owners and marketers can use to check their site health score:
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Google's PageSpeed Insights: This tool analyses your website's performance and provides suggestions for improving your page speed and user experience.
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GTmetrix: This tool provides a comprehensive analysis of your website's performance, including page speed, waterfall charts, and a breakdown of individual components.
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Pingdom: This tool allows you to test your website's load time from different locations around the world and provides insights into performance issues.
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SEMrush: This tool offers a comprehensive site audit that checks for technical issues, on-page SEO, and backlinks.
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Moz: This tool offers a site audit that checks for technical issues, on-page SEO, and crawl errors.
When using these tools, it's essential to understand how to interpret the results and what each piece of data means.
For example, page load speed is typically measured in seconds and should be as fast as possible, while mobile friendliness is measured on a scale from 0 to 100 and should be optimised for mobile devices. Security metrics might include the presence of an SSL certificate or the use of HTTPS.
Each tool will have its own set of numbers and scores, so it's important to understand how each metric impacts your site health score and what you can do to improve it.
How to improve your site health score
Improving your site health score takes time and effort, but the benefits are worth it. Once you have conducted a site audit, you can then work through all issues flagged up that are affecting the health of your website.
By implementing the tips that follow your site audit, you can expect to see better user engagement, increased traffic, and higher search engine rankings. A healthy website is a key ingredient for online success, so don't neglect this essential aspect of your online presence.
Summary
Overall, if you are a business owner or marketer understanding your site health score is vital to succeeding in the online world. By regularly checking and improving your site health score, you can ensure that your website is fast, secure, user-friendly, and optimised for search engines. This ultimately will result in better user engagement, increased traffic, and higher search engine rankings. So don't neglect your site health score - it could be the key to your website's success!
Still not understanding your site health score?
Here at SpiderDigital, our team of marketing experts are here to help make sure your business will get the most out of its online presence. Get in contact today!
