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What Is Website Health?
Website wellness is that instauration that keeps your tract moving and performing properly.
It’s conveyed by a postulation of metrics that measurement your tract based connected however secure, casual to use, and optimized for hunt motor visibility it is.
And maintaining a steadfast tract tin assistance you pull much postulation and perchance summation conversions oregon sales.
But however bash you cognize if your tract is healthy? Let’s get into that next.
How to Measure Website Health
Different website wellness checker tools tin each look astatine tract wellness a spot differently, giving value to antithetic variables.
Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality runs a holistic website wellness cheque by looking astatine components like:
- Crawlability: How good hunt engines tin navigate your site
- On-page SEO: How well-optimized your pages are for hunt engines and users
- Technical SEO: How beardown your tract is from a method standpoint. Which looks astatine things similar tract operation and mobile-friendliness.
- Mobile-friendliness: How casual your tract is to usage connected mobile devices
- Speed: How rapidly your website loads and responds to idiosyncratic requests
A Step-by-Step Guide to Performing a Website Health Check
To cheque your website’s wellness score, you’ll request to tally an SEO audit. This gives you a wide representation of your site’s method strengths and areas that request improvement.
Here’s however to bash that with Site Audit:
1. Set up Your Audit and Your Configure Settings
To start, unfastened the Site Audit tool. If you’re not acceptable up connected Semrush yet, you tin create a escaped account—no recognition paper needed.
Then, click the “+ Create Project” fastener to statesman mounting up your audit.
Enter your domain’s URL and springiness your task a name. When you’re ready, click “Create project.”
Next, you’ll beryllium asked to configure your settings. This means selecting the scope and specifics of the audit.
You tin usage the default settings oregon cheque retired our Site Audit configuration guide for elaborate accusation connected however to customize your audit.
One happening to see is mounting the crawl root to “Website.” Which mimics however Google would crawl your website.
When you’re done mounting up your project, click the “Start Site Audit” button.
2. Examine Your Overview Report
Once your audit is ready, you’ll spot an “Overview” study similar this:
On the apical near broadside of the page, you’ll spot your “Site Health” score.
Your people is based connected the fig of issues the instrumentality finds connected your site—and their uniqueness.
The much varied the problems are crossed antithetic categories and the higher the wide fig of issues, the little the score.
There’s an mean manufacture people that compares your site’s wellness to akin websites successful your industry. So you cognize however your tract stacks up against competitors.
You’ll besides announcement that Site Audit sorts issues into 3 categories:
- Errors: The astir impactful issues
- Warnings: Issues of mean interaction that should beryllium addressed but not arsenic urgently arsenic errors
- Notices: Not captious issues but inactive ones to beryllium alert of
In the “Thematic Reports” section, you’ll find 7 widgets for much elaborate reports connected circumstantial method SEO issues:
So, if you privation to chiefly absorption connected discovering and fixing imaginable internal linking mistakes connected your site, conscionable click connected the “Internal Linking” widget for a afloat analysis.
3. Prioritize Issues
Next, caput implicit to the “Issues” tab for a afloat database of the errors, warnings, and notices impacting your site’s health.
Each enactment indicates the fig of affected URLs for each issue.
Click “Why and however to hole it” adjacent to immoderate enactment for a little mentation of the occupation and tips connected however to tackle it.
Start by addressing the errors, either by yourself oregon with the assistance of a developer. Then, determination connected to warnings and notices.
Once you’re done implementing the fixes, click the “Rerun campaign” fastener successful the apical close country of the dashboard to spot your caller results.
8 Common Website Health Issues and Solutions
Let’s instrumentality a look astatine immoderate of the astir communal issues that you whitethorn person identified successful your technical SEO audit. And however to hole them.
Broken Internal Links
A broken link leads users and hunt motor crawlers to a leafage oregon assets that nary longer exists oregon can't beryllium found.
This tin hap if the linked leafage is moved oregon deleted. Or if the URL you’ve linked to is typed incorrectly.
Multiple breached links tin wounded your site’s idiosyncratic acquisition and crawlability—which limits your quality to look successful hunt results.
To hole breached nexus issues, commencement by identifying them utilizing Site Audit.
Go to the "Issues" tab, click the "Category" drop-down, and prime "Crawlability."
If your tract has breached links, you’ll spot them here:
Click connected the contented to spot a database of each the affected links.
From here, update the breached nexus with an due 1 oregon region the link.
Redirect Chains and Loops
A redirect is simply a mode to automatically nonstop some users and hunt engines to a antithetic URL than the 1 that was primitively requested.
There are galore reasons to bash this. But if you acceptable 1 redirect that leads to different redirect, it creates a redirect chain.
Here’s a ocular representation:
A redirect loop happens erstwhile a URL is redirected backmost to itself. Or erstwhile there’s a bid of redirects that yet pb backmost to the archetypal URL, creating an endless loop.
Like this:
Redirect loops and chains tin wounded your tract wellness by causing longer load times, confusing hunt engines, and frustrating users.
To hole the issue, usage Site Audit to place immoderate chains and loops connected your site.
You tin find this mistake nether the "Crawlability" class connected your report’s "Issues" page.
Click connected the "# redirect chains and loops" contented for a database of the affected URLs.
Address chains by redirecting each URL successful the concatenation to your last destination page.
To hole loops, you’ll apt person to alteration 1 of the redirects truthful it points to an due last destination. Instead of going backmost to the erstwhile URL successful the sequence.
Further speechmaking The Ultimate Guide to Redirects: URL Redirections Explained
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is erstwhile the aforesaid oregon precise akin contented appears connected aggregate pages wrong your site.
It tin wounded your website wellness by confusing hunt engines astir which mentation to scale oregon rank, perchance diluting your site’s visibility and show successful hunt results.
Find duplicate contented by going to the "Issues" tab successful Site Audit.
And click the "Categories" drop-down and prime "Indexability":
If you find duplicate pages, see rewriting the contented to beryllium unsocial and archetypal for each page.
You tin besides usage canonical tags to assistance awesome to hunt engines which mentation is the original.
Mobile-Friendliness Issues
Over 58% of web postulation happens connected mobile devices. And Google uses mobile-first indexing—meaning it prioritizes indexing and ranking the mobile versions of your pages implicit the desktop ons.
So, addressing mobile-friendliness issues enables you to pull a larger assemblage and improves your site’s usability.
To bash this, spell to the "Issues" tab successful Site Audit. And acceptable the class filter to "Mobile SEO":
One contented you’ll spot is related to viewport tags—pieces of HTML codification that instruct a webpage to standard to antithetic surface sizes to support it user-friendly.
Click connected the "# pages person nary viewport tag" mistake to find the affected pages.
Then, adhd the pursuing tag to the <head> conception of your root code:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
For a much in-depth walkthrough, sojourn our usher to viewport meta tags.
Further speechmaking The Complete Guide to Mobile SEO — 8 Tips & Best Practices
Security Vulnerabilities
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is simply a much unafraid mentation of HTTP. And it’s a acceptable of rules that helps safely nonstop information betwixt browsers and servers.
If a tract is utilizing HTTPS, visitors volition spot a padlock awesome successful their browser’s code bar. This awesome assures them that their information is encrypted and secure.
If your tract is accessed implicit HTTP, browsers whitethorn statement it arsenic "not secure." Which tells users that their idiosyncratic accusation (like outgo data) isn’t protected by encryption.
Plus, Google considers a site’s information arsenic a ranking factor. So if your tract isn’t utilizing HTTPS, it mightiness go little salient successful hunt results.
There are a fig of different information issues arsenic well.
To cheque for immoderate of these imaginable information issues your tract mightiness have, prime the "Security and HTTPS" class filter portion connected they "Issues" tab successful Site Audit:
From there, travel the recommendations to code the problems.
Further reading: HTTP vs. HTTPS: Differences, Benefits, and Migration Tips
Slow Page Speed
Page speed is however accelerated your tract loads and becomes interactive for your visitors.
If your tract takes excessively agelong to load, users volition permission and find what they’re looking for determination else. This makes optimizing leafage velocity important for providing a bully idiosyncratic experience.
Page load velocity is besides an important ranking factor for Google. Which means faster loading times tin lend to your leafage performing amended successful integrated hunt results.
To spot speed-related issues successful Site Audit, simply click "View details" successful the "Site Performance" module connected the "Overview" report.
You’ll spot a leafage akin to this one:
One of the astir communal errors you mightiness spot is "Large HTML leafage size."
This mistake means your page’s HTML codification is bigger than recommended. This could beryllium owed to dense code, tons of embedded media (like images and videos), oregon third-party scripts (like add-ons and widgets).
You tin trim your HTML size by optimizing:
- Images: Compress them oregon opt for much web-friendly representation formats similar WebP.
- Fonts: Opt for utilizing strategy fonts similar Arial, which are already installed connected astir users’ devices. This speeds up your leafage due to the fact that it avoids having to download caller fonts.
- Code: Remove unnecessary codification elements. Tools similar HTML Minifier tin assistance you bash this automatically.
- Plugins and add-ons: If you’re utilizing a CMS similar WordPress, spell done each the extras you've installed connected your site. And region immoderate that you nary longer need.
Further reading: What Is Page Speed & How to Improve It.
Duplicate Meta Descriptions & Title Tags
A title tag specifies a webpage's rubric and tin look arsenic the bluish rubric successful hunt results:
Meta descriptions are abbreviated summaries of a webpage's contented that whitethorn look nether the leafage rubric successful hunt motor results.
Like this:
Both duplicate meta descriptions and duplicate rubric tags tin airs challenges for hunt engines and users.
To cheque your tract for these issues, spell to the "Issues" study successful Site Audit and prime the "Meta tags" class filter.
If you find immoderate problems, see rewriting the duplicates to beryllium unsocial to each page. And applicable for the user.
Broken Images
Broken images are images connected a website that neglect to load oregon show decently to the user. Which tin hap if the representation nary longer exists, its URL is misspelled, oregon due to the fact that the record way isn’t valid.
If there’s a breached representation connected your page, users mightiness spot it arsenic a blank abstraction oregon a breached representation icon similar this:
Broken images wounded the idiosyncratic acquisition and marque the tract look unprofessional. And that tin indirectly impact your rankings.
You tin find this mistake by going to the "Issues" study successful Site Audit. And choosing the "Crawlability" class filter.
To hole a breached representation that’s been moved, update the URL to the close one.
If an representation was deleted oregon damaged, regenerate it with a caller one. Or if you deliberation your leafage doesn’t request that representation anymore, conscionable region it from your page’s code.
Monitoring Website Health for Sustainable Online Growth
When your website is healthy, it’s beneficial for some users and your ranking potential. So, it’s omniscient to support an oculus connected it.
But website wellness isn’t a one-and-done deal. It requires accordant upkeep.
Use Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality to show your website wellness implicit time. And get up of issues earlier they commencement to negatively impact performance.