An SEO Health Check is essential.
Regularly examining your website’s technical SEO health ensures it’s running optimally and reaching its full potential.
You can’t simply run a website audit once and then forget about it.
Keeping up with changes to your site and changes to search engine algorithms is the only way to ensure your site is fully optimised and as effective as possible.
What Is an SEO Health Check?
An SEO Health Check is akin to a routine check-up with your doctor but for your website.
It’s a comprehensive review of your site’s technical infrastructure, uncovering any underlying issues that could negatively impact search engine visibility or user experience.
This involves examining website speed, mobile optimisation, indexability, and structured data, among other technical factors that influence your website’s performance on search engine results pages (SERPs).
As this is something that should be done every month, it’s best to get an automated report from an app like SEM Rush to run this for you.
The health check reports often contain a lot of things you can fix yourself unless you’ve been editing code or adding plugins.
Why Is an SEO Health Check Important?
SEO is not a one-time fix; it’s an ongoing process that requires consistent attention and maintenance.
Over time, changes to your website – such as new content, updated plugins, or even a site redesign – can affect your technical SEO. Regular SEO Health Checks ensure that these changes don’t disrupt your site’s search engine rankings.
Here are some key reasons why conducting regular SEO health checks is crucial:
1. Spot Hidden Technical Issues
A website may appear flawless on the surface, but hidden technical issues could hinder its performance. These could include broken links, duplicate content, or incorrect meta tags.
An SEO Health Check helps identify and resolve these problems before they snowball into bigger issues that could harm your rankings.
2. Enhance User Experience (UX)
Search engines prioritise websites that offer a positive user experience. A technically healthy website loads quickly is easy to navigate and works seamlessly across all devices.
During an SEO Health Check, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and site structure are reviewed, ensuring users – and search engines – enjoy a smooth and efficient experience.
3. Stay Up-to-Date with Search Engine Algorithms
Google and other search engines frequently update their algorithms, which means your website’s SEO needs to evolve in tandem.
An SEO Health Check lets you stay ahead by identifying any adjustments to comply with the latest best practices.
Whether optimising for Core Web Vitals or ensuring proper schema markup, staying proactive with SEO changes can keep your website ahead of the curve.
4. Boost Search Engine Visibility
Ultimately, the goal of SEO is to improve your search engine rankings and increase organic traffic.
A regular SEO Health Check ensures your website remains visible to search engines by improving crawlability, fixing indexation issues, and maintaining proper site architecture.
The better your site is structured for search engines, the more likely you will rank higher for your targeted keywords.
What Does an SEO Health Check Involve?
Several crucial aspects of your website’s technical health are reviewed during an SEO Health Check. Here are a few key areas that should be on the checklist:
- Crawlability & Indexing: Ensuring search engines can crawl your site without barriers and that the most important pages are being indexed.
- Site Speed: Checking page load times, as slow websites can significantly impact user engagement and rankings.
- Mobile Usability: Ensuring your website is fully optimised for mobile devices is crucial, given Google’s mobile-first indexing.
- On-Page SEO Elements: Review meta titles, descriptions, headings, and image alt texts to ensure they’re optimised for search.
- Security: Verifying your site’s security measures, such as having an active SSL certificate, to safeguard users and maintain trust.
- Internal Linking Structure: Ensuring your internal links work properly and contribute to a clear, logical hierarchy.
How Often Should You Perform an SEO Health Check?
While minor SEO checks can be performed monthly, a more thorough SEO Health Check should ideally occur every quarter.
Regularly checking your site’s technical aspects ensures you’re not just reacting to problems as they arise but actively preventing them.
Conclusion: Keep Your Website in Top Shape with Regular SEO Health Checks
Just as you wouldn’t ignore your physical health, neglecting your website’s SEO health can lead to long-term damage.
By performing regular SEO Health Checks, you can maintain a well-optimised, technically sound site that consistently ranks well, provides a positive user experience, and stays ahead of search engine algorithm updates.
Your website is a key asset in your business’s growth – ensure it stays in top condition with routine SEO Health Checks.
David Foreman
Dave is an experienced WordPress developer and SEO expert. He's works on 100s of WordPress sites and has been developing and optimising websites for over 25 years.
