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74 checks.

Grouped the way the report is. Your report leaves out any check that cannot apply to your business, and lists any that did not finish, with the reason.

Technical Health

Loads fast, works on a phone, secure, and says what you do and where.

Site health

  • Secure connectionA valid security certificate (the padlock in the browser), no script, style file or frame on your homepage asked for over the old unsecured connection (plain http), which browsers block, and the plain http version of your address sending visitors on to the secure https one. Images asked for over http are switched to https by browsers, so they are noted, not counted.
  • One address for your siteAll four ways of typing your address (with and without www, with http and with https) landing on one final address, each in at most two jumps.
  • Search engines allowed inNothing in your site's robots file (the file that tells search engines where they may go) blocking your main pages.
  • Sitemap present and workingA sitemap that exists, and at least 9 of every 10 pages we tried from it (up to 20) actually loading.
  • Nothing hidden by mistakeNo 'do not index' tag on your main pages, and no page whose preferred-address tag names a different page or another website in its place.
  • Broken linksZero broken links between your own pages in the ones we checked. What your 'page not found' page shows is noted under this check but does not decide it.
  • Headings in orderA main heading on each page we read. Extra main headings and skipped heading sizes are listed as notes and do not count against you.
  • Page titles and descriptionsA title of up to 70 characters and a description on each page we saved, none of them repeated on another page. A description longer than 160 characters is noted, not counted against you, since Google only shortens it.
  • Image descriptionsAt least 9 of every 10 content images (32 pixels or larger) carrying a description behind them (alt text). An image marked as decorative with an empty description counts, since that is the correct markup for decorations; an image with no description at all does not.
  • PlatformWhich website platform your site runs on. There is nothing to pass or fail here.
  • Visitor tracking installedA tool that counts your visitors installed on your homepage: Google's free visitor tracking (Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager), or another visitor-counting tool.

Speed

  • Loads fast on a phoneYour site's main content appearing within 4 seconds on Google's phone speed test, which loads the page on a simulated phone over a slow mobile connection. Google puts anything over 4 seconds in its slowest group.
  • Page weightThe homepage on a phone weighing 3 MB or less in total, with its biggest image at 300 KB or less.

Phone

  • Works on a phoneA homepage set up to fit a phone screen with no sideways scrolling, fewer than 5 buttons or links too small to tap, and most of the reading text at least 14 pixels tall on a phone.
  • Tap to call on a phoneA tap-to-call link or button visible in the first screen on a phone.
  • Call to action on a phoneThe first call or contact button visible in the first screen on a phone.
  • Form usable on a phoneOn the phone version of your home page: contact form fields at least 44 pixels tall, each with a label that stays on screen while typing.

Search

  • Estimated search visitorsAn outside estimate of visitors from search this month. There is nothing to pass or fail here; it is shown for reference and not counted as passed or failed.
  • Keywords you rank forHow many searches your site shows up for, grouped by position on the results page (an outside estimate). There is nothing to pass or fail here; it is shown for reference and not counted as passed or failed.
  • Pages that bring visitorsThe pages estimated to bring the most visitors from search (an outside estimate). There is nothing to pass or fail here; it is shown for reference and not counted as passed or failed.
  • Keywords competitors have and you don'tSearches about your trade where a competitor is on Google's first two pages and your site is not (an outside estimate; the search counts are national, not local). There is nothing to pass or fail here; it is shown for reference and not counted as passed or failed.
  • Ranking for buying termsYour site in the top 10 results or in the three map spots on the results page for at least three ready-to-buy searches, such as '<service> <town>', cost, near me or emergency, each searched on a desktop from one point on the map.

Authority

  • Sites that link to competitors but not youWebsites that link to both of your competitors, from an outside link index (an estimate), where that index shows no link to your site. We leave out sites the index rates under 100 of 1000 for strength or does not rate, sites it rates 20 or more out of 100 on its spam scale, sites whose home page did not open when we tried it or sends visitors to another website, your own and your competitors' sites, and sites whose home page already has a link to your site. When no site meets that bar we say so rather than list weak ones. This is a list, not a pass or fail.
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