Website health check: 9 basics every small business site needs

Plenty of small business websites look fine but quietly fail on the basics: they load insecurely, don’t work well on a phone, or say nothing useful to Google. None of it is hard to fix, but you can only fix what you can see.

Our free Website Health Checker runs nine quick checks on any address. This is what each one means.

1. The site is reachable

The simplest check: does the address respond at all? If it doesn’t, nothing else matters. Typos in the domain, expired hosting and DNS problems are the usual culprits.

2. It’s served over HTTPS

HTTPS encrypts the connection between your visitor and your site. Browsers label sites without it as “not secure”, which doesn’t inspire confidence if someone is about to fill in a contact form. Most hosts now offer a free certificate, so there’s rarely a good reason to go without.

3. Plain http:// redirects to https://

Having HTTPS isn’t enough if someone typing your address without it ends up on an insecure copy. The old http:// address should automatically send visitors to the secure one.

4. The page title is present and well-sized

The title is the headline shown in search results and in the browser tab. The checker looks for a title between 10 and 65 characters, which is roughly what fits before search results cut it off. Say what you do and where, not just your business name.

5. There’s a meta description

This is the short summary that can appear under your link in search results. It doesn’t directly boost rankings, but a clear one makes people more likely to click. The checker looks for between 50 and 160 characters.

6. The mobile viewport is configured

Without a viewport tag, phones may show a shrunken desktop page that visitors have to pinch and zoom. It’s one line of code, and it’s the foundation of a site that works on a phone.

7. There’s exactly one H1 heading

The H1 is the main heading on the page. One clear H1 tells visitors and search engines what the page is about. None, or several competing ones, muddies that.

8. Images have alt text

Alt text describes an image for people using screen readers, and for search engines that can’t see pictures. The checker looks for at least 80% of images to have it. It’s an accessibility basic as much as an SEO one.

9. robots.txt exists

A small file at the root of your site that tells search engines how to crawl it. Missing isn’t a disaster, but having one is standard practice and helps tools find your sitemap.

What a score means

A full nine out of nine doesn’t mean your site is brilliant. It means the technical basics are in place, and you’re free to concentrate on what makes it good: clear writing, good photos and an obvious way to get in touch. A low score usually means a handful of quick fixes.

If you’d like a hand with any of them, get in touch and we’ll talk you through what the results mean.