A healthier website.
A clearer place to start.

Choose the pages that matter to your business.

Begin with your homepage, one important service or product page, and the contact or purchase journey. Include a location page if location affects who you can serve. Looking closely at these pages is more useful than collecting a score for every URL without a plan to act.

For each page, write one sentence describing its job. “Help a business understand our maintenance service and request a suitable appointment” gives you something concrete to assess.

Fix access and usability before polishing the copy.

Check that an intended public page opens reliably, uses HTTPS and can be reached through the website’s navigation. Follow the important links. Test the contact details, and submit an agreed test enquiry so someone can confirm receipt.

For Google discovery, use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to examine the indexed page and, when needed, test the current version. Check unexpected indexing restrictions or an incorrect preferred URL with your developer. A successful live test does not guarantee indexing. Google’s URL Inspection guidance.

Leave access controls in place for private material and development pages. The aim is to make the right information available, not to expose everything.

Try the complete journey on a phone.

Read the offer without zooming, open the menu and use the main action. Check for text running off-screen, controls hidden by overlays and forms that become awkward when the keyboard appears.

Use PageSpeed Insights to investigate loading and responsiveness. It separates real-user information, where available, from laboratory diagnostics. A single laboratory score is not a universal SEO pass mark. Fix the issues affecting people, rather than treating a number as the whole task. About PageSpeed Insights.

Make each page’s offer unmistakable.

Ask someone unfamiliar with your business to read the opening section. Can they identify what you offer, who it is for and how to proceed? If the answer needs a spoken explanation, put the missing information on the page.

• Use a descriptive page title. Distinguish this page from the others and keep the wording concise. Google may generate a different displayed title and truncate it to fit the device; a fixed character count is not a ranking rule. Google’s title guidance.
• Write a useful description. Summarise the page accurately. Google can use page text instead, depending on the search. There is no guaranteed snippet length or wording. Google’s snippet guidance.
• Organise the explanation. Give the page a clear main heading and meaningful section headings. Answer questions about suitability, scope, process and limitations.
• Link to the next useful page. Descriptive links help visitors explore related services, evidence or practical guidance.

Images need the same judgement. Provide meaningful alternative text when an image conveys information. Pure decoration should usually have an empty alternative so screen readers can skip it. Avoid turning alt text into a list of keywords. W3C guidance on decorative images.

Check local discovery where it is relevant.

If your business is eligible for a Google Business Profile, review its category, opening hours, contact details and service information. Keep changes consistent across the places customers actually use.

Google describes local ranking in terms of relevance, distance and prominence. Complete, accurate information helps it understand the business, but cannot remove the effect of a searcher’s location or guarantee a position. Google’s local ranking guidance.

Prioritise genuine errors: an old telephone number, a moved address or the wrong opening hours. Do not spend the review chasing harmless wording differences while customers are being sent to the wrong place.

Add information that helps a customer choose.

Look at recent enquiries. Which details did people need before deciding whether your service was suitable? A useful comparison, an explained process or a genuine project example may answer those questions better than another general-interest post.

For example, a repair business could explain which equipment it supports, what an initial assessment includes and when replacement may be more sensible. That helps a customer judge the fit before making contact. It is an illustrative content idea, not a client result.

Check claims, dates and examples. Use photographs and customer stories with the necessary permission. Explain who is responsible for specialist advice and link to reliable evidence where readers need to verify it.

There is no need to invent a monthly publishing quota. Improve the pages that need attention, and create a new one when it has a clear purpose. Our SEO, AEO and GEO guide explains how these foundations relate to AI visibility.

Turn the findings into a short action list.

Fix nowSomething prevents discovery or a customer action.

Examples include an accidentally excluded public service page, a broken enquiry route or incorrect contact information. Confirm the cause and check the repair.

Improve nextThe journey works, but important information is missing.

Clarify the offer, strengthen the evidence or simplify a difficult step. Give each change an owner and an observable goal.

Review regularlyThe website needs to stay accurate.

Check changing details, relevant visits and enquiries. Review sooner after a redesign, migration or major service change.

Record a baseline and the date of each significant change. Give results enough context to be useful: seasonality, campaigns and capacity can all affect enquiries. If visits change unexpectedly, our guide to measuring search visibility in 2026 offers a way to investigate.

The best outcome of a health check is a manageable set of improvements with a reason behind each one. That is a stronger starting point than a long list of boxes ticked once and forgotten.