Website Health Check
What to look for In plain English.
A properly functioning website needs to work well for people. It should look and behave properly across phones, tablets and computers, while also presenting clear information that browsers, search engines and assistive technologies can understand. That won’t guarantee visitors, but it removes avoidable barriers.
Three connected ideas
What are we checking?
You can decide for yourself whether a site looks good on your phone or your computer, but that doesn't tell you whether it's adhering to standards and best practices that make it easier for browsers, search engines and assistive technologies to use.
Technical standards
Websites are written using shared languages and rules, a little like spelling and grammar for the web. Following those rules helps browsers display pages consistently and makes the site easier to maintain.
Technical SEO
This is the behind-the-scenes groundwork that helps search engines access and understand a website: sensible page titles, headings, links, site structure and a secure, usable experience.
Searchability
Searchability means that search engines can discover, read and make sense of your pages. It does not guarantee a particular position in search results, but it removes avoidable barriers to being found.
Test it yourself
None of this should be a secret.
Try the tools below, on your own website or others you like. Run the checks on a few important pages, not just the homepage, and treat the results as clues about what can be improved.
Page speed and experience
PageSpeed Insights checks how quickly a page loads and how it feels to use on phones and computers. It also suggests practical fixes.
A score is not the whole story. A clear, useful page that loads reliably is more important than chasing 100/100.
Accessibility
WAVE highlights accessibility issues such as missing labels, poor contrast and unclear structure. It helps you spot barriers, but no automated tool can judge everything a person may experience.
Accessibility is about making the site usable by more people, not just passing a test.
Security and HTTPS
Qualys SSL Server Test examines the secure connection between a website and its visitors. It is useful for checking certificates and the server settings behind HTTPS.
The site must be publicly reachable for the test to work.
HTML standards
The W3C Nu HTML Checker looks for mistakes in the page's underlying HTML. Well-structured HTML gives browsers and assistive technology a clearer document to work with.
Warnings are worth understanding, but not every message means that a page is broken.
CSS standards
The W3C CSS Validator checks the rules that control a page's appearance. It can help find typos or unsupported settings that make layouts behave unexpectedly.
Modern CSS can sometimes produce warnings even when it is intentionally written for newer browsers.
Security headers
SecurityHeaders.com checks instructions sent by a website to browsers that help reduce some common security risks. It is a useful technical check alongside HTTPS.
The result is a starting point for a developer, not a complete security audit.
Being found
Search engines need to be able to get in.
A page may struggle to appear in search results if a search engine cannot reach it, is told not to look at it, or cannot work out what it is about. These checks cover some of the basics.
Robots.txt
TechnicalSEO.com robots.txt tester lets you check the small file that gives crawlers instructions about which parts of a site they may visit. It should not be used to hide private information; it is an instruction, not a security barrier.
You can also view it directly by adding
/robots.txt to your domain.
Structured data
Google's Rich Results Test checks whether Google can read supported structured data on a public page. That data can help Google understand things such as a business, product, article or review.
Passing the test means a page may be eligible for a rich result. It does not guarantee that Google will show one.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Public tools can check whether a page is accessible, fast, valid and technically understandable. They cannot promise that a business will rank first, because search results also depend on relevance, competition, location, reputation and what people are looking for.
If you manage your own site, Google’s Search Console is the more complete place to see indexing information for a verified website. It is free, but it requires you to prove that you control the site.
ProperPage covers the basics
We don’t sell SEO packages or promise first place on Google. Search visibility is a real discipline, but it has also created an industry that has attracted plenty of vague promises and spammy emails.
We build the sensible foundations into your website instead: clear structure, useful page titles and descriptions, accessible markup, a fast, mobile-friendly experience and the technical details that help search engines understand your content. It won’t guarantee rankings, but it makes your site less likely to have avoidable problems.
Want someone else to take care of the technical side?
ProperPage builds websites with these fundamentals in mind, then keeps the hosting, security and maintenance looked after.
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