5 Actionable Checks to Ensure Your Website is Visible
Congratulations on taking a positive step in understanding whether your website is visible to Google and other search engines!
1. INDEXABILITY
A page is indexed by Google if it has been visited by the Google crawler (“Googlebot”), analyzed for content and meaning, and stored in the Google index.
site:yourdomain.com.au
If you have a small website and the results from the above command show thousands of pages – your site my be a target of hackers.
TAKE ACTION: GOOGLE’S URL INSPECTION TOOL
2. SECURITY
Does your website URL have a padlock at the beginning?
Does your website URL start with HTTPS:// and NOT HTTP://?
Sometimes even if you have an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate your pages may show as insecure. If they do you can determine why by checking your URL through “why no padlock”.
If your site doesn’t have HTTPS:// get in touch with your hosting provider to organise the purchase and installation of an SSL certificate.
TAKE ACTION: WHY NO PADLOCK?
Why is security so important?
The core function of an SSL certificate is to protect server-client communication. On installing SSL, every bit of information is encrypted.
The easy to identify signs, padlock and https, inform the users that the data they send will be secured.
Google Makes SSL Mandatory in 2018
To give a safer web browsing experience from 2018 onwards, Google decided to flag the websites which do not have an SSL/TLS Certificate installed on their website. If anyone fails to comply with this rule, all the popular web browsers used around the globe like Google Chrome & Firefox Mozilla will punish them by giving a warning message of ‘Not Secure’ on the URL bar.
SSL Helps You Satisfy PCI/DSS Requirements
If you accept online payments, you must know a thing or two about PCI/DSS requirements. To receive online payments, your website must be PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant.
3. SITE SPEED
Do visitors to your site have time to make a cuppa while your website loads?
If they do they might change their mind and head over to your competitor’s website!
A user typically stays on a site for longer if the site speed is faster and they also convert better and bounce off the website less. For those reasons, Google has made it a ranking factor.
TAKE ACTION: CHECK YOUR SPEED WITH GTMETRIX
This is what Google is looking for
Why is site speed so important?
Internet users have come to expect websites to display very quickly – if they are lagging and slow to load, people get frustrated and will move on to the next website. There are billions of them to choose from.
Remember those first impressions are vital for businesses on the web. Speed plays a decisive role in how audiences perceive a brand’s digital presence.
4. DEVICE RESPONSIVENESS
Responsive development is Google’s recommended approach for mobile web design. With more and more users reaching for their mobile to not only check social media but moreso to purchase items it is incredibly important for businesses to ensure their users can move around the mobile website of all sizes, easily and quickly.
See how your site renders on various sized screens. https://responsivedesignchecker.com/
TAKE ACTION: GOOGLE’S MOBILE FRIENDLY TEST
5. CORE WEB VITALS
Core Web Vitals are a set of standardized metrics from Google that help developers understand how users experience a web page. While Core Web Vitals were created for developers, these tools can be used by all site owners because they break down the user’s real-world experience on a page.
Lighthouse is an automated tool for identifying needed improvements for the quality of your site. You provide your URL, and it provides a list of recommendations on how to improve page performance, make pages more accessible, adhere to best practices and more
It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO and more.
TAKE ACTION: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE CORE WEB VITALS
If there is something we can help you with please get in touch!
