Website Health Check Guide: what your report means

The guide comes as a PDF with every paid report. It is also here, so you can read it first, share it with whoever looks after your website, or look something up. If you would like to see what a report looks like, there is a full example report for an invented business.

What is in this guide

1. 1
   How to read your reportscores, labels, what we checked
2. 2
   Your first jobswhere to start
3. 3
   Being found on Googlegetting your pages into Google
4. 4
   Searches you appear forpositions and search numbers
5. 5
   Links from other websiteswhy links count as recommendations
6. 6
   Being recommended by AI assistantsChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity
7. 7
   Speed and mobilehow fast your site loads on a phone
8. 8
   Trust and contact detailswhat customers look for
9. 9
   Copy and pasteusing the ready-made wording
10. 10
    What happens nexttimescales and getting help
11. Words you might heara short glossary

1. How to read your report

Your report looks at your website the way Google and AI assistants such as ChatGPT see it. It tells you what is working, what is holding you back, and what to do about it, most important first.

The four areas we look at

Area	What it covers
Being found on Google	Whether Google can find and understand your pages, which searches you show up for, and how many other websites link to you. Sections 3, 4 and 5.
Being recommended by AI assistants	Whether tools like ChatGPT can read your site, and whether they name you when customers ask for a recommendation. Section 6.
Speed and mobile	How quickly your site loads and how well it works on a phone. Section 7.
Trust and contact details	Whether a visitor can quickly see how to reach you, where you work, when you are open and why they should pick you. Section 8.

What the scores mean

Each area starts at 100. Every problem we find takes some points off, and bigger problems take off more. The score then gets a plain verdict.

Score	Verdict	What it means
85 to 100	Good	In good shape. There may still be a few small tidy-ups.
60 to 84	Needs some work	The basics are there, but a few things are holding you back.
Below 60	Needs attention	Something important is missing or broken. Start here.

The labels on each job

Every job in your report has two labels. One says how much it matters. The other says roughly how long it takes.

How much it matters	What it means
Fix first	Seriously stopping customers finding you. Do this before anything else.
Important	Clearly holding you back.
Worth doing	A real improvement, but not urgent.
Small tidy-up	Minor. Do it when you have a spare moment.
For your information	Nothing to fix. Just something you may want to know.

How long it takes	What it means
Takes minutes	Usually a box to fill in or a setting to change.
Takes about an hour	Some writing or a few settings, or a short job for your web person.
A bigger job	New pages or writing, or work spread over a few weeks.

Timings are a rough guide for someone who knows their way around their website editor.

What we checked, and how

• We read your home page in detail, the same way Google's robot does.
• We looked at up to 25 pages across your site for broken links and missing details.
• We ran Google's own speed test, set up to behave like a phone.
• We looked up which Google searches your site already appears for, and how many other websites link to you.
• We asked three AI assistants questions your customers might ask, and noted who they named.

We only look at public pages, the same as any visitor would see. We never log in, and we never change anything on your website.

2. Your first jobs

This is the short list of changes we think will make the biggest difference to your website, in the order we suggest doing them.

How we choose them

The most important problems come first. When two matter about the same, the quicker one comes first, so you see progress early. Everything else is listed further down your email, in the section it belongs to.

Reading each job

• The title says what we found, in plain words.
• Why it matters explains what it means for your customers, with the facts we found.
• What to do gives the fix, and where possible where to find the setting.
• Seen on lists some of the pages with the problem, so you can go straight to them.

Where the settings usually are

Most of the quick jobs are done in your website editor. The exact names change from time to time, but these are good places to look. If in doubt, search your editor's help pages for "SEO".

If your site uses	Look for
WordPress	An SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math. It adds a box under each page where you can set the page title and description. Site-wide settings are under Settings in the left-hand menu.
Wix	Each page has its own SEO settings in the page menu, and there is a site-wide SEO section in the dashboard.
Squarespace	Page settings, then the SEO tab, for each page. Site-wide settings are under Marketing or SEO.
Shopify	The "Search engine listing" area at the bottom of each page or product.
Something else	Look for "SEO", "page settings" or "meta". If your site was built by someone for you, forward them the email.

What is already working

Your email also lists what your site already does well, so nobody changes those things by mistake. If your site is being redesigned, give that list to your designer too.

10. What happens next

Most of the jobs in your report can be done in an afternoon or two. Here is what to expect once they are done, and how to get help.

How long changes take to show

Change	Typical time to show
Page titles, descriptions and headings	A few days to a few weeks, once Google next reads the page. To speed it up, enter the page address in the search box at the top of Search Console and choose "Request indexing".
New pages and more writing	A few weeks to a few months to settle into their positions.
New links from other websites	Weeks to months. Links build up slowly and their effect grows over time.
Being named by AI assistants	Usually longer, because it depends on how you are described across the web, not just on your own website.

A sensible order

1. Work through your first jobs (section 2), quickest first if you prefer.
2. Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools if you have not already (section 3).
3. Check your Google Business Profile and main directory listings match your website (section 8).
4. Add the questions and new pages from section 9, a little at a time.
5. Ask for links from the people and groups who already know you (section 5).

Then let things settle. A fresh check after two or three months will show what has changed.

Working with a web person

Send them your report email and this guide, and ask them to tell you which jobs they have done. If they suggest a different way, that is fine. The aim of every job is explained, so they can reach the same result their own way.

Getting help

If you have a report and get stuck on any step, or something in it does not match your website, reply to your report email and tell us which part. The report comes from an automated check, so it can occasionally be wrong, and we would rather know.

Words you might hear

Your report avoids jargon where it can, but your web person or other websites may use these words.

AI assistant

A tool such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot that answers questions in plain language, often by searching the web first.

AI Overview

An AI-written answer that Google shows above its ordinary results for some searches.

Alt text

A short written description of a photo, read by screen readers and search engines.

Backlink

A link from another website to yours. See links from other websites.

Bot, robot or crawler

A program that visits websites automatically to read them, for a search engine or AI company.

Cache, caching

Keeping a ready-made copy of a page so it loads faster.

Domain

Your web address, such as yourbusiness.com.

Google Business Profile

Your free business listing on Google Maps and in local results.

H1, main heading

The single biggest heading on a page, which says what the page is about.

https, SSL

A secure web address, shown with a padlock in the browser.

Index, indexed

Google's filing system. An indexed page is one Google has stored and can show in results.

Keyword

The words people type into a search engine.

Meta description

The description that can appear under your page title in Google.

noindex

A hidden instruction asking search engines not to list a page.

nosnippet

A hidden instruction asking Google not to quote text from a page, including in its AI answers.

Plugin

An add-on that gives a website extra features, common on WordPress.

Ranking, position

Where a page appears in the results for a search.

Redirect, 301

A rule that sends visitors from an old page address to a new one. A 301 tells Google the move is permanent.

robots.txt

A small file on your website that tells robots which parts they may visit.

Search Console

Google's free tool showing how your website is doing in Google search.

SEO

The work of making a website easier for search engines to find, understand and show.

Sitemap

A list of your website's pages, made for search engines.

Structured data, schema

Hidden code that states facts about your business in a form machines read. See copy and paste.

Title, title tag

The page title shown as the blue link in Google and on the browser tab.

Viewport

The setting that makes a page fit a phone screen.

Two more you may see in articles: GEO (being named when an AI assistant writes a recommendation) and AEO (being the one answer instead of one of ten links).