The Creare Digital Health Check: How does it work?

There are many website testing tools out there but our very own Digital Health Check aims to make analysing digital marketing performance accessible to all audiences – not just web developers.

We try not to bombard the user with technical jargon, instead we try to give guidance on some of the major factors that affect how well your business’ website performs online. Not just from a search engine perspective but also for users and general online visibility through social channels.

Desktop

Our desktop check centres around the performance of the website for visitors using ‘desktop’ devices such as laptops or computers rather than mobile devices.

The critical aspect of this test is SPEED. The web is large and life is far too short to wait 5 seconds for a homepage to load.

How can I score better?

  • Make sure your server is as fast as you can afford
  • Use smaller files on your website – images and scripts should be optimised so they are as small as possible for the visitor to download to their browser
  • Ask your web company whether there are any problems with your website – are you loading / showing too much data on your homepage?
  • Ask your hosting provider whether they can implement caching for your website to speed it up
  • Use the Google Page Speed insights tool to see some technical data as to the problems

GooglePageSpeedInsights

What if I score 0?

If you score 0 then your website does not meet our threshold for speed and as such this should flag up with a warning message.

Due to visitors being less tolerant of slow-loading websites and search engines using website speed as a ranking factor this should really be high on your priorities to resolve.

Mobile

Almost half of the population now browse the internet more on their mobile devices than on Desktop machines. Search engines recognise this and have taken measures to ensure that they favour websites in their mobile search rankings that display correctly on mobile devices.

How can I score better?

  • Ensure your website passes the Google Mobile Test
  • Ensure that the speed of your website on mobile devices is as small as possible

mobile-friendly-test

What if I score 0?

If you score 0 then in all likelihood users of your website will struggle to navigate / read your website on a mobile device. You should have a word with your web design company

Content

All websites need content, and by content we mean something to read or something to look at.

Although there are cases where a homepage can get away with simply being a picture or a a few lines of text, the majority of websites that perform well in search engines tend to contain a lot of useful information.

How can I score better?

  • Stick to typical formatting for your layout of headings and paragraphs
  • If possible, try to include imagery or video content to help improve the time users spend on your website
  • Ensure that you have clearly titled and described your website with meta information

(This is important as the title and description are used as your first introduction to a visitor searching for your products or services on the web.)
meta

What if I score 0?

In the digital marketing sphere “content is king”. If the website in question is scoring 0 then it is either doing things a little differently to the norm or has some urgent issues to address.

Facebook

Our first “Social Media” test looks at your Facebook profile. We pick up your Facebook profile from the links that reside on your own website.

Facebook, for a long time now has been a great tool for businesses using it to promote themselves and project their products and services onto the millions of daily users.

A well-used Facebook profile can do wonders for your online digital presence, even if Facebook in itself does might not directly affect your performance in other parts of the web – why would you want to not advertise in-front of their 1.5 billion active monthly users?

How can I score better?

  • Use your profile regularly – post often and get involved with the community
  • Cultivate likes and recommendations through other channels
  • Ensure that your profile is as complete as it can be (phone number, description and all other business information)
  • Ensure the link from your website is correct and that you also link back to your website from your Facebook page

What if I score 0?

If you are scoring 0 then it is very likely that the linking between your Website and Facebook page is not set up correctly or cannot be followed by our Health Check tool.

Check that your web developers have added a link to your Facebook profile page and that it is correct.

Twitter

Much like Facebook, there are hundreds of millions of active users on Twitter and it’s a great marketing opportunity if you can get it right.

A well-maintained Twitter account can help to attract new and repeat visitors to your website and can help create a culture around your brand.

How can I score better?

  • Tweet more
  • Follow more people
  • Gain more followers
  • Engage with your following

(It’s as simple as that)

What if I score 0?

The linking between your Twitter account and your website might not be set up correctly.

Google+

Although not really used as a personal social media platform (at least not as much as Facebook / Twitter etc), Google+ is still important for a number of reasons – especially for Businesses.

One of the best and quickest ways to improve your digital presence is to set up your Google My Business page. This is essentially a Google+ profile for your business and can help make you appear in Google’s search engine very quickly for relevant phrases in your area.

How can I score better?

  • Ensure all company information is present and correct on your profile
  • Add extra information such as Opening Times and Photographs
  • Gather Google+ Reviews and try to keep a high average rating

What if I score 0?

Ensure that your Google+ link from your website is correct and verified and that the page in question is a Google My Business page.

Visibility

Visibility is a slightly more complicated test where we combine a number of factors that determine how well your business website might perform in search engines.

We do not specifically look at the rankings of your website but the strength of some common ‘ranking factors’.

How can I score better?

  • Ensure your website is accessible to search engines
  • Set up Google Analytics on your website
  • Ensure that your Digital Marketing company are “building authority” in a natural way (i.e. not creating spammy links to your website)
  • Try to have your website mentioned on other websites that are in some way relevant to your own business

What if I score 0?

If you’re scoring 0 the best thing to check is to ask your web company whether your website is reachable by search engines.

Overall Rating

Our overall Digital Health Check score is weighted in a number of ways – it’s not simply an average of all your scores but a balancing act.

We try to score websites based on the severity of the problem and their impact on both the user experience and that of major search engines.