November 3, 2020 • 19 min read

Website Health Check: Tools And Tips

THE SHORT ANSWER

A website health check evaluates crawlability, broken links, page speed, uptime, and security vulnerabilities using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, GTmetrix, and Sucuri. Running a few of these regularly catches issues like malware or slow load times before they hurt rankings.

Website Health Checkup

In order to build a website, you have to invest a lot of effort and time in addition to developing a budget. A successful website has become essential for modern-day businesses. Once your website has been developed, there are steps you need to take to ensure it remains healthy including checking the performance and health with a site health check, analyzing your URL and consistent maintenance and upgrades. There are a lot of tools available online you can use to evaluate your website’s health.

Using just a few tools regularly will determine the overall performance and health of your website through pre-determined metrics. Some of these tools are available for free, others have a fee and some even offer you a free version. This is a good opportunity to try out the tool before making a purchase. These tools perform different actions to maintain and protect the health of your site. Unfortunately, cyber-attacks, data breaches and hackers must be considered.

If you have any vulnerabilities in your website, you need to identify them as quickly as possible. Hackers are always searching for vulnerabilities and can do a lot of damage. In some cases, the damage was in the millions. There are excellent tools available to help you check your website’s health. The 20 most popular tools are detailed below including a description of the specific functions.

Site Health Check with Google Webmaster Tools

One of the most basic tools available is called Google Webmaster. As the owner of a website, you can use this tool for an evaluation of the health and performance of your site. The tool has a search console with a variety of tools so you can submit your pages to Google for indexing including screen backlinks.

You will learn which keywords were responsible for bringing visitors to your website. This is a website analysis tool you can use for free. You can also check every page on your site by crawling for errors and broken links.

Moz’s Pro Tools

Moz’s Pro Tools offer you numerous actions to improve the health of your website by identifying factors including:

  • Crawlability
  • SEO elements
  • Duplicate content

The performance of your website can be influenced by search engines through crawlability factors. Moz is a site analysis tool using a web crawler named RogerBot. A maximum of 3,000 of your links can be analyzed. After your analysis is complete, you will receive a detailed report containing information about all of the links that were analyzed. You will receive your report at the email address you registered. Here is an example of Moz’s site crawl:

Website health check

(Image Credit: seoClarity)

DNS Health Checker for Website Health Checkup

The DNS Health Checker includes a website performance suite. Your website is checked for performance including:

  • Page speed monitoring
  • Visitor’s insights
  • Uptime monitoring
  • Server monitoring
  • Transaction monitoring

Although this is not a free tool. you can take advantage of the 14-day free trial. This will give you a chance to use the monitoring services to make certain it is what you want. If the tool meets your requirements and preferences, there are several packages available. These packages include:

  • Standard
  • Advanced
  • Enterprise
  • Professional

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Check My Links

The Check My Links tool will help you optimize your links. You can learn if both your internal and external links are performing correctly. One of the best benefits of this tool is you can use it on your live pages. You simply use Check My Links to run all of your pages in the tool. All of your broken links are immediately highlighted in red with your good links showing in green. This is a free tool. For example:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Google)

Buzzstream

If you have inbound links on your website from more than one source, this is a good tool because the health of your inbound links is evaluated. This is a great option if you are currently building backlinks through social media platforms, guest blogs and a variety of other sources. The Buzzstream dashboard shows you a list of every source you have used to request backlinks. You will know whether or not your link is inactive or if it has been accepted.

You can also use this tool to help you identify platforms you can use for building inbound links. You can use Buzzstream free for two weeks to make certain it is right for your needs. After that, you will have to pay to continue using the tool.

Browser Shots

If you are a web developer, you can use Browser Shots to check the compatibility of your website with a range of different browser versions. Your website link must be submitted for you to be added to the queue. Browser Shots will open your website using a variety of different browsers. The screenshots taken by this tool will be uploaded to a server so you can view your results.

Website health check

(Image Credit: Testing Web Sites)

HubSpot’s Website Grader

This is a website audit tool launched in 2007. There have been a lot of upgrades since the initial release. You can now receive a personalized report using predetermined metrics. Your website will be evaluated with an analytics tool created for mobile readers to check the security features of your site. Other SEO metrics are analyzed including the size and speed of your pages for an evaluation of your website performance for search engines. This is a free tool with over 70 different metrics.

Website Health Check with Web Page Speed Test

This is a website analysis tool providing developers with the ability to test the loading speed of your website. Tests are conducted using actual browsers located all over the world. The tests also evaluate your:

  • Video capture
  • Content blocking
  • Multi-step interactions

Your results will also include suggestions for page speed optimization and waterfall chats. Here is what your results could look like:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Search Engine Watch)

Website Health Check with Woorank

This is a good website auditing tool including a 14-day free trial. You will receive an in-depth analysis of your site and a performance evaluation for both social media platforms and search engines. The usability of your site is also monitored. The Woorank tool will generate a report with eight different sections including:

  • SEO
  • Local
  • Technologies
  • Marketing checklist
  • Visitors
  • Social
  • Usability
  • Mobile

Pingdom

You can use Pingdom for free for 14 days. If you want to continue using the tool, you need to decide between a Premium or Standard account. This is a website monitoring tool capable of checking the performance of your website every minute. You can use the website speed test for free to be notified if there are any issues with your site. For instance:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Pingdom)

Pingdom also checks your website for performance and uptime using different servers placed all over the world. The issues with Pingdom are the coverage for the Asia Pacific region is lacking and the SMS capabilities are only fair.

Sucuri Website Health Check Tool

Sucuri is a tool to test the vulnerability of your website. Your site will be checked for:

  • Viruses
  • Malware
  • Website errors
  • Malicious code
  • Spam
  • Defacements
  • Out-of-date software

Sucuri also checks to see if your website or any of your links have been blacklisted. You can use this tool for cleaning your site while providing protection from cyber threats. Sucuri is compatible with:

  • WordPress
  • Magneto
  • Joomla
  • Drupal

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is essentially a diagnostic tool for SEO. You can check to see if your site is performing well with the search engines. You can also use this tool to conduct a complete audit of your website. During your audit, Ahrefs will crawl your pages. You will be informed if any technical issues are detected. You can also use Ahrefs to check the performance of your site for specific keywords with your click-through rate provided. The image below shows what an audit looks like from Ahrefs:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Ahrefs)

Site Health Check with Linkody

This is a tool enabling you to check your backlinks performance. The index is extremely easy to understand with detailed backlink metrics provided including:

  • Backlink tracking
  • Spam score
  • Domain authority
  • Rel score
  • Google indexation status
  • Alexa score

You also have the ability to check the backlinks used by your competitors. You simply enter the website URL for your competitor to receive the niche information required for building your own backlinks. One of the advantages of this tool is you can generate reports for your website then use them for presentations or share them with your website team.

New Relic

This tool is built using a SaaS model. You can track the performance of both your web application and website. The platform is based on the cloud and supports eight languages including:

  • Java
  • Node.js
  • PHP
  • Go
  • MS.NET
  • Python
  • C SDK
  • Ruby

New Relic monitors your:

  • Website uptime
  • Infrastructure
  • Application performance
  • Website speed
  • Response time
  • Error rates
  • Browser
  • Database
  • Synthetics

The monitoring capabilities of New Relic are good but navigating between the different services can be an issue. You can use this analysis tool to determine the health of your website free for 14 days. You will then need to select a payment plan depending on your monitoring and usage requirements.

Website health check

(Image Credit: New Relic)

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Intruder

This is a cloud-based testing scanner for website vulnerability. Over 900 features will be checked including:

  • CMS issues
  • SQL injections
  • Configuration weakness
  • Misconfigurations
  • Missing patches
  • Cross-site scripting

The intruder is enterprise-ready and you can use it for a large website. There are different packages available for developers, small businesses and enterprise websites.

Free Website Health Check with Uptime Robot

Uptime Robot was released in 2010 with both paid and free versions available. You can use the free version for storing a maximum of two months of log and monitoring a maximum of 50 systems. These numbers increase with the paid version enabling the maintenance of a maximum of 24 months of log and monitoring a maximum of 1,000 systems. The website check is performed every five minutes with the free versions and every minute with the paid version. Here is an example of an Uptime Robot dashboard:

Website health check

(Image Credit: AlternativeTo)

StatusCake

You will receive a variety of tools for monitoring the performance and health of your website. StatusCake offers both paid and free versions. You can use the free version for monitoring a maximum of 10 systems in five-minute intervals. Purchasing the Superior plan enables you to monitor a maximum of 100 systems at intervals of 15 minutes. If you purchase the Premium plan, you can monitor a maximum of 300 systems at intervals of 30 seconds.

StatusCake is located throughout 28 countries with 48 testing locations. You can use the feature to test the speed of your pages with the free version. You need to purchase the paid version for:

  • SSL certificate monitoring
  • Server monitoring
  • Domain monitoring

Free Website Health Check with Montastic

Montastic offers a free version ideal for tracking the performance and health of your website and small businesses. This tool does not include a dashboard but you will receive a notification when there is an issue with your website. If you use the free version, the performance of your website is evaluated every 30 minutes. Checks are performed more frequently with the paid version. Widgets are available for Windows, Mac and Android. Take a look at what the user interface looks like:

Website health check

(Image Credit: HostingFacts.com)

DotCom-Monitor

This tool was released in 1998 and currently has over 25,000 users. This is one of the earliest tools offering a website checking service every minute. The monitoring services available include:

  • Uptime
  • Web page analysis
  • Mail monitoring
  • FTP
  • Transaction

This tool includes a real-time dashboard you can use to check the performance of your website at any time. Notifications are sent by phone, mail and SMS. You can use DotCom-Monitor free for 30 days. Once your free trial is over you must decide which services you want to keep. Your cost is dependent on the services you select.

Monitis Website Health Check Tool

This is an IT solution provider based in the cloud. You will receive a complete website check every five minutes. You can check your website for:

  • Response time
  • Bottlenecks
  • Server health
  • Uptime
  • Network performance

For instance, here is the Monitis tool monitoring your website in different locations:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Monitis)

Your metrics can be customized according to your requirements and performance. You can use this tool for 15 days with the free trial. After this time you will automatically receive a paid subscription service. You can select the best plan depending on your goals for website health and your specific needs.

Managing the SEO Health of Your Website

The marketing process for the performance and health of your website is ongoing and your effort is required. You can help ensure you have a good web presence by using tools for website SEO. You can find more than enough information and tools to make managing the performance and health of your website easy. A healthy website includes improved:

  • User experience
  • Speed
  • Search engine visibility

The best part is you can find numerous quality SEO health tools for free. There are a lot of advantages to having a healthy website including:

  • Improved performance for digital marketing
  • Higher rankings with the search engines
  • Higher conversion rates

Structured Data

Schema HTML was created through the collaboration of search engines to classify website information. The provides the search engines with the information necessary for understanding your website. Schema HTML will improve how your pages are displayed in the search engine results. Google offers a Structured Data Testing Tool for testing the structured data of your website. For example:

Website health check

(Image Credit: SEO Sandwitch Blog)

Page Speed Test

PageSpeed Insights from Google reviews the content of your website and generates suggestions to help increase your page speed for visitors. You will receive a score between 0 and 100 points. A higher score is best with a score of 85 or above showing your website is performing properly. Your results are for one page only but you can run this test separately for multiple pages. The requirements for this tool are considered strict.

Google Webmaster Search Console

This tool was once called Google Webmaster Tools. Google offers a variety of tools at no cost for the owners of websites. You can use these tools for checking the performance and health of your website. A good place to start is with the homepage for Google Webmasters. For instance:

Website health check

(Image Credit: Google Webmaster Blog)

W3C

You will not make much progress in improving the health of your website if you do not assess your code. The W3C or World Wide Web Consortium created the standards for the web to dictate the global operations of the internet. If you are having issues with code, the W3C code validator is a great option. By following these standards you will improve your code.

GTMetrix

You can view results regarding the technical performance of your website with the GTmetrix. You can resolve your issues with the actionable recommendations provided. Here is an example of a few recommendations:

Website health check

(Image Credit: GTmetrix)

Blacklists

You should check your domain name to make certain it has not been blacklisted for anti-spam sites. This will result in major issues with the search engines and can damage your online business communications.

Diib®: Check Your Website Health Today!

Diib Digital offers a comprehensive website health check that will give you all the information you need to make intelligent business decisions. Here are some of the features of our digital dashboard you’re sure to appreciate:

  • Provide Custom Alerts, which keep you informed on your website health and any changes to the google algorithms that can affect your mobile traffic patterns.
  • Give Objectives with customized suggestions on ways to improve your mobile friendliness, website health and organic traffic.
  • Offer our clients insights into not only their own website health, but that of their key competitors.
  • Allow you to sync your Facebook profile, giving you insights into the specifics of your social media campaign. Things like specific post performance, demographics of users, best time of day to post and conversions.
  • Provide a monthly collaborative session with a Diib growth expert that can help you fine tune your mobile SEO efforts and guide you to growth and success.

Call today at 800-303-3510 or click here to get your free 60 website scan and learn more about your SEO strengths and weaknesses.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is a website health check?

A website health check reviews how well your site works for visitors and search engines. It covers crawlability and indexing, broken links, page speed, mobile usability, uptime and security issues such as malware or outdated software. Regular checks catch problems before they hurt your traffic or customer trust.

How often should I check my website's health?

Automated monitoring for uptime and security should run continuously. A broader health check covering speed, broken links and indexing is worth doing at least monthly, and always after a redesign, migration or major plugin update. Tools like Google Search Console will also alert you to new problems.

What is a good page load time?

Aim for your main content to load within about 2.5 seconds, which is Google's threshold for a good Largest Contentful Paint score. Faster is better, especially on mobile. Test with PageSpeed Insights, which shows real-user data when available, and start by compressing images and reducing heavy scripts.

What free tools can I use for a website health check?

Google Search Console shows indexing problems, mobile issues and security warnings. PageSpeed Insights measures speed and Core Web Vitals. Uptime monitors such as UptimeRobot alert you when your site goes down, and a broken link checker finds dead links. diib also offers a free website scan.

FREE WEBSITE SCAN

How can diib® help me improve my website today?

diib® connects to your Google Analytics account in about 60 seconds (optional to start) and shows you exactly what to fix to grow your website. More than 800,000 businesses use diib, starting with a free website scan. PRO memberships start at just $29.99 a month.

Because we serve so many members, we can also offer wholesale pricing on high-quality services, including:

  • Backlink development on DA10–DA80 websites
  • Professional Google Analytics setup
  • Website speed analysis and optimization
  • Keyword research
  • Article writing and publishing (500–5,000+ words)

Enter your website below to create your free account and see everything we offer our members.

Daniel Urmann
AUTHOR

Daniel Urmann

Daniel Urmann is the co-founder of Diib.com. Over the past 17 years Daniel has helped thousands of business grow online through SEO, social media, and paid advertising. Today, Diib helps over 150,000 business globally grow online with their SaaS offerings. Daniel’s interest include SMB analytics, big data, predictive analytics, enterprise and SMB search engine optimization (SEO), CRO optimization, social media advertising, A/B testing, programatic and geo-targeting, PPC, and e-commerce. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused in Finance and E-commerce from Cornell University – S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management.

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