Website Health Check
Enter a website and get one score for its overall health. About eight quick tests run together: whether the site is up and fast, whether HTTPS and security headers are right, whether search engines can crawl and index it, and whether the page basics are in place.
- One score, four areas
- Fix-first list, most important first
- Runs in seconds, nothing stored
Want the detail behind a result? Go deeper with the Security Headers Checker or the Website Performance Checker.
Four areas that decide whether a site is healthy
Each area has its own score, so you can see where to start.
Availability and speed
Whether the site answers, how fast the server responds, how many redirects come first, whether the HTML is compressed and how big it is, and whether missing pages return 404.
Security
HTTPS, the redirect from http, HSTS, the main security headers, cookie flags and whether the server announces its software version.
Crawlability and indexing
robots.txt, a working sitemap, accidental noindex, a canonical tag, and whether www and non-www send visitors to one version.
On-page and mobile
The title, meta description, H1, mobile viewport, page language, amount of content and image alt text.
The problems that cap the score
A few problems make a site unhealthy whatever else is right, so they limit the score to 49.
| Problem | What it means | How to find it fast |
|---|---|---|
| Site unreachable | Visitors and crawlers get no page | The reachability check fails or returns an error status. |
| Everything blocked in robots.txt | Search engines are told to stay out | robots.txt contains Disallow: / for all crawlers. |
| Page set to noindex | The page can't appear in search results | A robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header says noindex. |
How to check a website's health
Three steps from a URL to a plan.
Enter the address
Use the home page or any page you care about. The tests run together and any one that fails never stops the others.
Read the score and the fix list
Start with the problems at the top of Fix these first, then work through the warnings.
Go deeper and re-check
Use the deeper tools linked under the results, fix what they find, and run the health check again.
How to keep a website healthy
Most health problems come back unless someone checks.
Check monthly
Run a quick check once a month and after every launch, plugin update or hosting change.
Watch the certificate
An expired certificate takes a site down with a full-page warning. Set automatic renewal and an expiry alert.
Review robots.txt after launch
A staging robots.txt that blocks everything is a classic mistake on launch day.
Keep pages light
Compression, caching and a CDN keep the server fast as the site grows.
Add the headers
Security headers are a few lines of config and close common attack routes.
Measure what matters
Pair the health check with Search Console, so you see problems Google reports too.
What a website health check covers and why to run one
A website health check is a quick test of the basics that keep a site working and findable. Is the site up, and does it answer quickly? Is the connection secure? Can search engines crawl and index it? Are the on-page basics in place? None of these is advanced, but a problem in any of them can quietly cost traffic: a leftover noindex rule, a robots.txt that blocks everything, an expired certificate or a missing sitemap.
This tool runs about eight tests together and turns them into one score across four areas: availability and speed, security, crawlability and indexing, and on-page and mobile basics. Three problems are treated as critical and cap the score at 49, because no other result makes up for a site that cannot be reached, is blocked from crawling or is set to noindex. The fix list puts those first.
It is a screening tool, not an audit. It reads one page, the server it comes from and a few site-wide files. It will not crawl every URL, judge your content or compare you with competitors. What it does well is catch urgent, easy-to-miss problems in about a minute. Google's own guidance, such as the notes on HTTP status codes and soft 404 errors and the robots meta tag and X-Robots-Tag, explains why these checks matter.
When to run a website health check
Run it on a schedule, and after any change to the site, the server or the hosting.
Right after a launch or relaunch
Catch a staging noindex or a blocking robots.txt that was carried over to the live site. These are the quickest ways to disappear from search after a launch.
After a migration or hosting change
Confirm that http still redirects to https, that www and non-www reach one version, and that missing pages return a real 404 on the new server.
As a monthly routine
A short, regular check shows when something drifts: a header lost after an update, a redirect that stopped working, or a sitemap that stopped answering.
When you take over a site
Get a first picture of an inherited site before you read its history. The score and the fix-first list show where to look before a full audit.
To triage before a bigger audit
Decide where to dig deeper. A weak security area points to the Security Headers Checker, while a weak speed area points to the Website Performance Checker.
After a plugin, theme or CDN update
These updates can change redirects, headers, caching and meta tags without anyone noticing. A health check afterwards is a cheap safety net.
Website health mistakes and how to fix them
Most of these happen at launch or after a change, and all are quick to fix once found.
Leaving the site set to noindex
What goes wrong: A staging setting survives the launch, so a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header tells search engines not to index the live pages. The site looks fine to visitors, so nobody notices.
The fix: Remove the noindex rule from the template, header or server config. On WordPress, untick Discourage search engines from indexing this site under Settings, Reading.
A robots.txt that blocks everything
What goes wrong: A Disallow: / rule for all crawlers stops search engines from crawling the site. It is often copied from a staging environment and forgotten.
The fix: Replace it with a robots.txt that allows crawling and lists your sitemap. Then test key URLs. Remember that blocking in robots.txt also stops Google from seeing a noindex on the page.
Soft 404 pages
What goes wrong: Missing URLs that return status 200, or that redirect to the home page, can be treated by Google as soft 404 errors. The server tells visitors one thing and crawlers another.
The fix: Return a real 404 or 410 status for pages that no longer exist. Only redirect when there is a close replacement page, and show a useful error page.
Two versions of the site both answering
What goes wrong: If http and https, or www and non-www, each return a 200 page, search engines see duplicates and links split between versions.
The fix: Choose one version, redirect all others to it with a permanent 301 or 308, and set the canonical tag and sitemap to match.
Waiting for the certificate to expire
What goes wrong: An expired certificate puts a full-page warning between visitors and the site. It is one of the easiest outages to prevent and one of the most common.
The fix: Set up automatic renewal and an expiry alert, and check the certificate after any hosting or CDN change. This tool flags a failing HTTPS connection, but the SSL Certificate Checker shows the expiry date. Certificate lifetimes are getting shorter, so manual renewal is a growing risk.
Chasing the score instead of the problems
What goes wrong: Fixing minor warnings to raise the number, while leaving a critical issue or an area marked not checked, gives a false sense of safety.
The fix: Work from the top of the fix list, and re-run the check after each round. Treat areas that show as not available as unknown and test them with the deeper tools.
Website health terms explained
- Health score
- A single number from 0 to 100 built from four weighted areas. Critical problems, such as an unreachable site or a noindex page, cap it at 49 whatever else passes.
- Soft 404
- A page that looks like an error or is missing but returns a success status, or redirects to the home page. Google reports these in Search Console and treats them as errors.
- noindex
- A rule, set in a robots meta tag or an
X-Robots-Tagheader, that tells search engines not to show the page in results. Google can only follow it if it can fetch the page. - robots.txt
- A text file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which paths they may request.
Disallow: /for all crawlers blocks crawling of the whole site. - Canonical tag
- A
link rel="canonical"element that names the preferred URL for a page, helping search engines pick one version when several URLs show the same content. - HSTS
- The
Strict-Transport-Securityheader, which tells browsers to use only https for a site for a set time. It is only honoured when sent over https. - Redirect chain
- A series of redirects between the requested URL and the final page. Each extra hop adds delay, so one direct redirect to the final address is better.
- Viewport meta tag
- A tag in the
headthat tells mobile browsers to match the page width to the device. Without it, phones often show a shrunken desktop layout.
Related tools, guides and services
A health check finds problems. These go deeper into each area and show how to fix them.
Security Headers Checker
Grade HSTS, CSP, framing and cookie settings and copy the config to fix them.
ToolSSL Certificate Checker
See the certificate expiry date, issuer and covered names, and test the https redirect.
ToolWebsite Performance Checker
Dig into server response, page weight, caching and render-blocking files.
ToolHTTP Status Code Checker
Test many URLs at once for redirects, errors and soft 404 responses.
GuideTechnical vs complete SEO audit
Understand what a full audit covers beyond a quick health check, and which one you need.
ServiceSEO audit service
Get a prioritised audit of the issues that hold your organic growth back.
Built by
Madhav Kushwaha
SEO, AEO, GEO & Digital Marketing Consultant in Kathmandu, Nepal, and trainer at ODcrU Academy and TechAxis Institute. A client asks 'is my site healthy?' and I want to answer in one minute, before the audit. I built this check to run the quick tests I always start with, and to show the fix list in the order I would work through it.
Website Health Check: Frequently Asked Questions
More free SEO tools
A health check finds the problems. These tools dig into each area.