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Overview checkpoints
Quick links:
The Insites report overview provides an at-a-glance view of the digital performance of the analyzed business. The overview is available in Insites’s main report view, presentation view, PDF exports and the inbound tool.
To view more detail for a specific point, just click on it to be taken to the relevant section of the detailed report. You can also quickly and easily
hide specific points from
the presentation view if needed to. Enterprise customers may customize the order
and categorization of the overview to better suit their presentation style.
A breakdown of the checkpoints, their display criteria and their standard categories is below:
Social
Facebook page
Good: if a business Facebook page is linked to from the website
Bad: if a business Facebook page is not linked to from the website
Warning: if a Facebook link is detected, but it is restricted or a personal profile.
Good: if an Instagram account is linked to from the website
Bad: if an Instagram account is not linked to from the website
Good: if a Twitter account is linked to from the website
Bad: if a Twitter account is not linked to from the website.
Snapchat
Good: if a Snapchat account is linked to from the website
Bad: if a Snapchat account is not linked to from the website
The amount of activity on a Twitter account, Facebook page or other forms of social media is a major factor in how well a business is marketed online.
Local
Google Maps
Good: the business is found in Google Maps
Bad: the business is not found in Google Maps.
Ensuring a business is listed in Google Maps is a good way of marketing the business online. Little or no information can make it difficult for users to find the business. It is also necessary to keep the information up-to-date as incorrect information can be as bad as no information at all.
Reviews
Good: if reviews for the business are found on the platforms you’ve enabled in the test configuration.
Bad: if no reviews for the business are found on the platforms you’ve enabled in the test configuration.
Reviews are used to measure visitor satisfaction, so are a good indication of how popular a site is.
Yelp
Good: found in Yelp
Bad: not found in Yelp.
Having a Yelp page can help potential clients find the business online. It’s vital the information is kept up to date as having incorrect information can be as bad as having no information online at all.
Website build
Alternative text*
Good: 100% of images have alternative text attribute
Bad: less than 100% of all images have alternative text attribute.
Alternative text attribute (alt text) helps users with visual disabilities and is a legal requirement in some countries (UK, US, AU). It is also helpful for all user should an image resource fail to load, they will be presented with the alternative text.
Analytics*
Good: analytics solution found on the website
Bad: no analytics solution found on the website
Info: multiple analytics solutions found on the website.
An analytics service provides a website owner with a wealth of information about their website. This information can be used to optimize the website and guide future business decisions.
Broken links*
Good: no broken links were discovered
Bad: one or more broken links was discovered.
Broken links can be harmful to a website’s user experience and SEO. Visitors are less likely to trust a website broken links and are likely to leave without making an inquiry or purchase.
CMS*
Info: this section always displays as informational.
The CMS the business website uses, if it could be identified.
Code quality*
Good: semantic HTML used appropriately throughout
Bad: tables for layout or presentational HTML used.
Using the right code in the right situation ensures that the site will render correctly across the widest range of devices. Using semantic HTML also makes a website easier to update and helps with search engine optimization.
Ecommerce*
Info: this section always displays as informational.
The ecommerce platform the business website uses, if it could be identified.
Headings*
Good: there is one H1 per page and all headings are in order.
Bad: one or more pages is missing an H1, has multiple H1s, or features headings out of sequence.
Well defined headings that are in the correct hierarchy can help with SEO and accessibility on a website. Note that the check for heading order can be disabled in your account settings.
Images*
Good: 100% of images are web friendly
Bad: less than 100% are web friendly.
All images on a website should be in a web-friendly format, such as JPEG, PNG, GIF or SVG. Any images not in these formats may take a long time to load or fail to display entirely.
Internal links*
Good: 100% of internal links are optimized
Bad: less than 100% of internal links are optimized.
Internal links should be clear and concise and not use terminology such as “click here” or “read more” which is bad for SEO and accessibility.
Last update
Good: the site has been updated within the last 90 days
Bad: the site hasn’t been updated within the last 90 days.
Updating a website on a regular basis makes search engines such as Google spider more often, so it will be faster at indexing changes. Visitors also perceive up-to-date websites as being more credible.
It’s best to update a website regularly and ensure all content is current and still appropriate.
Server behavior*
Good: no server behavior issues found
Bad: server behavior issue(s) found.
Incorrect server settings can render a site slow, un-searchable, or even inaccessible by users. We check for the following server behavior issues:
- Correct handling of error pages
- Whether the site uses HTTPS / SSL
- If the site has duplicate content on www. and apex domain (e.g. example.com and www.example.com)
Sitemap*
Good: sitemap found
Warning: sitemap found, but has technical issues.
Bad: sitemap missing.
A sitemap can help a website get indexed by search engines, especially if there are hidden pages that might be hard for them to discover.
SSL*
Good: the business website uses SSL.
Warn: the business has SSL but there are issues with the configuration.
Bad: the business website does not use SSL or the certificate is invalid.
SSL encryption (also known as HTTPS) obscures information while in transit between a website’s server and the visitor’s computer. SSL is important to protect customer data, especially sensitive payment information. Since 2018, it is also a ranking factor in some search engines.
- Correct handling of error pages
- Whether the site uses HTTPS / SSL
- If the site has duplicate content on www. and apex domain (e.g. example.com and www.example.com)
Titles and descriptions*
Good: no missing or duplicated titles or descriptions
Bad: titles and descriptions missing or duplicated.
Titles and descriptions are useful to inform the user about what content is on each website page. They are also used for SEO purposes and to help with search rankings.
Vendor*
Info: this section always displays as informational.
Attempts to identify the vendor that produced this website.
Video
Good: a video is found on the website
Bad: no video found.
Videos are great at engaging website visitors. They can also increase traffic if posted on a video sharing site such as YouTube.
Website size*
Info: this section always displays as informational.
This displays the number of pages we have detected on the website as well as the number of pages we have analyzed.
Website speed
Good: if the page loads in 4 seconds or under (average between mobile and desktop)
Bad: if the page takes longer than 4 seconds to load (average between mobile and desktop)
Slow pages deter users and search engines from accessing the site. Google uses website speed as part of their criteria when ranking websites.
Each page should be made as fast as possible by optimizing code and reducing any files or images that need to be downloaded in order for the page to load.
Mobile
Mobile friendly
Good: if a site is mobile friendly
Bad: if a site is not mobile friendly.
Mobiles and tablets are becoming increasingly more popular to browse websites. Its best practice to adapt a website to give visitors a better experience.
Any websites that use Adobe Flash may not work on a mobile or tablet device and should be recreated in HTML for a better user experience.
Mobile speed
Good: if a page loads in 4 seconds or under on a mobile
Bad: if a page takes longer than 4 seconds to load on a mobile
Slow pages deter users and search engines from accessing the site. Google uses website speed as part of their criteria when ranking websites.
Each page should be made as fast as possible by optimizing code and reducing any files or images that need to be downloaded in order for the page to load.
Estimated visitor loss
Good: the website is fast enough that no visitors are being lost.
Bad: the website is so slow that a proportion of visitors will leave without waiting for it to load.
Slow pages deter users and search engines from accessing the site. Google uses website speed as part of their criteria when ranking websites.
Each page should be made as fast as possible by optimizing code and reducing any files or images that need to be downloaded in order for the page to load.
Paid search
AdWords
Good: if a website has used AdWords in the past 12 months
Bad: if a website has not used AdWords in the past 12 months.
Google AdWords can be used to drive additional traffic to a website. If a website runs an AdWords campaign, ads are placed into Google’s search results for the target search terms.
AdWords keywords
Info: this section always displays as informational.
These are the key phrases the website is using for their AdWords campaigns. We do not judge whether the key phrases are appropriate, so this is presented for information only.
Facebook ad reach*
Info: this section always displays as informational.
This section displays an estimated audience near this business that could receive targeted Facebook ads.
Facebook pixel*
Good: the Facebook retargeting code was found on the business website.
Warning: the Facebook retargeting code was found on the business website, but with errors.
Bad: no Facebook retargeting code was found on the business website.
A Facebook retargeting pixel lets Facebook know who has visited your website and which pages or products they viewed. Using the data collected, business owners can run targeted ads on Facebook.
Organic search
Amount of content
Good: the word count if over 500
Bad: the word count is under 500.
The amount of content on a web page is shown to correlate with a websites rank in search engines. The website needs to contain a sufficient quantity of high quality text.
Backlinks
Good: if backlink count is over 5
Bad: if backlink count is under 5.
Backlinks to a site are very important as search engines use these as a ‘vote’ making it appear higher in the search rankings. The volume of backlinks is also a good measure as to how popular a site is.
Bounce rate*
Good: if bounce rate is under 40%
Warning: if bounce rate is between 41% and 60%.
Bad: if bounce rate is 61% or higher.
Bounce rate measures how many people leave a website after only visiting one page. If it is high, this may be a sign that the website is not engaging for visitors, or that it is shown in the results for the wrong search terms.
Content keywords*
Good: website uses every keyword the business is targeting and all key areas feature at least one keyword
Bad: if any targeted keyword is not mentioned OR any key area (title, description, headings) does not feature a keyword.
Info: if keywords are not provided when running the report.
Content keywords checks for the keywords the business is targeting in the content of the website. Specific attention is paid to key areas of each page: headings, the meta description and the page title.
Domain age
Good: domain was registered 183 days ago or more
Bad: domain was registered less than 183 days ago.
New domain names are considered as being untrustworthy by search engines like Google. Older websites on the other hand are likely to appear higher in search engine rankings as they are known to favour older sites.
This is due to unscrupulous websites changing their domain name on a regular basis to avoid being blocked by internet filters.
Organic referrals
Good: over 50 visitors from search engines per month (estimated)
Warning: under 50 visitors from search engines per month (estimated)
Bad: zero visitors from search engines per month (estimated).
Organic search is the biggest driver of traffic to a website in most cases.
Website owners need to ensure their site is well optimized for search engines.
Search terms
Info: this section always displays as informational.
These are terms the website may be found for in organic search result pages. Since we don’t judge how appropriate these keywords are for the website, this checkpoint is provided as information only.
Traffic*
Good: the business website has 10,000 or more visitors per month.
Warning: the business website has between 1,000 and 9,999 visitors per month.
Bad: the business website 999 or fewer visitors per month.
* Not enabled by default, please contact us if you wish to enable this section.