Most business owners find out their website has a problem when a customer says it “doesn't load”, or when enquiries from the form quietly dry up. The good news: the signals that matter most can be checked in a few dozen seconds, for free, with the same public tools we use at the start of every project.
In short
Six checks cover 90% of the common problems: mobile speed (Google PageSpeed), security (HTTPS, certificate, headers, Mozilla Observatory), basic SEO elements (title, description, H1, viewport), code quality (W3C), email protection (SPF, DMARC) and domain history (Internet Archive). We put all of them in one report, on the Check your website page.
1. Mobile speed: Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals
Google measures the real visitor experience through three indicators called Core Web Vitals: LCP (how long until the main content appears), CLS (how much the page “jumps” while loading) and INP, replaced in lab tests by TBT (how long scripts block the page). The thresholds for “good” are 2.5 seconds for LCP, 0.1 for CLS and 200 milliseconds for TBT.
The 0–100 performance score summarises these measurements on a mid-range phone with a simulated 4G connection. That is why a site that feels fast on the office laptop can score 40 on mobile. A few points of variation between two runs is normal; the trend matters, not the exact figure.
2. Security: HTTPS, certificate, headers and the Mozilla grade
HTTPS is mandatory: without it browsers flag the site as “not secure” and Google penalises it. The SSL certificate must be valid and renewed automatically; an expired one blocks access entirely, usually over a weekend. Security headers (Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy) protect visitors from common attacks and are configured once, at server level.
Mozilla Observatory is a public, independent test that checks exactly these headers and gives a grade from A+ to F. Many small-business websites get a D or an F, not because they are “hacked”, but because nobody ever configured the basic protections. It is one of the cheapest improvements available.
3. Basic SEO: title, description, H1, viewport, canonical
- The page title (15–65 characters) is the blue text in Google results; without it, Google improvises.
- The meta description (50–165 characters) is the grey text under the title; it influences how many people click.
- A single H1 per page tells the search engine what the main subject is.
- The viewport meta makes the page adapt to phones; without it, text appears tiny.
- The canonical address prevents duplicate content (with and without www, with and without a trailing slash).
- The Open Graph image is what appears when someone shares the link on WhatsApp or Facebook.
4. Code quality: W3C validation and page size
The W3C validator counts errors in the HTML. A few are harmless; dozens or hundreds usually indicate a theme overloaded with plugins. The size of the HTML page matters too: with several hundred kilobytes of code before the first image, the page loads slowly whatever the hosting.
5. Domain email: SPF and DMARC
This is where a problem few companies know about hides. Without an SPF record, anyone can send emails that appear to come from your address. Without DMARC, receiving servers do not know what to do with such messages, and your legitimate emails land in spam more often. Both are DNS records, take 15 minutes to set up and cost nothing. A DMARC policy of “p=none” only monitors; “quarantine” or “reject” actually blocks forgeries.
6. Domain history: the Internet Archive
The domain's first snapshot in the web archive tells how old the company's online presence is. Age matters for trust and, indirectly, for Google. If your domain has ten years of history, make sure you do not lose it in a redesign: keep the old page addresses or redirect them properly.
What to do with the result
Not all problems weigh the same. The healthy order is: first what blocks (HTTPS, certificate, a page that does not load), then what costs money directly (mobile speed, broken forms, SPF and DMARC), then what improves over time (headers, basic SEO, clean code). Most red items in a report are fixed in a day's work when handled together.
Check your website now
The Check your website page runs all six checks in a single report, in 20–40 seconds, with no account. The result can be shared with colleagues by link and, if you wish, leads straight into the contact form.
Next steps