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What is tested?

SEO is a very important aspect of your websites search engine performance.  While keywords and high quality content are critical, a highly significant measurement overlooked by many digital agencies is mechanical well being.  Because of this, we test 4 crucial metrics that can be helpful in fixing issues and subsequently help websites perform better in search results.

Performance

The speed at which the website loads and is ready for the user to interact is a very important metric, especially for mobile users.  A very slow speed can significantly reduce your search engine ranking and as such this should be tested regularly and improved when possible.

Accessibility

This test check for many things that can easily go unnoticed, such as whether or not links are too close together or if alternate text is missing.  These types of seemingly minor issues can become problemsome on small screens or when the user is using a screen reader to navigate the website.

Best Practices

This section is more of a catch-all for things that should be resolved .  For example, if a JavaScript library is being used that has known vulnerabilities or is causing error, points will be deducted from the score.  The opportunities in this category are often more technical and must be resolved.

SEO

The SEO score does not indicate that the overall SEO performance is sound.  It simply measures whether or not the structure to be optimized is intact.  While having a page description will score points in this category, the test does not test whether or not that description is useful.

What’s next?

In all of the above categories except Performance, a perfect score of 100 is possible and should be the norm.  Methodology updates in the Lighthouse testing platform may cause scores to decrease and because of this periodic testing should be performed.

The area of performance is a tricky category largely because there are many factors that contribute to the results.  Slow internet speeds, the processing power of the computer that is used for the tests and latency issues that may be outside of your control can lower the score.  We run these tests on a dedicated machine with the goal of returning the best scenario performance score.  While a perfect score of 100 can be achieved, it is exceedingly difficult.  Generally, a score of between 91 and 100 is acceptable but even that can be difficult except in the case of pages that have fewer design elements and fewer dynamic features.

Because mobile users are so much more prevalent than they were just a few years ago, mobile testing is critical in all of these categories.

If you have any specific answerable questions, please contact us.