Day Webster Group - Website Report

Introduction Summary

The comprehensive report highlights key areas where improvements can significantly impact the website’s performance, conversions, and overall user experience. Addressing issues like excessive JavaScript execution, inefficient image handling, and SEO optimisations are crucial for enhancing load times and increasing search visibility. By implementing strategic changes across technical, SEO, and content aspects, the website can achieve faster loading speeds, better engagement, and improved search engine rankings.

Key Findings

1. JavaScript Optimisation: Current JavaScript handling causes delays; reducing file sizes and deferring non-essential scripts can enhance interactivity.
2. Image Handling: Switching to next-gen formats like WebP and implementing lazy loading can save substantial data and improve load times.
3. Network Payload Reduction: Streamlining resources and implementing efficient caching can decrease load sizes and boost performance.
4. Rendering Metrics Improvement: Optimising the critical rendering path and third-party code handling can improve Largest Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive.
5. SEO Technical Fixes: Resolving duplicate meta tags, broken links, and improving URL structures can enhance search visibility and user experience.
6. Keyword Strategy Expansion: Diversifying beyond brand-specific keywords and optimising for competitive terms can increase search visibility and traffic.
7. Analytics Enhancement: Adding tools for qualitative insights and ensuring compliance with privacy laws can improve user data analysis.
8. Security Measures: Enhancing security with AWS Shield and regular audits can protect against vulnerabilities and ensure reliability.
9. Content Strategy: Increasing the content richness of low-content pages can improve user engagement and search rankings.
10. Performance Monitoring: Regularly using tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix can provide actionable insights to maintain optimal performance.

Summary

The PageSpeed Insights report for the website indicates several areas for improvement to enhance its performance and user experience. Key issues include excessive JavaScript execution time, inefficient image handling, and large network payloads. By addressing these areas, the website can be made to load faster, appear more responsive, and consume less data, making it more user-friendly and cost-effective, especially for users on mobile networks.

Main Recommendations

Minimize JavaScript and Main-Thread Work

• Issue: JavaScript is taking a long time to parse, compile, and execute, resulting in a significant delay in making the page interactive.
• Recommendation: Reduce the size of JavaScript files and remove any unused scripts. This can be achieved by breaking down JavaScript into smaller, more efficient chunks and deferring non-critical scripts until after the main page content has loaded. This will help reduce the main-thread work time of 2.7 seconds and make the page interactive faster.

Optimize Image Loading

• Issue: Images are not optimally encoded, are oversized, and use outdated formats, leading to slower load times and higher data usage.
• Recommendation: Use next-generation image formats like WebP or AVIF, which provide better compression. Ensure images are properly sized and consider lazy-loading for images that are not immediately visible. These changes could potentially save up to 19,352 KiB in data and significantly enhance loading times.

Reduce Network Payloads

• Issue: The total size of resources being loaded is excessively large at 24,747 KiB.
• Recommendation: Audit the resources being loaded to ensure only necessary files are included. This involves removing any unused CSS and JavaScript, which could potentially save 826 KiB of JavaScript and 34 KiB of CSS. Additionally, implementing efficient caching strategies can reduce the need to download resources on repeat visits.

Improve Rendering Metrics

• Issue: Metrics like the Largest Contentful Paint (1.4 seconds) and Time to Interactive (13.5 seconds) indicate that the page takes a long time to become fully usable.
• Recommendation: Streamline the critical rendering path by prioritising critical resources and deferring non-essential ones. This includes reducing the impact of third-party code, which currently blocks the main thread for 800 ms, and optimizing the largest contentful elements to load more quickly.

Enhance Caching and Redirection

• Issue: Inefficient caching policies and multiple redirects contribute to slower page loads.
• Recommendation: Implement long cache lifetimes for static assets to speed up repeat visits. Additionally, minimize redirects to reduce potential delays, saving up to 230 ms.

By implementing these recommendations, the website will offer a smoother, faster experience for users, which is particularly important for maintaining engagement and reducing bounce rates.

Overview and Recommendations

The SEO audit for daywebster.com was conducted using Screaming Frog, examining 100 pages. The overall on-page SEO score is 89.07, indicating good performance, but there are several areas needing improvement. Key issues include duplicate meta tags, broken links, and suboptimal URL structures. Addressing these issues will enhance search engine visibility and user experience.

Top Recommendations:
1. Resolve Duplicate Meta Tags: Address duplicate titles and descriptions to ensure unique content on each page.
2. Fix Broken Links and Resources: Repair or remove broken links and resources to improve site integrity.
3. Optimise URL Structures: Implement more SEO-friendly URLs to improve readability and relevance.
4. Improve Image Attributes: Add alt text to images to enhance accessibility and SEO.

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Detailed SEO Issues and Fixes

Duplicate Titles and Descriptions

• Issue: 55 pages have duplicate titles, and 76 pages have duplicate descriptions.
• Impact: Duplicate titles and descriptions can confuse search engines, leading to lower rankings.
• Fix: Ensure each page has a unique title and description that accurately reflects its content.

Broken Links and Resources

• Issue: There are 4 broken links and 2 broken resources.
• Impact: Broken links can lead to a poor user experience and may harm search engine rankings.
• Fix: Conduct a link audit to update or remove broken links and resources.

URL Structure

• Issue: 29 pages do not have SEO-friendly URLs.
• Impact: Non-descriptive URLs can reduce search engine visibility and user trust.
• Fix: Update URLs to be short, descriptive, and include relevant keywords.

Missing Image Attributes

• Issue: 38 images lack alt attributes, and 85 images lack titles.
• Impact: Missing alt attributes can hinder accessibility and image indexing by search engines.
• Fix: Add descriptive alt text and titles to all images.

Canonicalisation Issues

• Issue: Canonicalisation test failed for some pages.
• Impact: Improper canonical tags can result in duplicate content issues.
• Fix: Implement correct canonical tags to guide search engines to the preferred version of a page.

Title Length

• Issue: 18 titles are too long, and 1 title is too short.
• Impact: Titles that are too long may get truncated in search results, while too short titles lack detail.
• Fix: Adjust title lengths to be concise yet descriptive, ideally between 50-60 characters.

Low Content Rate

• Issue: 85 pages have a low content rate.
• Impact: Pages with insufficient content may not meet user needs and can be ranked lower by search engines.
• Fix: Enhance page content with more detailed and relevant information.

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Technical Checks

SSL and Security

• Status: SSL is correctly implemented and valid until 2025-03-01.
• Action: Maintain SSL certification to ensure secure user data transmission.

HTTP/HTTPS and Redirects

• Status: All pages are served over HTTPS, and HTTP to HTTPS redirects are functioning correctly.
• Action: Regularly monitor to ensure ongoing compliance.

Sitemap and Robots.txt

• Status: Both the sitemap and robots.txt files are present and configured.
• Action: Regularly update these files to reflect any changes in site structure.

Redirects and 4xx/5xx Errors

• Status: There are no redirect loops, and all encountered errors are 4xx, with no 5xx errors.
• Action: Monitor for any new errors and resolve promptly to maintain site health.

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In conclusion, addressing the identified issues will improve the site’s SEO performance, user experience, and search engine compliance. Regular audits and updates are recommended to maintain optimal SEO health.

Summary of Feedback

The website is primarily built using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its hosting and cloud infrastructure, with Amazon CloudFront serving as the Content Delivery Network (CDN). For analytics, the website relies on Google Analytics. While the foundation is robust, there are areas where improvements can be made. Recommendations include reviewing the current analytics setup for compliance and exploring additional tools for enhanced insights. No outdated or excessively bloated technologies were identified, but ongoing monitoring and optimization are advised.

Website Structure and Technology Stack

Hosting and Infrastructure

• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): The website utilises Amazon Web Services (AWS). This choice offers scalability, reliability, and a comprehensive suite of cloud services. AWS is widely regarded as a leader in cloud technology, providing a solid foundation for web applications.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): Amazon CloudFront is used as the CDN. This integration ensures efficient distribution of content globally, reducing latency and improving load times for users across different regions. CloudFront’s integration with AWS services provides a seamless experience for managing and delivering content.

Analytics

• Analytics Tool: The website employs Google Analytics for tracking and reporting web traffic. Google Analytics is a powerful and widely used tool that provides detailed insights into user behaviour, traffic sources, and conversion data.

Recommended Improvements

Analytics and User Insights

• Enhanced Analytics: Consider implementing additional analytics tools such as Hotjar or Crazy Egg to gain deeper insights into user interactions through heatmaps and session recordings. These tools complement Google Analytics by providing qualitative data that can inform user experience and design improvements.
• Compliance and Privacy: Ensure that the Google Analytics setup complies with privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA. This includes anonymising IP addresses, updating privacy policies, and obtaining explicit consent from users for tracking.

Performance and Optimization

• Performance Monitoring: Regularly monitor the website’s performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. These tools can provide actionable recommendations for optimising site speed and overall performance.
• Caching Strategies: Implement advanced caching strategies to further reduce load times. Leveraging AWS services like Amazon ElastiCache can help optimise database querying and improve application responsiveness.

Security and Reliability

• Security Enhancements: Review the current security measures in place and consider implementing additional layers, such as AWS Shield for DDoS protection and AWS WAF for web application firewall capabilities, to enhance the site’s security posture.
• Regular Updates and Audits: Conduct regular audits of the technology stack to ensure all components are up-to-date and free from vulnerabilities. This includes keeping an eye on any new updates or security patches for AWS services and Google Analytics.

By focusing on these areas, the website can enhance its performance, user experience, and compliance, laying the groundwork for sustained growth and user satisfaction.

Summary

The website’s SEO analysis using Ahrefs data reveals significant strengths, primarily in capturing top positions for high-relevance keywords. The website ranks first for 20 keywords, with notable performance in terms of search volume for the brand-specific keyword “day webster.” However, there are opportunities for improvement, especially in leveraging keywords beyond the first position and enhancing the site’s visibility for high-competition terms. The average competition for the ranked keywords is low, indicating potential to optimise for more competitive terms to increase traffic. The estimated traffic value (ETV) is substantial, but there is room to grow, particularly in diversifying the keyword strategy.

Current Performance

Strengths

• Top Rankings: The website holds the first position for 20 keywords, which include high-volume terms like “day webster,” which benefits from a search volume of 2900 and an ETV of 881.60.
• Brand Dominance: Many top keywords are brand-related, ensuring strong visibility and relevance for searches directly associated with the brand.
• Low Competition: The average competition across keywords is relatively low, allowing the site to maintain top positions without intense competitive pressure.

Weaknesses

• Keyword Diversity: While brand-related keywords perform well, there is a lack of high-ranking non-brand keywords, which could limit broader search exposure.
• Position Gaps: A significant number of keywords (423) are ranked beyond position 50, indicating potential areas for optimisation and content enhancement.
• Limited High-Competition Keywords: The site could benefit from targeting more competitive keywords to tap into broader search markets and increase traffic.

SEO Strategies

Current Strategies

• Focus on Brand Keywords: The current strategy effectively captures brand-related searches, ensuring top positions for these keywords.
• Low-Competition Targeting: By focusing on low-competition keywords, the site secures top rankings easily, although this limits exposure to broader search audiences.

Suggested Improvements

• Expand Non-Brand Keywords: Develop content that targets high-volume, non-brand keywords to diversify traffic sources and increase visibility beyond direct brand searches.
• Optimise Lower-Ranked Keywords: Identify keywords ranked in positions 21-50 and enhance on-page SEO elements like meta tags, headers, and content relevance to improve their rankings.
• Target High-Competition Keywords: Gradually incorporate more competitive keywords into the strategy to capture higher traffic potential and extend market reach.

Conclusion

Overall, the website demonstrates strong SEO performance for brand-specific terms but shows potential for growth through diversification and strategic targeting of more competitive keywords. By expanding focus beyond brand keywords and optimising for keywords currently beyond the first page, the site can increase its search visibility and traffic value effectively.