Bespoke Trade Group - Website Report

Summary of Key Aspects Impacting Performance and Conversions

The website analysis reveals several areas where improvements can significantly enhance performance and conversions. The focus is on optimising load times, improving technical SEO, and leveraging modern web technologies. Key aspects include optimising key metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Time to Interactive (TTI), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Additionally, addressing duplicate content, broken links, and missing metadata can improve search engine visibility. By implementing these recommendations, the website can deliver a faster, more stable, and engaging user experience, ultimately boosting conversions.

Key Findings

1. Optimise Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Reduce LCP to under 2.5 seconds by optimising images and reducing render-blocking resources.

2. Minify CSS and JavaScript: Decrease file sizes to improve load times, with potential savings of 38 KiB for CSS and 237 KiB for JavaScript.

3. Improve Time to Interactive (TTI): Enhance user engagement by deferring non-critical JavaScript and prioritising interactive elements.

4. Avoid Enormous Network Payloads: Compress large resources and use lazy loading to reduce the total payload size of 5,502 KiB.

5. Address Duplicate Content: Implement canonical tags and consolidate duplicate pages to prevent keyword cannibalisation and improve search visibility.

6. Fix Broken Links: Regularly audit and rectify broken links to enhance user experience and preserve link equity.

7. Enhance Page Load Speed: Optimise images, minimise code, and leverage CDNs to improve load times and reduce bounce rates.

8. Implement Modern JavaScript Strategies: Use module/nomodule patterns to serve modern code, reducing JavaScript processing.

9. SEO and Content Improvements: Optimise title tags and meta descriptions, improve keyword rankings, and enhance content relevance to search intent.

10. Upgrade Technology Stack: Ensure server components are up-to-date and consider modern frameworks for improved performance and security.

Implementing these key findings will significantly impact both performance and conversion rates by ensuring a faster, more reliable, and user-friendly website experience. Regular audits and updates are recommended to maintain these improvements over time.

Summary

The analysed website has several areas that require optimisation to improve its performance and user experience. Key metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Time to Interactive (TTI), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) indicate that there are significant opportunities to enhance speed and stability. Recommendations include reducing network payload sizes, optimising CSS and JavaScript, and improving caching strategies. Implementing these changes can lead to faster load times, reduced data usage, and a more seamless browsing experience.

Detailed Analysis and Recommendations

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

• • Current Status: 4.0 seconds
  • Recommendation: Aim to reduce LCP to under 2.5 seconds by optimising images and reducing render-blocking resources. Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute content closer to users.

Minify CSS

• • Potential Savings: 38 KiB
  • Recommendation: Minify CSS files to decrease file size and improve loading speed. Tools are available to automate this process, ensuring that unnecessary whitespace and comments are removed.

Time to Interactive (TTI)

• • Current Status: 4.1 seconds
  • Recommendation: Reduce TTI to enhance user engagement by deferring non-critical JavaScript and ensuring that all interactive elements are prioritised for loading.

First Contentful Paint (FCP)

• • Current Status: 0.7 seconds
  • Recommendation: Maintain this performance level, as it indicates a fast initial load. Focus on maintaining efficient loading of the critical rendering path.

Avoid Enormous Network Payloads

• • Total Size: 5,502 KiB
  • Recommendation: Reduce the total network payload by compressing large resources, such as images and videos, and considering lazy loading for off-screen content.

Minify JavaScript

• • Potential Savings: 237 KiB
  • Recommendation: Minify JavaScript files to reduce their size and parsing time. This will accelerate the loading process and improve the Time to Interactive metric.

Avoid Large Layout Shifts

• • Layout Shifts Found: 15
  • Recommendation: Minimise CLS by ensuring that image dimensions are specified and that dynamic content does not push other content unexpectedly. Use CSS transforms for animations instead of properties that trigger layout changes.

Serve Static Assets with an Efficient Cache Policy

• • Resources Affected: 30
  • Recommendation: Implement cache headers to serve static assets with a longer cache lifetime. This reduces server load and improves load times for returning visitors.

Serve Images in Next-Gen Formats

• • Potential Savings: 2,485 KiB
  • Recommendation: Convert images to next-gen formats like WebP or AVIF for better compression and faster loading times.

Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources

• • Potential Savings: 410 ms
  • Recommendation: Identify and defer non-critical CSS and JavaScript or inline critical resources to prevent them from blocking the first paint of the page.

Reduce Unused JavaScript

• • Potential Savings: 633 KiB
  • Recommendation: Audit JavaScript usage to eliminate unnecessary code and defer loading scripts until they are needed.

Speed Index

• • Current Status: 3.7 seconds
  • Recommendation: Improve the Speed Index by ensuring that above-the-fold content loads quickly. Optimise critical rendering paths and prioritise visible content.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

• • Current Status: 1.125
  • Recommendation: Target a CLS score of less than 0.1 by stabilising elements on the page, such as avoiding ad slots and images without dimensions.

Properly Size Images

• • Potential Savings: 28 KiB
  • Recommendation: Ensure images are not larger than necessary for their display size. Use responsive images techniques to serve appropriately-sized images for different devices.

Avoid Serving Legacy JavaScript

• • Potential Savings: 25 KiB
  • Recommendation: Implement a modern JavaScript deployment strategy using module/nomodule patterns to serve modern code to modern browsers, reducing the amount of JavaScript processed.

Enable Text Compression

• • Potential Savings: 879 KiB
  • Recommendation: Use text compression methods like gzip or brotli to reduce the size of text-based resources, improving download speed and reducing data consumption.

Reduce Unused CSS

• Potential Savings: 280 KiB
• Recommendation: Remove unused CSS rules and defer loading styles that are not needed for above-the-fold content to reduce network load and improve rendering speed.

Overall Feedback Summary

The analysis of your website reveals several technical SEO issues that need addressing to improve search engine visibility and user experience. While some issues are minor, others hold significant potential to impact your site’s performance adversely. This report outlines the identified problems, their potential impact on your SEO strategy, and specific recommendations for rectification.

1. Duplicate Content

Issue

Duplicate content was detected across multiple pages. This can lead to search engines indexing the wrong pages, causing keyword cannibalisation and reducing page authority.

Impact

• • Diluted link equity between duplicate pages.
  • Confusion for search engines on which page to rank.
  • Possible reduction in overall search visibility.

Fixes

• • Implement canonical tags (<link rel=”canonical”>) on duplicate pages to signal the preferred version.
  • Consolidate duplicate content where possible or employ 301 redirects to the most authoritative page.
  • Utilise parameter handling in Google Search Console to manage URL parameters effectively.

2. Missing Meta Descriptions

Issue

Several pages on the site are missing meta descriptions, which are essential for providing search engines and users with a summary of the page content.

Impact

• • Reduced click-through rates from search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • Missed opportunity to influence user engagement through SERP listings.

Fixes

• • Write unique, compelling meta descriptions for each page, ideally between 150-160 characters.
  • Ensure meta descriptions incorporate primary and secondary keywords naturally.

3. Broken Links

Issue

Broken internal and external links were found, which can hinder user experience and lead to crawl inefficiencies.

Impact

• • Frustration for users encountering dead ends.
  • Potential loss of link equity from broken backlinks.
  • Negative impact on crawl budget.

Fixes

• • Conduct regular audits to identify and rectify broken links.
  • Update or remove outdated links and ensure all redirects are correctly implemented.
  • Implement custom 404 pages to guide users back to relevant content.

4. Slow Page Load Speed

Issue

Page load speed is slower than recommended, affecting user retention and search engine rankings.

Impact

• • Higher bounce rates due to long load times.
  • Reduced user satisfaction and lower conversion rates.
  • Negative impact on search engine rankings as page speed is a ranking factor.

Fixes

• • Optimise images by compressing without significant loss of quality.
  • Minimise CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to reduce file size.
  • Leverage browser caching and content delivery networks (CDNs) to improve load times.

5. Missing Alt Attributes

Issue

Images on the site are missing alt attributes, which are crucial for accessibility and image search visibility.

Impact

• • Reduced accessibility for users with disabilities.
  • Missed opportunities for image search traffic.

Fixes

• • Add descriptive alt attributes to all images, including keywords where appropriate.
  • Ensure alt text is concise yet descriptive enough to convey the image content.

6. Non-Optimised Title Tags

Issue

Title tags on several pages are not fully optimised, either being too long, too short, or missing keywords.

Impact

• • Poor search engine visibility due to lack of keyword optimisation.
  • Reduced click-through rates if titles are not compelling.

Fixes

• Revise title tags to include primary keywords while maintaining a length of 50-60 characters.
• Craft engaging and descriptive titles that entice users to click.

Conclusion

Addressing these technical SEO issues is crucial for enhancing your site’s performance and search engine ranking. Implementing the suggested fixes will not only improve your site’s visibility but also provide a better user experience, ultimately leading to increased engagement and conversions. Regular audits and maintenance are recommended to ensure ongoing optimisation and to prevent future occurrences of these issues.

Summary

The website utilises a robust technology stack primarily based on open-source technologies. It employs Apache HTTP Server on a CentOS operating system, with PHP as its server-side scripting language. For front-end development, the website integrates various JavaScript libraries such as FancyBox, jQuery, jQuery UI, and Slick, alongside the ZURB Foundation UI framework. Additionally, it uses Font Awesome for iconography and Google Maps for location services. Overall, the stack is solid; however, there are a few areas where improvements could enhance performance, security, and modernity.

Technology Stack Assessment

Servers

• • Web Server: The website uses the Apache HTTP Server, a reliable and widely-used web server known for its flexibility and modularity.
  • Operating Systems: CentOS, a Linux distribution known for its stability and enterprise-grade performance, supports the server.
  • Web Server Extensions: OpenSSL is employed, providing essential support for secure communications over networks.

Web Development

• • JavaScript Libraries: The website utilises FancyBox for displaying images in a lightbox, jQuery and jQuery UI for DOM manipulation and UI components, and Slick for responsive carousels.
  • Font Scripts: Font Awesome is used for scalable vector icons.
  • Programming Languages: PHP is the chosen programming language, widely used for server-side scripting, offering extensive community support and flexibility.
  • UI Frameworks: ZURB Foundation is used for building responsive web designs, known for its mobile-first approach and modular components.

Location Services

• • Maps: Google Maps is integrated for location-based services, providing reliable and widely-used mapping solutions.

Recommendations

1. Server and Security Enhancements:

• • Upgrade Components: Ensure the latest versions of Apache, CentOS, and OpenSSL are installed to mitigate any security vulnerabilities.
  • HTTP/2: Consider enabling HTTP/2 for the Apache server to improve performance with multiplexing, header compression, and server push technologies.

2. Web Development Practices:

• • JavaScript Libraries: Review the necessity of each JavaScript library, particularly jQuery, as modern JavaScript frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue.js) could offer more efficient solutions with smaller footprints and enhanced performance.
  • UI/UX Frameworks: Evaluate the benefits of updating to the latest version of ZURB Foundation or transitioning to a more widely adopted framework like Bootstrap for greater community support and resources.
  • PHP Version: Ensure the PHP version is up-to-date to leverage performance improvements and security patches.

3. Performance and Optimization:

• • CDN Usage: Consider integrating a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve load times and reduce server load by serving static assets closer to the user location.
  • Image Optimization: Implement image optimization techniques, including lazy loading and using modern formats such as WebP, to enhance page load speed.

4. Additional Enhancements:

• SEO Improvements: Review and implement SEO best practices, ensuring the site is fully optimised for search engines with proper use of meta tags, alt attributes, and semantic HTML.
• Accessibility: Conduct an accessibility audit to ensure compliance with WCAG standards, enhancing the user experience for all visitors.

By addressing these recommendations, the website can improve its performance, security, and user experience, while staying current with modern web development standards.

SEO Analysis Summary

The analysis of the SEO performance reveals a mixed landscape of strengths and weaknesses. The data shows a total of 10 ranked keywords, with varying levels of search volume, competition, and estimated traffic value (ETV). The keywords are primarily positioned beyond the top 10 search results, indicating room for improvement in ranking. The estimated traffic value is approximately 10.85, reflecting the potential for growth if keyword rankings improve. Competition for these keywords ranges from low to high, suggesting a varied competitive environment.

Keyword Rankings and Performance

• • Top Ranked Keywords:
  • The keywords are mostly positioned outside the top 10, with none in the top three positions. Only two keywords are in positions 4-10, namely “bespoke trade frames ltd” and “bespoke traders,” indicating moderate visibility.
  • The majority of the keywords fall into positions 21-50 and beyond 50, highlighting the need for enhanced optimisation strategies.
  • Search Volume and Traffic Potential:
  • The keyword “bespoke windows uk” has the highest search volume of 590, though it ranks at position 100. This discrepancy indicates potential opportunities if ranking can be improved.
  • The overall estimated traffic value stands at 10.85, with the potential for significant increase if keyword positions are elevated, particularly for high-volume terms.

Competition Analysis

• • Competition Levels:
  • Competition varies widely across keywords, with some having negligible competition, such as “bespoke traders,” while others face substantial competitive pressure, like “trade windows derby” and “bespoke windows and doors.”
  • Average competition metrics are not provided in the raw data, but the presence of high-competition keywords suggests a challenging landscape for certain terms.

Backlink Strategy

• • Backlink Considerations:
  • The data provided does not include specific backlink metrics; however, improving backlink quality and quantity could be a pivotal strategy to enhance rankings, especially for keywords with high competition.

Strategic Recommendations

• Focus on High-Volume Keywords:
• Prioritise optimisation efforts on high-search-volume keywords such as “bespoke windows uk” to maximise potential traffic gains.
• Improve Keyword Rankings:
• Work on elevating the rankings of keywords currently in positions 21-50 and beyond. Targeted content improvements and technical SEO enhancements could assist in this effort.
• Backlink Acquisition:
• Invest in acquiring high-quality backlinks to bolster domain authority and improve keyword rankings, especially for those facing high competition.
• Content Optimisation:
• Enhance existing content to better match search intent and leverage on-page SEO techniques to improve visibility for keywords with moderate competition.

In conclusion, while the current SEO position shows potential with some high-volume keywords identified, significant work is needed to improve rankings and capture more traffic. Focusing on strategic content and backlink development will be critical for future success.