A F Howland Associates Ltd. - Website Report

Introduction

This comprehensive analysis covers various aspects of www.howland.co.uk’s online performance, pinpointing key areas for enhancement to boost website speed, user experience, and SEO effectiveness. The findings highlight critical elements that can significantly impact performance and conversion rates if addressed appropriately.

Key Findings

1. Minimise Redirects: Reducing unnecessary page redirects can significantly improve load times by eliminating extra HTTP requests.

2. Optimise Caching: Implementing efficient cache policies for static assets will speed up load times, especially for returning users.

3. Eliminate Unused JavaScript and CSS: Auditing and removing or deferring unused scripts and styles will reduce page size and improve speed.

4. Modern JavaScript Practices: Utilising module/nomodule strategies ensures modern browsers receive optimised code, maintaining performance.

5. Duplicate Meta Descriptions: Unique meta descriptions for each page will enhance SEO and user experience by providing relevant search snippets.

6. Missing Alt Attributes: Adding descriptive alt text to images will improve accessibility and image search optimisation.

7. Broken Resources: Fixing broken links and resources will ensure a seamless user experience and improve page integrity.

8. Keyword Strategy: Targeting higher-volume keywords and improving lower-ranking keywords can boost visibility and traffic.

9. Backlink Strategy: Developing a plan to acquire authoritative backlinks will enhance domain authority and SEO rankings.

10. Security and Server Optimisation: Exploring alternative web servers and updating security frameworks can improve performance and protect user data.

By addressing these key areas, www.howland.co.uk can improve its online presence, ensuring faster load times, better SEO performance, and an enhanced user experience that drives conversions. Regular monitoring and updates are essential to maintain and build upon these improvements.

Summary

The website’s performance, as analysed by PageSpeed Insights, shows areas for improvement, particularly in reducing load times and optimising resource delivery. Key issues include unnecessary redirects, inefficient caching, and excessive unused JavaScript and CSS. Addressing these areas can lead to a more responsive and efficient website.

Detailed Analysis

Avoid Multiple Page Redirects

Redirects can cause significant delays during page loading, adding an unnecessary 400 ms to the process. Each redirect requires a new HTTP request-response cycle, which increases the time it takes for the page to fully render for the user. Minimising redirects should be a priority to enhance initial load times.

Serve Static Assets with an Efficient Cache Policy

The analysis found 12 resources that could benefit from a more efficient cache policy. By setting longer cache lifetimes, static assets like images, scripts, and stylesheets can be stored in the user’s browser for a longer period, improving load times for repeat visits. This strategy reduces the need to re-download these resources, speeding up subsequent page loads.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

The current Cumulative Layout Shift score is 0.093, indicating minimal unexpected movement of page content. While this is within an acceptable range, continued monitoring is recommended to ensure a consistent user experience. Ensuring that all images and ads have specified dimensions and that dynamic content is loaded in a way that doesn’t shift existing content can help maintain a low CLS.

Reduce Unused JavaScript

Reducing unused JavaScript is critical, with potential savings of 235 KiB. This can be achieved by removing unnecessary code and deferring the loading of scripts until they are needed. This optimisation reduces the number of bytes consumed during network activities, resulting in faster load times and improved performance.

Reduce Unused CSS

Unused CSS rules contribute to slower page speeds, with potential savings of 37 KiB. Streamlining stylesheets by removing unused CSS and deferring non-critical CSS can decrease the bytes consumed during network activity, enhancing the speed, especially of above-the-fold content.

Avoid Serving Legacy JavaScript to Modern Browsers

Even though there are no potential savings identified in this category, adopting a modern JavaScript deployment strategy is still beneficial. By using module/nomodule feature detection, you can ensure that only necessary code is delivered to modern browsers, which can help maintain optimal performance while still supporting legacy browsers where necessary.

Key Recommendations

1. Minimise Redirects: Re-evaluate the site’s architecture to reduce unnecessary redirects that slow down the loading process.

2. Optimise Caching: Implement efficient cache policies for static assets to speed up load times for returning visitors.

3. Optimise JavaScript and CSS: Audit and eliminate unused JavaScript and CSS to reduce the size of resources that need to be downloaded.

4. Adopt Modern JavaScript Practices: Ensure that modern browsers receive optimised code by utilising module/nomodule strategies, even if potential savings currently appear minimal.

By implementing these recommendations, the website can significantly improve its loading speed, resulting in a better user experience and potentially higher search engine rankings.

Overall Feedback Summary

The technical SEO audit for www.howland.co.uk has identified several key areas that require attention to improve the site’s search engine performance. While the website has a valid SSL certificate and utilises HTTPS effectively, there are significant issues with duplicate meta descriptions, missing alt attributes, and broken resources. Additionally, several pages have titles that are too lengthy, which could impact readability and SEO. Addressing these issues could enhance the overall on-page SEO score, which currently stands at 85.81.

Key Issues and Recommended Fixes

Duplicate Descriptions

• • Impact: Duplicate meta descriptions can lead to poor user experience and can negatively impact search engine rankings as they may be seen as a lack of unique content.
  • Fix: Review and update the meta descriptions for the 11 pages identified with duplicates. Ensure each description is unique and accurately reflects the content of its respective page.

Missing Alt Attributes

• • Impact: Missing alt text can hinder accessibility for users with disabilities and affect image SEO.
  • Fix: Add relevant alt attributes to the 11 images that currently lack them. Ensure the alt text is descriptive and contains target keywords where appropriate.

Broken Resources

• • Impact: Broken resources, such as images or scripts, can lead to a poor user experience as they may prevent pages from displaying correctly.
  • Fix: Identify and rectify the 12 broken resources. This could involve updating links, replacing missing files, or correcting file paths.

Title Tags Too Long

• • Impact: Titles that are too long may be truncated in search results, which can impact click-through rates and user understanding of page content.
  • Fix: Shorten the title tags for the 3 affected pages to ensure they fall within the recommended length of 50-60 characters.

Low Content Rate

• • Impact: Pages with low content rates may not provide sufficient information for users, potentially affecting engagement and ranking.
  • Fix: Review the page with a low content rate and consider adding more relevant text content to enhance the page’s informational value.

HTTPS to HTTP Links

• • Impact: Linking from HTTPS to HTTP can create security warnings in browsers, negatively affecting user trust.
  • Fix: Update the 3 identified HTTPS to HTTP links to point to secure HTTPS URLs.

No Favicon

• • Impact: A missing favicon can affect brand recognition and user experience, especially in browser tabs and bookmarks.
  • Fix: Add a favicon to the site to enhance brand visibility and improve user experience.

No Image Titles

• • Impact: Missing image titles can decrease usability and SEO as descriptive image titles can provide additional context.
  • Fix: Add descriptive titles to the 12 images currently lacking them to improve user experience and SEO.

Deprecated HTML Tags

• • Impact: Using deprecated HTML tags can lead to rendering issues and may negatively impact SEO.
  • Fix: Replace the 2 instances of deprecated HTML tags with modern equivalents to ensure compatibility and maintain SEO standards.

Additional Observations

• Canonicalisation: The site’s canonicalisation status returned a 404 error, indicating a need to set up proper canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues.
• No H1 Tag: One page is missing an <h1&gt tag, which may affect its SEO ranking as <h1&gt tags are crucial for indicating the main topic of a page.

Conclusion

Improving the identified areas will help enhance the technical SEO performance of www.howland.co.uk. By addressing the issues with duplicate meta descriptions, missing alt text, and broken resources, the website can improve its search engine visibility and user experience. Regular monitoring and updates are recommended to maintain and further improve SEO health.

Summary

The website currently utilises a technology stack comprising of IIS as the web server, Windows Server as the operating system, Microsoft ASP.NET for web development, and YouTube as the video player. Authentication is facilitated through LinkedIn Sign-in. To enhance the website’s performance, security, and scalability, it is recommended to consider adopting a more robust security framework, exploring alternative web servers, and optimising video content delivery.

Technology Stack Assessment

Servers

• • Web Servers: The website uses IIS (Internet Information Services) as its web server. While IIS is a reliable choice for serving web content on Windows, it may not be as flexible or efficient as other options like Nginx or Apache, especially in handling high traffic loads.
  • Operating Systems: The site operates on a Windows Server. This setup is typically well-integrated with IIS and ASP.NET, providing a seamless environment for Microsoft technologies.

Security

• • Authentication: LinkedIn Sign-in is employed for user authentication. This is beneficial for integrating professional social network credentials but might limit user flexibility. Consider offering multiple authentication options such as Google, Facebook, or email/password combinations to cater to a broader audience.

Web Development

• • Web Frameworks: The use of Microsoft ASP.NET indicates a robust framework for building dynamic websites. However, to ensure modern web practices and enhance performance, it’s worthwhile to explore the latest updates in ASP.NET Core, which offers cross-platform capabilities and improved performance.

Media

• • Video Players: YouTube is used as the video player. While YouTube is an excellent choice for streaming videos due to its wide reach and reliable performance, ensure that videos are optimised for quick loading and minimal buffering. Additionally, consider using an alternative CDN (Content Delivery Network) to serve videos or provide downloadable content for users with limited bandwidth.

Recommendations

• Web Server Alternatives: Consider experimenting with Nginx or Apache to potentially reduce server load and increase the handling of concurrent connections. These servers offer extensive community support and are known for high performance in handling large volumes of traffic.
• Security Enhancements: Evaluate incorporating a more comprehensive security framework to protect user data and authentication processes. Implementing HTTPS site-wide and regularly updating security protocols is crucial.
• Framework Update: Transitioning to ASP.NET Core may provide better performance and scalability. This version is designed to work across various platforms, allowing for more flexibility in deployment and hosting options.
• Video Content Optimisation: To ensure optimal video delivery, compress video files without compromising quality and ensure all video content is responsive for different device types. Consider implementing lazy loading for videos to improve initial page load times.

By addressing these areas, the website can significantly improve its performance, security, and user experience.

SEO Analysis Summary

This report provides an SEO analysis focusing on keyword rankings, search volumes, competition levels, and backlink strategies. The analysis identifies strengths such as high rankings for specific branded keywords and weaknesses like the presence of many lower-ranking keywords. The report concludes with strategic recommendations for improving SEO performance.

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Keyword Rankings

• • Total Ranked Keywords: 144
  • Position 1 Keywords: 2 (e.g., “a f howland associates”, “af howland associates”)
  • Position 2-3 Keywords: 0
  • Position 4-10 Keywords: 5
  • Position 11-20 Keywords: 18
  • Position 21-50 Keywords: 53
  • Position 50+ Keywords: 66

Analysis: The data shows a strong performance for branded keywords, securing top positions. However, there is a significant number of keywords ranked 50+, indicating potential areas for improvement.

Keyword Search Volume

• • Highest Search Volume: 70
  • Total Search Volume: 0 (Note: This value seems to be an error as search volumes are present in the dataset)

Analysis: The search volume for most keywords is relatively low, suggesting a need to target higher volume keywords to increase visibility and traffic.

Keyword Competition

• • Average Competition: 0 (Note: This value seems inaccurate as some competition levels are provided)
  • Keywords with CPC > $1: 48

Analysis: The competition is generally low, which can be advantageous for ranking if optimised correctly. However, the lack of high CPC keywords indicates limited opportunities for monetisation through PPC.

Estimated Traffic Value (ETV)

• Estimated Traffic Value: 220.976

Analysis: The ETV is moderate, suggesting that while current traffic generates some value, there is room for growth by optimising for higher-ranking and higher-value keywords.

Backlink Strategy

Backlinks are not detailed in the provided data, yet they are crucial for SEO. It is recommended to evaluate the backlink profile separately to identify opportunities for improvement, such as securing links from authoritative and relevant domains.

SEO Strategy Recommendations

1. Focus on High-Volume Keywords: Identify and optimise for keywords with higher search volumes that are relevant to your business to increase visibility and traffic.

2. Improve Lower-Ranking Keywords: Target keywords currently ranked in positions 21-50 for optimisation to move them up the rankings, potentially towards the first page.

3. Enhance Content Quality: Create high-quality, informative content around target keywords to improve rankings and user engagement.

4. Backlink Building: Develop a strategic backlink acquisition plan focusing on obtaining links from authoritative sites in your industry to boost domain authority.

5. Monitor and Adjust: Regularly monitor keyword performance and adjust strategies as needed to respond to changes in search trends and competition.

6. Technical SEO: Ensure that technical SEO aspects like page load speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper use of HTML tags (<h1>, <title>, etc.) are fully optimised.

By implementing these recommendations, the website can improve its overall SEO performance, increase traffic, and enhance its competitive position in the market.