ACT Credit Management - Website Report

Introduction Summary

The comprehensive audit of the website highlights several areas for improvement that could significantly impact its performance and conversion rates. Key focus areas include image optimisation, JavaScript and CSS management, server response times, and technical SEO enhancements. By addressing these issues, the website can achieve faster load times, improved user experience, and higher search engine rankings.

Key Findings

1. Image Optimisation: Properly sizing images and adopting next-gen formats like WebP could save substantial data and improve load times.

2. JavaScript and CSS Management: Reducing unused JavaScript and CSS can streamline loading processes, enhancing initial load speed and user interaction.

3. Server Response Time: Decreasing the server’s initial response time from its current 2,300 ms can significantly enhance perceived loading speed.

4. Canonicalisation: Implementing canonical tags can resolve duplicate content issues, ensuring search engines index the preferred pages.

5. Meta Descriptions: Adding unique meta descriptions to pages can improve click-through rates from search engine results.

6. Keyword Optimisation: Focus on elevating the ranking of keywords currently positioned 11-50 to the first page for increased visibility and traffic.

7. Backlink Strategy: Expanding high-quality backlinks is crucial for boosting domain authority and search rankings.

8. Technical SEO Improvements: Ensure elements like site speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper use of HTML tags are optimised.

9. Local SEO: Optimise for local search results, ensuring accurate NAP data and leveraging local keywords.

10. Performance Metrics: Improving metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive can enhance user experience and engagement.

Summary

The website displays several opportunities for performance enhancements, primarily revolving around image optimisation, JavaScript and CSS management, and server response times. By addressing these areas, the website can become faster and more efficient, leading to a better user experience. Below is a detailed analysis with key recommendations.

Image Optimisation

1. Properly Size Images: The website can save approximately 180 KiB by ensuring images are appropriately sized for different devices. This means using images that are not unnecessarily large for their display context.

2. Serve Images in Next-Gen Formats: By using modern image formats like WebP or AVIF instead of PNG or JPEG, the website could save up to 948 KiB. These formats offer better compression, leading to quicker load times.

3. Efficient Image Encoding: Optimising image encoding can save an additional 290 KiB. This involves compressing images without significantly compromising quality.

JavaScript and CSS Management

1. Reduce Unused JavaScript: Removing or deferring unused JavaScript can lead to a potential saving of 393 KiB. This means only loading scripts that are necessary for the initial display, which reduces the initial load time.

2. Reduce Unused CSS: Similarly, eliminating unused CSS rules can save about 70 KiB. Prioritising CSS that is critical for content above the fold and deferring the rest can enhance performance.

3. Avoid Serving Legacy JavaScript: While there are no immediate savings, adopting a modern JavaScript strategy helps streamline code for current browsers, providing a more efficient browsing experience.

Server and Network Efficiency

1. Reduce Initial Server Response Time: The root document’s server response time is quite high at 2,300 ms. Reducing this can significantly enhance the time it takes for the page to start loading.

2. Enable Text Compression: By compressing text-based resources, an estimated 39 KiB can be saved, leading to quicker downloads.

3. Avoid Enormous Network Payloads: The total network payload size is 7,181 KiB, which is substantial. Reducing this size can decrease load times and data costs for users.

Performance Metrics

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The LCP time is currently at 2.5 seconds. Reducing this time can improve the perceived loading speed of the most significant elements on the page.

2. First Contentful Paint (FCP): At 1.4 seconds, optimising this metric can help improve how quickly users see the first content on their screens.

3. Time to Interactive (TTI): The TTI is 2.8 seconds, which means it takes this long for the page to become fully interactive. Reducing this time can enhance user engagement.

4. Total Blocking Time (TBT): With a TBT of 90 ms, optimising this metric involves ensuring tasks don’t block the main thread for too long, allowing the page to remain responsive.

5. Max Potential First Input Delay (FID): A potential delay of 180 ms suggests that users might experience a lag before interaction is possible. Reducing this delay improves responsiveness.

Additional Considerations

• Serve Static Assets with Efficient Cache Policy: Implementing a long cache lifetime for static resources can speed up repeat visits by reducing the need to reload unchanged content.
• Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources: By deferring non-essential resources, the website can reduce the time it takes to render the initial page content.
• Links with Descriptive Text: Ensuring all links have descriptive text can improve accessibility and help search engines better understand the page content.

By addressing these key areas, the website can improve its overall performance, resulting in faster load times, improved user experience, and potentially better search engine rankings.

Technical SEO Audit Summary

The technical SEO audit of www.actcredit.com reveals a well-structured website with a high on-page score of 91.14. However, there are several areas that require attention to further enhance the site’s search engine optimisation and user experience. The primary focus areas include addressing duplicate content, improving canonicalisation, and ensuring all images have descriptive <alt> attributes.

Key Recommendations:

• • Implement canonical tags to address duplicate content issues.
  • Ensure all images have <alt> attributes and titles for better accessibility and SEO.
  • Review and update pages with low content rates to improve quality and relevance.

Detailed Technical SEO Issues

Duplicate Content

Issue: The site has 4 instances of duplicate content.
Impact: Duplicate content can confuse search engines, leading to potential ranking issues as search engines may not know which page to index or rank.
Fix: Implement proper canonical tags on pages with similar or duplicate content to inform search engines of the preferred page for indexing.

Canonicalisation

Issue: Canonicalisation tests have not been passed, indicating potential issues with URLs that might cause duplicate content problems.
Impact: Without proper canonical tags, search engines might index multiple versions of a page, causing dilution of page authority.
Fix: Ensure that all pages have appropriate canonical tags that point to the preferred URL.

Missing Descriptions

Issue: There are 3 pages without meta descriptions.
Impact: Missing meta descriptions can reduce click-through rates from search results as users may not find compelling information about what the page offers.
Fix: Add unique and descriptive meta descriptions to these pages that accurately summarize the page content and include relevant keywords.

Low Content Rate

Issue: 15 pages have been identified with low content rates.
Impact: Pages with insufficient content may not rank well, as they may not provide adequate information or value to users.
Fix: Review these pages and enhance the content to be more comprehensive and informative, ensuring it meets user intent.

Missing Image Alt Attributes

Issue: 16 images lack <alt> attributes and titles.
Impact: Missing <alt> attributes can hinder accessibility for users with visual impairments and reduce potential SEO benefits as search engines rely on these attributes to understand the image content.
Fix: Add descriptive <alt> attributes and titles to all images, ensuring they accurately reflect the image content.

High Waiting and Loading Times

Issue: High waiting times were observed on 16 pages, and high loading times on 12 pages.
Impact: Slow loading times can negatively impact user experience and search rankings, as speed is a ranking factor for search engines.
Fix: Optimise images, leverage browser caching, and consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to improve loading times.

Additional Observations

• SSL Certificate: The SSL certificate is valid and correctly implemented, ensuring secure connections.
• 404 Page Handling: The website correctly returns a 404 status code for non-existent pages, indicating proper error handling.
• Robots.txt and Sitemap: Both the robots.txt file and sitemap are present and functional, aiding in search engine crawling and indexing.
• HTTP to HTTPS Redirect: The site successfully redirects HTTP requests to HTTPS, ensuring secure browsing.

Overall, the website is technically sound, but addressing the highlighted issues will enhance its performance and search engine visibility.

Summary

The website is built using a robust and modern technology stack that includes WordPress as the content management system, multiple Google analytics and tracking tools, various plugins for SEO and GDPR compliance, and a combination of fonts from Google and Adobe. The site is hosted using reliable UK hosting providers with a focus on security and privacy compliance. However, there are opportunities to streamline and update certain elements for improved performance and compliance with the latest standards.

Analytics and Tracking

• • Current Setup: The site uses a combination of analytics tools, including HubSpot, Global Site Tag, Google Analytics, Google Analytics 4, and Google Tag Manager.
  • Recommendation: Consider consolidating analytics tools to reduce redundancy, focusing primarily on Google Analytics 4 for a more comprehensive and future-proof solution.

Widgets

• • Current Setup: Pure Chat is used for live chat functionality.
  • Recommendation: Ensure that the chat widget is optimised for both desktop and mobile devices to enhance user engagement and reduce load time.

WordPress Plugins

• • Current Setup: The site uses Autoptimize, Yoast SEO, and GDPR Cookie Compliance plugins.
  • Recommendation: Regularly update all plugins to their latest versions to maintain security and functionality. Evaluate the necessity of each plugin to prevent bloating, especially if similar functionality is available natively within WordPress or other plugins.

Fonts

• • Current Setup: Utilises Google Font API and Typekit.
  • Recommendation: Ensure font loading is optimised to reduce latency. Consider using a single font provider to streamline management.

Privacy Compliance

• • Current Setup: Implements GDPR Cookie Compliance and US Privacy User Signal Mechanism.
  • Recommendation: Regularly review compliance settings to ensure they meet current legal standards and best practices for privacy.

CAPTCHA

• • Current Setup: Uses Google reCAPTCHA.
  • Recommendation: Verify that reCAPTCHA is updated and functioning correctly to provide optimal protection against spam without impacting user experience.

Content Management System

• • Current Setup: WordPress versions 6.5 and 6.6 are used.
  • Recommendation: Ensure that the CMS version is up-to-date with the latest security patches and features.

JavaScript Libraries and Functions

• • Current Setup: Utilises GSAP, ScrollMagic, and TweenMax.
  • Recommendation: Review these libraries for the latest versions and ensure that they are necessary for the site’s functionality to avoid excessive loading times.

Frameworks

• • Current Setup: Uses the Act Theme for WordPress.
  • Recommendation: Regularly update the theme and check for any deprecated functions or compatibility issues with WordPress updates.

Mobile Optimization

• • Current Setup: Mobile optimisation features are implemented, including viewport meta and Apple web clips icon.
  • Recommendation: Perform regular mobile usability testing to ensure seamless user experience across all devices.

Content Delivery Network

• • Current Setup: Utilises Cloudflare for CDN.
  • Recommendation: Ensure that CDN settings are optimised for caching and security to improve site speed and resilience.

Email Hosting Providers

• • Current Setup: Office 365 Mail and Microsoft Exchange Online are used, with DNS managed through Microsoft Azure.
  • Recommendation: Regularly audit email configurations, such as SPF and DMARC records, to ensure email deliverability and security.

Web Hosting Providers

• • Current Setup: Hosted with CityFibre and Gamma in the UK.
  • Recommendation: Evaluate hosting performance and consider scaling resources if experiencing increased traffic or performance issues.

Web Servers

• • Current Setup: Utilises Microsoft IIS version 10.
  • Recommendation: Ensure the web server configuration is optimised for performance and security, and regularly updated.

Advertising

• • Current Setup: Uses DoubleClick.Net for advertising.
  • Recommendation: Regularly review advertising settings and performance metrics to ensure effectiveness and compliance with privacy regulations.

Syndication Techniques

• • Current Setup: Supports RSS and Pingback.
  • Recommendation: Maintain these features to enhance content distribution while ensuring security.

SSL and Security

• Current Setup: Employs SSL by Default, HSTS, and Symantec Secure Site.
• Recommendation: Regularly monitor SSL certificates and security protocols to maintain high security standards.

Summary

The website demonstrates strong SEO performance, particularly with specific branded keywords. It ranks first for several high-volume search terms such as “act credit management” and “act credit management ltd”. However, there is room for improvement in non-branded and generic terms as a significant number of keywords are ranked beyond the first page of search results. The site boasts a considerable Estimated Traffic Value (ETV) but faces competition in more generic keywords, which could be targeted for broader visibility.

Current Rankings

• • Position 1 Keywords: The website ranks first for five high-volume keywords, including “act credit”, “act credit management”, and “act debt collection”. These keywords have relatively low competition, enhancing the site’s prominence for these terms.
  • Position 2-3 Keywords: Three keywords are in the second and third positions, such as “act online”, indicating potential to move to the top position with strategic improvements.
  • Position 4-10 Keywords: The site holds fourteen keywords within the fourth to tenth positions, indicating moderate visibility but suggesting further optimisation could enhance their rankings.
  • Position 11-20 Keywords: Seventeen keywords are ranked in the second page positions, indicating opportunities to elevate them to the first page with focused content and backlink strategies.

Keywords Analysis

• • Top Ranked Keyword: “act credit management” holds the highest search volume at 1600, contributing significantly to the site’s ETV.
  • Keywords with High CPC: There are 69 keywords with a cost-per-click (CPC) greater than $1, highlighting potential areas for increasing paid search efforts.
  • Underperforming Keywords: A large number of keywords (118) are ranked beyond the 50th position, suggesting these areas may require new content creation or an overhaul of existing strategies to improve ranking.

Backlinks

• • The current backlink profile is not detailed in the provided data. However, improving and expanding high-quality backlinks is crucial for enhancing domain authority and search rankings.

Competition

• • The average competition for the site’s keywords is relatively low. This presents an opportunity to capture more market share by optimising for less competitive, high-value keywords.

SEO Strategies

• • Content Optimisation: Focus on creating high-quality, relevant content targeting generic and non-branded keywords where the site currently underperforms.
  • Backlink Strategy: Engage in outreach for backlinks from authoritative sites in the industry to improve domain authority.
  • Technical SEO Improvements: Ensure the website’s technical aspects, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and proper use of <h1&gt, <meta&gt, and <alt&gt tags, are optimised.
  • Local SEO Enhancement: If applicable, optimise for local search results by ensuring accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) data and leveraging local search terms.

Performance Improvement Recommendations

• Focus on elevating keywords ranked in positions 11-50 to the first page through targeted optimisation and content updates.
• Improve internal linking structure to enhance the authority of pages targeting high-value keywords.
• Conduct competitive analysis to identify new keyword opportunities and areas where competitors outperform the site.
• Leverage social media and content marketing to drive traffic and enhance brand visibility, supporting SEO efforts indirectly.

Conclusively, while the website displays significant strength in branded terms, enhancing visibility for more generic and high-competition keywords could substantially improve overall search performance and traffic.