In this article, I will show you how to get a 100% score in WordPress site health check. I will also answer some commonly asked questions about the site health feature.
The health of your site matters a lot. Your blog/site health determines how you rank and whether you are safe from hackers. Another very important factor in blogging is site speed. Google love blogs that load very fast.
Recommended: JOIN MY BLOGGING CLASS (Start a Blog)
WordPress introduced a site health check feature in version 5.1 and above which looks for common performance and security issues and gives a health check score based on various tests.
One example is a test that checks if your website is running the latest PHP version. Using older PHP versions can make your website slow and misbehave with many popular wordPress plugins.
How to Know If Your Blog Is Healthy
The following are the steps required to check your blog health without the use of a Plugin or external Website:
- Login to your wp-admin
- Go to tools in the sidebar
- Locate and click Site Health
- You will see site health status and Info
- All Done
10 Tips to Get a 100% in WordPress Site Health Check Score
Recommended: JOIN MY BLOGGING CLASS (Start a Blog)
- Remove Unused WordPress Plugins & Themes
- Use The Latest PHP Version
- Update all the required PHP modules
- Keep WordPress Up to Date
- Keep your SQL Server updated
- Ensure you are using https/SSL
- Don’t block your site from Search Engines
- Get a Better WordPress Hosting
- Use a good permalink structure (post-name)
- Keep Rest API Enabled
The list above sure gives your blog a boost in health status, let’s dive deeper into the topic;
1. Remove Unused WordPress Plugins & Themes:
You can keep inactive plugins installed on your WordPress site. They are not loaded by WordPress and do not affect your website’s performance or speed.
But here is the thing; They take up space, can be used to hide malware, increase security scan time, and there is a chance you may accidentally activate them. I will personally recommend that you activate not more than 15 plugins.
2. Use The Latest PHP Version:
WordPress is written in the PHP programming language. It is a server-side language, which means it runs on your hosting server to dynamically generate WordPress pages.
Using the latest PHP version gives your website a performance boost. It also ensures compatibility with new WordPress plugin features that may require the latest PHP version to work correctly.
If your website is using an older version of PHP, then you will need to ask your hosting provider to update it for you.
3. Update all the required PHP modules:
PHP Modules and extensions are additional libraries that extend the functionality of the PHP programming language. WordPress recommends several PHP modules to be installed for optimal performance.
You can find a list of extensions on the WordPress website. Some of these extensions are required and others are recommended but not necessary.
Now, how do you install a missing module?
You will need to ask your hosting providers to install these extensions for you but if you are this “Do it myself guy like me” you would still need to configure them in php.ini file which may not be easier for beginners.
Recommended: JOIN MY BLOGGING CLASS (Start a Blog)
4. Keep WordPress Up to Date:
Many beginners fear that updating WordPress could break their website. No…No, that is not true, Don’t ignore WordPress updates, leaving your websites outdated makes it vulnerable to security threats.
5. Keep your SQL Server updated:
WordPress stores all your website content in a database. By default, WordPress supports database management software like MySQL.
Using the latest version of MySQL ensures that WordPress can safely store your website data. An older version may cause your website to behave unexpectedly.
You need to make sure that your website is running the latest stable version of MySQL. You can find the information about your database software version by switching to the info tab in site health.
If your site uses an older version of MySQL then you should contact your WordPress hosting provider and ask them to upgrade it.
6. Ensure you are using https/SSL:
SSL protects your website by encrypting the data transfer from server to user’s browsers.
SSL enabled websites use HTTPs instead of HTTP in their URLs and have a padlock icon in the address bar.
The good thing is most of WordPress hosting providers offer free Encrypt SSL certificate that you can use. Now! that is a plus for you.
7. Don’t block your site from Search Engines:
For most websites, search engines are the biggest source of traffic, here at speedyminds about 38.60% of my site traffic comes from Search Result.
Never make a mistake of blocking your site from search engines unless you don’t want your pages to appear on search result.
8. Get a Better WordPress Hosting:
The importance of good web hosting provider cannot be underestimated. This is the most important decision you make for a website.
Using an unreliable hosting provider can affect your WordPress site in many ways.
They tend to use older software, do not have all the PHP modules installed, and there is no easy way for users to fix those issues.
I recommend Domainking ↱ for your hosting as it provides all the hosting requirements needed.
9. Use a good permalink structure (post-name):
By default, WordPress offers permalinks like this:
https://example.com//?p=123
This type of permalink is not search engine friendly, so most newbie bloggers just starting with WordPress fail to create a site that is optimizing WordPress permalinks for SEO because they are using the default permalinks.
The best and recommended permalink structure for SEO is the “post-name” for instance: http://www.speedyminds.com/tips-to-get-a-100-in-wordpress-site-health-check-score/ which is exactly the url of this page you are reading.
10. Keep Rest API Enabled:
REST API in WordPress allows developers to securely use HTTP requests to perform actions on a WordPress site.
Site health does not recommend it because you may need REST API to use third-party apps or some WordPress plugins. Make sure that REST API is enabled to improve your WordPress site health score.
You can keep the REST API disabled on your site to prevent against brute force attacks.
Do I need to get a 100% site health check score in WordPress?
No No No, you don’t need to get a 100% site health check score. Any score above 80% is considered good enough to run a WordPress website without significant issues.
However it does feel great to get a 100% site health score.
Does the perfect site health score means my WordPress website is secure?
No, the site health score indicates that your WordPress installation uses the recommended WordPress settings. You would still need to improve WordPress security to protect your website against common threats.
Interesting right? Let me know how you feel using the comment box. You can share this post with your friends
WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED?
E. SCHOLARSHIP AND OPPORTUNITIES
Originally posted 2021-06-08 09:17:08.