How a “snapshot” can help your website A 5-point snapshot focuses on the handful of metrics Google cares about most in 2025, so you can prioritise high-impact wins and ignore the fluff.
Fast: one coffee break, not an afternoon.Actionable: each check maps to a specific fix.Repeatable: rerun monthly to prove progress (or catch regressions).The 5 snapshot checks 1. Core Web Vitals (lab + field) Tool: PageSpeed Insights
Paste your home-page URL ➜ Mobile tab . Note the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) scores. Scroll to “Field Data.” These are real-user numbers—the ones Google actually uses as a ranking signal.
Thresholds to aim for
Metric
Good
Needs work
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
≤ 2.5 s
2.6 – 4 s
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
≤ 200 ms
201 – 500 ms
Quick win: if LCP is high, your hero image is usually the culprit. Resize and serve it as WebP.
2. On-Page SEO Basics Tool: Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free plan) or RankMath SEO Analysis
Check the home page and one key service page:
Title tag ≤ 60 characters, includes primary keyword + city/state if local.Meta description ≤ 160 characters, clear benefit + CTA.Exactly one H1 per page, matching search intent. No missing alt text on above-the-fold images. Quick win: duplicate H1s are a common WordPress theme glitch—fix them in your page builder or theme template.
3. Google Business Profile (GBP) status Tool: GBP dashboard → Performance → Overview
Look for:
Primary category matches your most profitable service.At least five recent photos (past 90 days). Website link tagged with ?utm_source=googlebiz&utm_medium=profile so you can track clicks in GA4.“From the business” description contains your main keyword + suburb; no emoji spam. Quick win: adding Services in GBP (each with price range) can lift local Map pack impressions by 5–15 % in under a week.
4. Security & index status Tool: Google Search Console → Pages → Indexing
Coverage: any URL listed as “Crawled – currently not indexed” ? Could signal thin or duplicate content.Security issues: none should appear; if they do, fix before optimising anything else.Robots.txt : confirm you’re not accidentally blocking /wp-content/uploads/ or entire directories.Quick win: tidy robots.txt to remove Disallow: /wp-admin/ if you’re using XML-RPC-blocking plugins—they can collide.
5. Priority roadmap scoring Create a simple traffic-impact vs. effort grid:
Check
Impact
Effort
Action
Compress hero image (LCP)
High
Low
Do this week
Add GBP UTM tag
Med
Low
Do today
Fix duplicate H1s
Med
Med
Do this month
Clean “Crawled – not indexed” URLs
Low
Med
After main fixes
Your snapshot is done – five data-driven tasks, no overwhelm.
Running the snapshot: 20-minute workflow
Minute
Action
0–5
Run PageSpeed Insights (mobile) & record numbers.
6–10
Scan titles, meta & H1s in RankMath or Ahrefs.
11–14
Open GBP; confirm photos, category & add UTM link.
15–18
Check indexing & security tabs in Google Search Console.
19–20
Draft your impact/effort roadmap table.
What to do with the results Tackle the low-effort/high-impact items immediately. Schedule dev-heavier fixes (script deferral, database cleanup).Re-run the snapshot in 30 days to measure the lift—Google loves fresh speed data.
Common snapshot questions Can I automate this? – Yes. Our care-plan clients get a weekly Looker Studio dashboard pulling CrUX and GSC data automatically.
What tools are 100 % free? – PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, RankMath’s on-page checker, and GBP dashboard all cost zero dollars.
Will fixing these five things guarantee rankings? – No single fix can. But ignoring Core Web Vitals or GBP UTM tracking definitely holds you back.
Ready to skip the DIY? Upload your URL below and we’ll email you a PDF snapshot in 24 hours—no strings attached.
[→ Get My Free 5-Point Snapshot ]
