Tips to get better results in WordPress Site Health

Tips to Get better Results in WordPress Site Health

WordPress 5.2 introduced a newly improved tool called Site Health. This feature tracks your website's health and provides alerts for any errors and resolutions to make. You need to keep an eye on this page as this is where all significant plugins will drop their notifications. 

This article will define the WordPress site health tool and enumerate tips to get a healthy score in your WordPress site health check. 

What is WordPress Site Health Check Score? 

Site Health Check Score is a tool that helps you monitor your site's security issues and performance while providing you recommendations based on various tests. 

It contains 2 parts: a Status screen and an Info screen. You can visit it by going to WP Admin > Tools > Site Health. 

How can my WordPress site get a good health score? 

Install SSL/HTTPS 

Adding an SSL certificate to your website lets your site visitors know that you are serious about security. 

SSL-enabled sites are using HTTPs instead of HTTPS in their web URLs, and you'll notice that they have a padlock icon displayed in the address bar.  

An SSL certificate reduces your risk by keeping sensitive data collected on your website safe. For more details, please check how to get a free SSL certificate for WordPress with step-by-step instructions on how to enable it up. 

Update WordPress

Each new WordPress release introduces new features and improves your website security.  

One of the first things an expert share about WordPress security is to install updates. Malicious parties and hackers watch the release notes, and as soon as they learn of a vulnerability, they start exploiting it. So, it would be best if you made sure to update your WordPress to the latest version, as this will protect you from security threats and vulnerabilities. 

Update WordPress Plugins and Themes 

WordPress plugins will need to be updated because the developers have introduced a new feature or features. Sample are they might introduce a new storage option, make the specific plugin and theme easier to use or simply make quality-of-life improvements that make using them better all the way around.  

The only way to implement these changes is to embrace a new update to the theme and plugin. In cases where the only update is a new feature or polishing of an old one, keeping the old version isn’t likely to cause much harm. 

Use the latest MySQL 

WordPress keeps all your site's content in a database. WordPress commonly supports database management software such as MariaDB and MySQL. WordPress can safely keep your website data by running the latest version MariaDB or MySQL, since an older version may also cause your site to behave unexpectedly.  

If you are not aware of any of the information of your database software version, you can check it by switching to the info tab of your site health tool. 

Update PHP version 

WordPress is written in PHP as a programming scripting language. It is a server-side language where it generates WordPress pages by dynamically running on your hosting server.  

The PHP coding language is constantly being developed and improved. Each new version of PHP aims to increase the security and capabilities of what the language can do.  

Upgrading your PHP version can boost the performance of your website. It also guarantees compatibility with new WordPress plugin attributes that may need the latest PHP version to run correctly. 

Enable WordPress Automatic Updates

Keeping your WordPress Automatic Updates enabled will automatically help your WordPress site update itself if minor releases or security changes are available. This will help you lessen your work, thus making you more efficiently work for the operation of your website. 

These security updates are available on millions of websites. So, ensure to turn on automatic updates on your WordPress site to keep it secure with these updates. 

Delete Unused WordPress Plugins & Themes

Technically speaking, you can use well-coded WordPress plugins on your website and keep them since they do not affect your website's performance speed.  

However, it is highly recommended that you remove WordPress themes and plugins that are no longer active to save space and manage your dashboard easily. Keeping inactive themes and plugins can be used to hide malware and increase security scan time. 

Enable Rest API 

Keeping your Rest API enabled can also improve your WordPress site health score. The WP REST API improves your WordPress core communication with the various web, desktop, and mobile applications on the internet. This maintains WordPress work effectively as a content management system, making your content visible on the internet. 

Install all required PHP modules 

PHP Modules are additional libraries that extend the effectiveness of the PHP programming language. WordPress suggests some PHP modules be installed on your site for optimal performance.  

If you're missing one of the required PHP modules, your Site Health Score will notify you, and WordPress will advise you which module is missing. 

Turn Off Debug Mode 

WordPress runs built-in debugging tools which enable you to monitor if a custom code, plugin, or theme is getting some errors. However, the debug mode should not be enabled on a live site because it can disclose a load of information about your website to visitors and is, therefore, a security risk. That is why you may receive a notification from your Site Health score if you still have debugged mode turned on. 

To configure the debug mode, find this line in your wp-config.php file: 

      define('WP_DEBUG', true);

You can either change true to false or delete the entire line to turn it off. 

Do I need to get a 100% site health check score in WordPress? 

While it can be great to see a 100% score on your Site Health tool, you don't need to get a perfect score to achieve a functioning and secure WordPress site. Any score above 80% is considered good enough to run a WordPress website. 

If you are wondering which site health checks are more important, site health tests are given three status labels: 

• Good (Passed tests) 

• Recommended (changes are recommended but not necessary) 

• Critical (Significant issues that you must consider fixing) 

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Related Articles

How to Enable Your Free SSL Certificate
How to Keep WordPress Up-to-Date
How to Uninstall a WordPress Plugin
How to Enable or Disable WP_Debug
How to Update Your PHP Version
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