I’m thrilled to introduce Site Vitals for WordPress® – a free plugin designed to help you monitor, evaluate, and improve key aspects of your WordPress® website’s health.

From performance and security to SEO, UX, and content management, Site Vitals for WordPress® provides comprehensive checks and actionable recommendations, all in one convenient dashboard.

In this v1.0 release, my goal is to offer a user-friendly experience with asynchronous loading, caching for faster subsequent loads, and intuitive grouping of checks into categories.

Below, I’ll cover the highlights, core features, how to get started, and what to expect in future updates.

Why I Created Site Vitals for WordPress®

The vitals of your website are much more important than some arbitrary score.

Running a successful WordPress® site involves juggling numerous aspects: performance tuning, staying on top of security updates, improving SEO visibility, ensuring a great user experience, and maintaining fresh, relevant content.

I found myself switching between multiple plugins, external tools, and manual checks to keep track of everything.

This inspired me to build a single plugin that pulls these metrics together.

Site Vitals for WordPress® consolidates these tasks into a single dashboard, helping you quickly identify what’s “Good,” what “Needs Attention,” and what “Needs Improvement” – no guesswork required.

Key Features

Comprehensive Checks

• Performance:
  Assess page load speed, caching status, database optimization, server response time, and much more to ensure your site is fast and efficient.
• Security:
  Verify SSL status, check for outdated plugins/themes/core, confirm secure file permissions, and ensure security headers are in place.
• SEO:
  Spot missing meta tags, detect SEO plugins, confirm sitemap presence, and ensure images have alt text, all to improve your site’s search engine visibility.
• User Experience (UX):
  Evaluate mobile responsiveness, navigation clarity, 404 errors, font readability, and page load time on key pages. Enhance how visitors interact with your site.
• Content Management:
  Identify stale posts that need refreshing, track down broken links, ensure content length meets best practices, check for missing featured images, and uncover duplicate titles or excessive revisions.

(Accessibility compliance checks are planned for a future release. Stay tuned!)

Asynchronous Loading and Caching

I’ve implemented asynchronous loading so the main dashboard loads quickly.

You’ll see placeholders while checks run in the background, and once results are ready, the categories display their statuses instantly.

To avoid re-running time-consuming checks every visit, results are cached for 12 hours, ensuring minimal performance impact on your site’s admin area.

Actionable Recommendations

For each check, you’ll get straightforward, actionable advice.

For example, if broken links are detected, the plugin tells you how many there are and recommends updating or removing them.

If your homepage load time “Needs Improvement,” you’ll find tips on optimizing images, minifying assets, or enabling caching.

Filters for Developers

I’ve included filters that let you tweak certain checks.

For instance, sv_common_sitemap_urls allows you to add custom sitemap URLs, and sv_404_pages_to_check helps you specify which pages to test for 404 errors.

This makes the plugin flexible for those who want deeper customization.

Getting Started

1. Installation:
   Download the plugin from GitHub or upload the ZIP file via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin in your WordPress® admin.
2. Activation and Initial Checks:
   Activate Site Vitals for WordPress®, and the plugin immediately runs a full set of checks and caches them. When you visit the Site Vitals dashboard, you’ll see each category load its results asynchronously.
3. Interpreting Results:
   Each category shows color-coded counts:
   • Green (Good): All set, no immediate action needed.
   • Yellow (Needs Attention): Some improvements recommended.
   • Red (Needs Improvement): Prioritize these for immediate action.

Click on any category for a detailed breakdown of each check.

4. Implement Recommendations:
   Use the suggestions provided to improve site health – install a caching plugin, update your theme, add alt text, optimize images, or clean up broken links.

Over time, you’ll see more results move into the “Good” category.

Future Plans

Accessibility checks are next on my roadmap, including ARIA roles, heading structure analysis, and keyboard navigation validation.

I’m also exploring ways to give you more control over which checks run and how often, as well as integrating automated scheduling for periodic checks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will the plugin slow down my site?
A: The initial run of checks happens at activation and is cached. Subsequent visits rely on cached results, so performance impact is minimal. The asynchronous loading helps ensure the admin area remains responsive.

Q: How often should I run these checks?
A: Results last about 12 hours in the cache. After making improvements, wait for the cache to expire, then revisit the dashboard to see if changes helped. Weekly security/performance checks and monthly content checks are a good starting point.

Q: Can I disable specific checks?
A: Not yet, but it’s on my radar. Future updates may allow you to enable or disable checks to fit your site’s unique needs.

Contributing and Feedback

If you have suggestions, feedback, or want to report a bug, please visit the GitHub repository. Contributions are welcome, whether it’s code, documentation, or testing.

THANK YOU

I’m excited about what Site Vitals for WordPress® can do for your website’s health, and I look forward to refining and expanding the plugin based on your feedback.

By consolidating multiple checks into one dashboard and providing actionable recommendations, I hope to simplify the ongoing task of website maintenance.

Try it out, and let me know what you think!