Tips to Get a 100% Site Health Score in WordPress

WordPress 5.2 added a new Site Health score to your WP dashboard and, as with any score, that probably has you wondering how to get a perfect, 100% score.

In this post, we’re here to help. First, we’ll introduce you to what the new site health feature is. Then, we’ll take you through 10 tips. you can follow to score 100% on your Site Health in WordPress 5.2.

How the Site Health score works in WordPress 5.2

The Site Health functionality in WordPress 5.2 adds robust tools that help you identify potential issues and make it easy for you to fix your site if something goes wrong.

The Site Health tool runs a series of tests and then shares results and recommendations with you based on what it finds.

What’s even better is that the tests are filterable, and plugins and themes can add their own tests or remove existing ones.

How the Site Health score works in WordPress 5.2

The Site Health functionality in WordPress 5.2 adds robust tools that help you identify potential issues and make it easy for you to fix your site if something goes wrong.

The Site Health tool runs a series of tests and then shares results and recommendations with you based on what it finds.

What’s even better is that the tests are filterable, and plugins and themes can add their own tests or remove existing ones.

Once you update your WordPress website, you’ll find two new pages under Tools > Site Health.

The first page displays your Site Health Status with results categorized as:

• Critical
• Recommended
• Good

These tests are what WordPress uses to calculate your Site Health Score. Needless to say, the critical tests weigh more heavily, and not faring well in them can dampen your chances to get 100% Site Health score.

The health check results show critical information pertaining to both performance and security. The performance checks include checking for:

• WordPress version
• Latest PHP version
• SQL server version
• Installation of recommended PHP modules
• UTF8MB4 support
• Scheduled events
• Working HTTP requests
• REST API availability
• Performing loopback requests

The security checks include:

• Active themes
• Up to date plugins
• HTTPS connection
• Secure communication
• Debug mode off
• Communication with WordPress.org
• Background updates enabled

The second page is the Site Health Info page that contains a load of information related to your site health. There’s a convenient button here that can copy all the information to your clipboard so that you can share it with a developer who’s supporting you. For example, if you’re asking a plugin author for help, this gives you a convenient way to provide them with information about your site:

Ten tips to get a 100% Site Health score in WordPress 5.2

Now that you know the checks that WordPress runs to assess your website, here’s what you can do to get a 100% Site Health score.

1. Keep WordPress up to date

We’ve heard this often enough, but in practice, not many of us pay attention to the update notifications that appear with frequency on our dashboard for major updates. Fortunately, updating WordPress is now just a one-click. By default, minor changes happen automatically.

2. Keep themes and plugins up to date

Don’t stop with updating the WP core. Go to the whole distance and update all the themes and plugins as well. You can update these extensions from the regular WordPress updates area (Dashboard → Updates), as well as the respective Themes and Plugins areas:

3. Remove unused themes and plugins

Beyond updating themes and plugins that you are using, you should also remove any themes and plugins that you are not using. Themes and plugins that are not updated are a security risk, which is why it’s safer to remove them.

There is one exception, though – leave the latest default theme installed, even if you’re not using it (e.g. Twenty Nineteen).

4. Use the latest SQL server version

Your database server’s software is what powers the database that WordPress uses to store your content and settings. There are two common options, depending on your host’s configuration:

1. MySQL
2. MariaDB (a fork of MySQL)

To improve your site’s performance and security (and Site Health score), you’ll want to make sure you’re using the latest version – WordPress recommends running MySQL version 5.6+ or MariaDB version 10.1+.

If you’re not sure how to do this, the best way to get started is to reach out to your host’s support.

5. Upgrade to the latest PHP version

PHP is the programming language that powers much of WordPress’ functionality.

Upgrading to the latest version offers big performance improvements, as well as better security (because older versions no longer receive security updates).

Currently, WordPress recommends that you use PHP 7.3+.

Many WordPress hosts give you an option to choose your PHP version from your dashboard. Otherwise if you use DA hosting you can do it very easily. Go to your DA panel select php version selector then change the current value to the lastest version. Or, you can reach out to your host’s support for help

6. Make sure debug mode is turned off

WordPress has a few built-in debugging tools that generate helpful messages to developers. The most important tool is WP_DEBUG in your WordPress install.

However, on a live site, the debug mode should be turned off because it can reveal a load of information about your website to visitors and is, therefore, a security risk. That’s why WordPress will ding your Site Health score if you still have debug mode turned on.

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

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

To turn it off, you can either change true to false, or just delete the entire line.

7. Install SSL certificate and use HTTPS

HTTPS is a method of encryption that secures the communication between your server and the browser of any user visiting your website, and it’s what gets you that trust-building green padlock in web browsers.

Additionally, Google Chrome will eventually start marking all non-HTTPS pages as “Not Secure.”

To avoid this, and get your Site Health score up, you’ll need to install an SSL certificate and then migrate your site to HTTPS.

Many hosts now offer free SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt that you can install with a few clicks