Issue priority

Priority of Issues¶

This document gives information about the different prioritization methods we use for issues and errors.

The script sends a request to our server when a page on the website loads with a JavaScript-enabled agent. This data is used:

• Page views

• Error count.

With this data, we can calculate the number of pages that have the error and then compare it to the number of errors on each page. For example, one dead link on the busiest page of a website has a higher priority than 5 dead links on the least-visited page.

Priority can be seen as below in the Opportunities by Priority in the Performance module and in the Accessibility module. The issues are sorted automatically and also rate the level of difficulty to fix them:

• High impact

• Medium impact

• Low impact.

Priority is also seen in the Quality Assurance module on the page view and in the Inventory module and reports. The categories here indicate priority from high to low as determined by the number of times the error occurs and the number of page views on the page that is affected.

• High

• Medium

• Low.

Priority Rankings¶

This section gives information on how priority ranking is determined in the SEO, Accessibility, and Inventory modules.

Priority Rankings:

• High Priority Alerts: These issues are rated as high priority:

  • Missing H1

    The H1 header tag is typically the first header tag visible on a page. In order to make it stand out, H1 tags are formatted differently from other page tags. When search engines crawl pages, H1 tags are used to help accurately identify their content. Also, visitors are better able to navigate web pages that feature H1 tags. Having no H1 tags on a page makes it difficult for search engines to crawl your content with accuracy and for your visitors to navigate your content, negatively affecting SEO.

  • Title found on more than one page

    Title tags allow both users and search engines to quickly understand what content they can expect to find on a page. More than one title tag on a page may confuse search engines and users as to the contents of a page, and therefore harm your SEO.

  • Missing title

    Title tags allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. Pages with no title tag can therefore adversely affect search engine rankings and the user click-through rate from search results. The recommendation is to always include a title tag that clearly communicates what the page is about.

• Medium Priority Alerts: These issues are rated as medium priority:

  • Images missing ALT

    As search engines cannot ‘‘see’’ images on web pages the way we can, an image with a missing ALT tag can cause the site to be ranked lower due to unintended keywords, or not being ranked at all. ALT tags on images should describe the image as accurately as possible.

    Missing ALT tags for images can also have a negative impact on the level of ADA compliance on the website. Visitors who use assistive technologies such as screen readers rely on ALT tags to navigate and understand the website content.

    For more information, see the user guide articles:

    • Accessibility

    • Accessibility Checks.

  • Too short content on page

    A page may be perceived as being ‘’thin’’ by search engines if it does not contain a certain amount of content. While there is no clear rule as to the amount of content a page should have, it is advisable to have a minimum of 300 words.

  • Multiple H1 on page

    H1 tags allow both users and search engines to quickly understand what content they can expect to find on a page. A page with more than one title tag may confuse search engines and users as to the contents of a page, and can affect the SEO. Use only one Header 1 per page to increase SEO.

  • Missing subheadings

    Subheadings allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A site with no subheadings can receive a lower search engine ranking and a low click-through rate from search results. Always include subheadings to identify specific sections of content and increase SEO.

  • (Identical) H1 found on more than one page

    H1 tags allow both users and search engines to quickly identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A site with more than one page that has the same H1 tag may confuse search engines and negatively impact your rankings and your click-through rate from search results. Make all of the H1 tags across the domain unique and relevant to the on-page content to increase SEO.

• Low Priority Alerts: These issues are rated as low priority:

  • Too short META description

    Meta descriptions are important as they help users and search engines identify what content they can expect to find on a page. A short meta description may not contain enough characters to effectively communicate the content of a page accurately, and this can negatively impact SEO.

  • Too many internal links

    Search engines use links to determine how relevant a page is to specific search criteria. It is therefore important to ensure that all of your internal links are useful for your visitors. While no absolute rule exists as to how many internal links a page should contain, it is advisable not to overload a page with internal links and to make sure all of your internal links are appropriate to the site content.

  • Too long URL

    URL length is listed as #46 in Google’s top 200 ranking factors. Although there is no exact rule as to how long URLs should be, shorter URLs tend to rank higher on web searches. Shorter URLs benefit users as they are clearer and more attractive when copied in full.

  • Too long META description

    In order to display fully in search engine results, it is generally considered best practice to keep meta descriptions between 150-160 characters. Meta descriptions that are longer than this can run the risk of containing text that provides no added value to users and search engines and negatively impact SEO. We recommend that you keep your meta descriptions to below 160 characters where possible.

• Technical SEO Issues: This section gives an overview of technical issues that could be harmful to your SEO. [Please note that the issues listed here may not in fact be issues and therefore require manual review.]

  • Pages with - No index

    Pages that have been given a no-index tag are listed here for review. As we cannot determine through scanning whether pages have been given a no-index tag intentionally, these results must be manually reviewed to see if any remedial action is required.

  • Links with - No-follow

    Pages with a no-follow tag are listed here for review. As we cannot determine through scanning whether pages have been given a no-follow tag intentionally, these results must be manually reviewed to see if any remedial action is required.

For more information, see the user guide articles:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Inventory.

Severity of Errors¶

The severity rating assigned to an error in the Acquia Optimize Data Privacy module indicates the level of risk associated with the flagged data. This rating takes into consideration the potential adverse effect on organizational assets, organizational operations, and individuals should it be disclosed without authorization.

How we calculate the severity of security issues:

• Low Severity
  Data with low severity has a limited adverse effect on organizational assets, organizational operations, and individuals if it is disclosed without authorization.

• Medium Severity
  Data with medium severity has a serious adverse effect on organizational assets, organizational operations, and individuals if it is disclosed without authorization.

• High Severity
  Data with high severity has a severe or catastrophic effect on organizational assets, organizational operations, and individuals if it is disclosed without authorization.

For more information, see the user guide article:

Data Privacy.

Alerts in the Accessibility Module¶

We prioritize the results of the accessibility checks and places any issues in the following categories:

• Error

  The issue is in direct conflict with the standard and needs to be fixed. These are usually content issues such as HTML snippets that are not compliant. These issues can only be fixed with a change to the source code.

• Warning

  The issue is most likely in conflict with the standard, do a manual review and fix the issue.

• Review

  The issue cannot be programatically determined as an error or warning and requires human review . Do a manual review of the issue to determine if any fix can be done.

For more information, see the user guide articles:

• Accessibility

• Accessibility Checks.

Difficulty of Issues¶

This section gives information about how we calculate the difficulty level of errors and issues. This labelling is found, among other places, in the Accessibility module, on the Accessibility Issues page.

This helps users know the level of expertise needed to correct the issue. Some CMS systems are easier to work with than others. For more information on the difficulty level of an error, contact the Support Team.

• Easy: This label indicates that users with basic HTML knowledge should have no problem correcting this issue.

• Moderate: This label indicates that somewhat more HTML knowledge is needed in order to correct the issue.

• Hard: This label indicates that the issue requires development knowledge.

For more information, see the user guide articles:

• Accessibility

• Accessibility Checks.

Likelihood¶

Likelihood is a rating given within the Data Privacy module to results. This rating indicates the level of certainty that the error is in fact accurate.

Likelihood ratings are divided into the three following categories:

• Possible

• Likely

• Very Likely.

For more information, see the user guide article:

Data Privacy.

Score Calculations¶

This section gives information about how the different modules and features calculate the score for issues and errors.

Accessibility Scores¶

The compliance score for the accessibility checks is calculated by using 100 (a perfect score) minus the number of errors found. This is then divided by the total number of accessibility checks.

Data Privacy Scores¶

The compliance score for data privacy check is calculated as follows:

The scan is done on each domain for several data privacy checks. To calculate the compliance score for the domain, we calculate the average. For example: the total sum divided by the total amount of data privacy checks that the scan looks for on the domain.

Quality Assurance Scores¶

The compliance score for the quality assurance check is calculated by dividing the total number of page errors found by the total number of page errors plus the total number of documents, multiplied by 100.

SEO Scores¶

Sometimes also referred to as "SEO issues" or "SEO checkpoints".

The compliance score for SEO issues is calculated as follows:

The number of pages with issues divided by the number of total pages.

The following Technical SEO issues are not taken into account in the domain compliance score:

• Pages with no index

• Links with no index

• SEO issues that the user has manually ignored.

Additional Resources¶