The Advice tab of the analytics lists what your site would gain from fixing, from the most urgent to the least urgent. This article describes each finding, the pages it spots and the action it suggests.
Before you start
- The Advice tab is the last one on the Statistics screen. It requires the role Editor or Administrator.
- The findings rely on your visitors, Google Search Console, bot visits and the links of your published pages. They follow the period chosen at the top of the screen.
- The tab title carries the number of findings, for example Advice (13). With no findings, the tab shows Nothing to report for the period.
Read the site’s numbers
The tab opens on seven tiles. The i on each tile gives its definition.
| Tile | Definition |
|---|---|
| Pages | The published content that search engines can index. A page set to Noindex is not part of the internal linking. |
| Links in the contents | The links that connect two pages from the content of one or from a list. |
| Orphans | The pages that no link on the site leads to. |
| Isolated | The pages that only the footer or a template connects to the rest of the site, with no link from any content. |
| Links to put | The links that visitor paths or Google searches suggest between two pages. |
| Without an audience | The pages with no views, no impressions, no AI bot visit and no site citing them over the period. |
| Site focus | The share of words your pages have in common, from 0 to 100%. A site on a single topic has a high score. |
Read a finding
Under the tiles, the finding cards are sorted by severity: To fix, To improve, then To watch. A finding with no page concerned is not shown. The tables in this article name each finding without the number that opens its title.
- Read the card title. It gives the number of pages or links concerned, for example 4 orphan pages.
- Read the two or three sentences below. They explain why the finding matters and what to do.
- Click See details. The table of pages opens.
- Click a page in the table. The Links tab opens on it.
Findings to fix
| Finding | Pages spotted | Action |
|---|---|---|
| deleted addresses still receive visitors | An address that answered 404 to visitors sent by other sites over the period, with no redirect. Columns Address, Referring domains, Lost visits. | The Create a redirection button opens the redirect form with the source filled in. It only appears to administrators. |
| orphan pages | No link on your site leads to the page. It is only reached by a search engine, another site or a typed address. | Link to it from a page on the same topic. The Pages that could link to it column suggests some. |
| pages that search engines cannot reach | All the links that lead to the page are hidden from search engines. Column Hidden links leading to it. | Make at least one link to it visible, the one in a card’s title for example. |
Findings to improve
| Finding | Pages spotted | Action |
|---|---|---|
| links to add | Two pages that a link should connect, based on your visitors or Google. The Add a suggested link section details this finding. | Add the link in the text of the first page. |
| pages disappoint their visitors coming from Google | A page whose visitors coming from Google leave quickly clearly more often than those on the rest of the site, over enough visits to judge. Columns Visits from Google, Left in under 10 s, Rest of the site, Main search. | Give the answer at the top of the page and keep the words of the search in the title. |
| pages that no text cites | Only the footer or a template leads to the page. Column Linked by. | Cite it in the text of a neighboring page. |
| links whose text does not describe the page they lead to | The link text shares no word with the title or address of the target page, or the same text leads to several different pages. Links to the home page do not count. | Replace “Click here” with the words of the target page. |
| pages at the gates of Google’s first page | A page ranked at the bottom of Google’s first results page or on the second, with enough impressions over the period. | Link to it from your strongest pages, using the words of the search. |
| titles do not reuse the search that brings visitors | The search on which Google most often shows the page, excluding the site’s name, has words missing from the title. Columns Title, Words missing from the title. | Reuse these words in the title if the page answers it. |
| pages on the border of a group | A page that has a good share of its links with a group of pages, without having most of them. Column Links to add. | Add in a text the links that bring it into the group. |
| searches where your pages compete | A search on which Google shows several of your pages, the home page aside. Columns Search, Pages, Address to keep, Domains to redirect. | Link the weakest to the strongest, or merge them: keep the address that other sites cite the most and redirect the other. |
| content to refresh | A page still read over the period whose Last significant update is old. Without this date, the last save counts. | Reread the page, update it, then fill in the date in the SEO tab of the editor. |
Findings to watch
| Finding | Pages spotted | Action |
|---|---|---|
| pages off the site’s topic | A page whose title, address and links have few words in common with the rest of the site. Its Closeness to the topic is far below the Site average. | Bring it closer to your topic, link to it from the pages that share its words or remove it. |
| pages with no audience | A page published before the period, with no views, no impressions, no AI bot visit and no site citing it. | Improve it, merge it with a close page or remove it. |
Closeness to the topic is calculated on the words of the pages, without regard to their meaning.
Add a suggested link
The links to add card suggests links between two pages. Each suggestion shows its numbers.
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| From, To | The page where to add the link and the target page. |
| Visitors | The distinct visitors who went from the first page to the second without a direct link. |
| Gap to the average | How many times more often readers of the first page land on the second than the site’s visitors who reach it from another page. |
| Shared Google search | The search on which Google shows both pages. |
| Confidence | Strong when your visitors and Google agree, Medium for only one of the two. |
- The visitors’ signal counts the readers of the first page who land on the second shortly after, during the same visit. No link in the content, a list or the template connects these two pages. Going through the site’s menu or search counts as a detour. Enough visitors must go to the second page clearly more often than average.
- Google’s signal counts two pages that Google regularly shows on the same search, one of the main ones for each. The link goes from the lower-ranked page to the higher-ranked one. Your home page and the searches that carry your site’s name do not count.
Ignore dismisses a suggestion that makes no sense. It only comes back if its visitors become much more numerous. Below the list, show them again shows all the ignored suggestions again.