What the audit checks
TopNotch Site Health reviews a defined set of WordPress health signals including environment compatibility, security posture, plugin overlap, WP-Cron, database and maintenance context, caching and performance signals, content quality, internal content relationships, mobile-readiness indicators, response headers and bounded same-site URL checks.
How to run the audit
- Open TopNotch Site Health in WordPress admin.
- Start the complete audit.
- Keep the browser tab open until the run finishes.
- Do not repeatedly click the run button while an audit is already in progress.
- When the report finishes, check the report-integrity/result status before acting on individual findings.
How long should it take?
Run time depends on site size, hosting resources, plugins, database size and the number of same-site URLs included in the bounded link check. A larger site can take longer than a small brochure site. Slow does not automatically mean failed.
When to rerun
Rerun after meaningful technical changes such as a WordPress or PHP upgrade, major plugin changes, redirect work, cache configuration changes, database cleanup or a substantial content restructure. You do not need to rerun continuously when nothing has changed.
If the audit appears stuck
- Wait briefly and avoid starting duplicate runs.
- Check whether WordPress admin is still responsive.
- Confirm the site has not hit a PHP timeout or memory limit.
- Temporarily pause aggressive admin-side security/rate limiting only if you know it is blocking the audit request, then restore it after testing.
- Check server/PHP logs for a clear fatal error before changing unrelated plugins.
If the audit completes but one module reports incomplete evidence, treat that module as incomplete rather than assuming the whole site is unhealthy.
Use results as evidence, not as a target score
The score helps prioritize review. It is not a Google ranking score, security certification or guarantee of performance. A lower score can come from a small number of meaningful issues, while a high score does not prove that every page, plugin or server condition is perfect.