Before anyone reads a word on your website, three things have already happened. Their browser checked whether your site is secure. The page either loaded or it did not. And Google decided whether your domain is trustworthy enough to show in search results. All of this happens in seconds, invisibly, and most small business owners have no idea it is going on.
Your URL and Domain Health score in MarketBase measures this invisible foundation. It is not about your content, your design, or your SEO. It is about whether your website works at all, and how it stacks up against competitors in your local area.
In this article
- 1. Why your website foundation matters more than its content
- 2. What MarketBase checks about your domain and website connection
- 3. Four common website problems that quietly cost you customers
- 4. How this score connects to your On-Page SEO score
- 5. A practical plan to strengthen your website foundation
Why your website foundation matters
Think of your website like a shop on a high street. The content, design, and SEO are the window displays, the signage, and the fit-out. But none of that matters if the front door is locked, the lights are off, or the building has a condemned notice on it.
That is what a broken website looks like to Google and your customers. A site that does not load, is not secure, or redirects through a maze of URLs is effectively closed for business. Customers leave immediately. Google notices and pushes you down the search results. And every dollar you spend on advertising or social media drives people to a dead end.
Key point
A surprising number of NZ small businesses have no website at all. If you do not have one yet, that is okay. But know that it puts you at a significant disadvantage against competitors who do. Even a simple one-page site with your contact details is better than nothing.
The good news is that most website foundation problems are straightforward to fix. They do not require technical expertise or a big budget. They just require someone pointing out the issue, which is exactly what MarketBase does.
What MarketBase checks
Your URL and Domain Health score looks at the fundamental building blocks of your web presence. This is not about keywords, page structure, or content quality. Those belong to your On-Page SEO score. This score is about the foundation underneath all of that.
MarketBase checks three areas:
Can customers actually reach your website?
We test your website the same way a customer would: by visiting it. Does it load? Does it load securely over HTTPS? Does it redirect somewhere unexpected? Or does it return an error?
A website that loads quickly and securely on the first try scores well. One that bounces through redirects, throws errors, or loads without HTTPS scores poorly. A site that is completely offline scores worst of all.
Do you have your own domain?
There is a difference between having a website at yourbusiness.co.nz and having a page on Facebook or a free subdomain on a website builder. MarketBase checks whether your business has its own dedicated domain. A unique domain that belongs exclusively to your business builds trust with both customers and search engines.
Businesses using only a social media profile or a shared platform as their web presence score lower here, because they do not fully control their online identity.
How established is your domain?
Search engines give more trust to domains that have been around for a while. A domain registered last week does not carry the same authority as one that has been active for five years. MarketBase compares your domain age against competitors in your local market.
You cannot speed up time, but knowing where you stand helps you understand why newer businesses sometimes struggle to rank even when everything else looks good.
A website that does not load, is not secure, or redirects through a maze of URLs is effectively closed for business.
Four common website problems
These are the issues we see most often across New Zealand small businesses. Most are quick to fix once you know they exist.
1. No HTTPS (the padlock is missing)
When you visit a secure website, your browser shows a small padlock icon in the address bar. If your site does not have this, browsers actively warn visitors that your site is "not secure." That warning alone is enough to send customers straight to a competitor.
HTTPS requires an SSL certificate. Most hosting providers include one for free or charge a small annual fee. If your site still loads on plain HTTP, fixing this should be your top priority.
2. The site is offline or broken
It sounds obvious, but plenty of businesses have websites that simply do not work. Maybe the hosting expired. Maybe the domain was not renewed. Maybe a developer made a change that broke something months ago and nobody noticed because the owner rarely visits their own site.
If a customer cannot reach your website, nothing else matters. Check yours right now. Pull out your phone, type in your web address, and see what happens.
3. Redirect chains
When someone types your web address, they should arrive at your site in one step. Some businesses have URLs that bounce through two, three, or more redirects before landing on the actual page. Each redirect adds loading time and confuses search engines. The most common cause is having both a www and non-www version of your domain, or mixing HTTP and HTTPS URLs without a clean redirect.
Tip
Test all four versions of your address. Try http://yourdomain.co.nz, https://yourdomain.co.nz, http://www.yourdomain.co.nz, and https://www.yourdomain.co.nz. All four should land you on the same page with a single, clean redirect. If any of them break or bounce around, ask your hosting provider to set up proper redirects.
4. No dedicated domain
Some businesses rely entirely on a Facebook page or a free website builder URL as their web presence. While that is better than nothing, it limits how much trust search engines place in your business. You do not own or control a Facebook URL. A dedicated domain like yourbusiness.co.nz costs around 5 per year and signals to both Google and customers that you are a real, established business.
How this connects to On-Page SEO
Your URL and Domain Health score and your On-Page SEO score are closely related but measure different things. Think of it this way:
URL and Domain Health is the foundation: does your site exist, is it reachable, is it secure, and is your domain legitimate?
On-Page SEO is what is built on that foundation: page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, mobile-friendliness, and loading speed.
You cannot have strong On-Page SEO without a healthy foundation. A beautifully optimised page that sits on an insecure, broken, or non-existent website delivers zero results. Fix the foundation first, then build on it.
For a full picture of how both scores fit into your overall marketing health, see How MarketBase Scores Work.
Picture this
Sarah runs a physiotherapy clinic in Hamilton. Her site looked fine on her laptop, but MarketBase flagged her URL health as poor. When she checked, she discovered her SSL certificate had expired two months ago. On mobile, Chrome was showing a full-screen "Your connection is not private" warning before anyone could even see her site.
Her hosting provider renewed the certificate in 15 minutes. Within a week, her website traffic from Google had recovered to previous levels.
The problem had been invisible to her because she always accessed her site from a bookmarked, cached version on her desktop. New visitors saw something completely different.
Improve your website foundation
5 minutes today
- Visit your own website on your phone and check for the padlock icon in the address bar
- Confirm your domain registration is current and will not expire without warning
30 minutes this week
- Test all four versions of your web address (http/https, www/non-www) and ask your host to fix any that break
- If you do not have a website, register a .co.nz domain and set up a simple one-page site with your name, services, and contact details
- If your business is on a free subdomain (e.g. yourbusiness.wixsite.com), connect a proper domain name to it
Ongoing this month
- Set your SSL certificate and domain registration to auto-renew so they never lapse
- Ask a friend or customer to visit your site on their phone and tell you honestly what they see
Where MarketBase fits in
You can check some of these things yourself. But what you cannot do on your own is see how your website foundation compares to every other business in your local market. A physio clinic in Hamilton is compared to other Hamilton physio clinics, not businesses across the country.
MarketBase monitors your website health automatically and scores it from 0 to 100 based on where you sit among your competitors. Your score updates as new data comes in, so when you fix an issue, you will see the improvement reflected in your next update. Fix the foundation, and everything you build on top of it works harder.