We are currently facing the problem that the GRASS website has dropped significantly in the Google search rankings (and probably in other search engines as well).
I have run a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) analysis today with the outcome below.
The tools used are
These issues should be addressed as soon as possible.
See below for a checklist under "List of issues".
Meta Description
The meta description is too long: 218 characters.
Target: It should have a maximum of 160 characters.
Text - tag
- The website has too little text: 212 words.
- The text length should exceed 400 words.
- About 10% of the text consists of filler words. perfect
- The text has less than 4 complete sentences. you can do better
- The average sentence length is 21 words. This is too much.
Hierarchy of titles
h1 (No Text) <-- bug
h2 (missing) <-- bug
h3 download
h3 learn
h3 support
h3 contribute
h2 latest news
h3 grass refreshed branding
h3 grass developer summit 2025
h3 grass 8.4.1 released
Incomplete hierarchy is commonly penalized by search engines.
Semantic analysis: Readability of the website
(calculated according to Flesch Reading Ease)
- Flesch value: 44
- Readability: difficult
- This is roughly equivalent to a legal text.
Code / Text Rate
- Text rate: 7.51 %
- The text rate should be above 25 %.
We simply need more text.
HTML error in source code
HTML not valid. 16 errors found (tested with W3C Validator)
Images - ![]()
Tags
- 3
![]()
Tags without ALT Attribut - problem
- 10
![]()
tags without TITLE attribute - problem
Open Graph Protocol
- 4 Open Graph attributes found.
- Problem: some required attributes were not found:
og:type missing
Largest Contentful Paint (LPC): Pre-load the largest paint image
Info: https://web.dev/articles/lcp
If the LCP element is dynamically added to the page, you should preload the image to improve the LCP.
Affected files and functions:
https://grass.osgeo.org/images/logos/banner.jpg
banner.jpg: JPEG image data: 1899x1268 pixels
==> this is WAY too large and punished by Google search.
Core Web Vitals > Desktop > warning LCP issue: longer than 2.5s (desktop)
Images too large
Provide images that have an appropriate size to save mobile data and improve loading time.
Affected files and functions:
Core Web Vitals (Mobile)
Time To First Byte (TTFB): How quickly the server responds to a request: 999 milliseconds,
(Ideal target value < 800 milliseconds)
Page speed analysis (mobile)
Largest contentful paint
When is the main content visible: 10.75 seconds -> too slow
Removal of "GIS" from GRASS GIS
This recent project naming change will contribute to a SEO ranking decrease.
Take a look at the following screenshot: it shows that while the term "grass" gets a lot of impressions, the click rate is a fraction of that of the term "grass gis", simply because "grass" can be anything.
List of issues
Meta description too long
Text in <body> too short:
Hierarchy of titles incomplete:
HTML errors:
Image attributes missing:
Open Graph Protocol:
Largest Contentful Paint (LPC): several images too large:
Focus on main site, not on mirror sites - canonical:
We are currently facing the problem that the GRASS website has dropped significantly in the Google search rankings (and probably in other search engines as well).
I have run a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) analysis today with the outcome below.
The tools used are
These issues should be addressed as soon as possible.
See below for a checklist under "List of issues".
Meta Description
The meta description is too long: 218 characters.
Target: It should have a maximum of 160 characters.
Text - tag
Hierarchy of titles
Incomplete hierarchy is commonly penalized by search engines.
Semantic analysis: Readability of the website
(calculated according to Flesch Reading Ease)
Code / Text Rate
We simply need more text.
HTML error in source code
HTML not valid. 16 errors found (tested with W3C Validator)
Images -![]()
Tags
Open Graph Protocol
og:type missingLargest Contentful Paint (LPC): Pre-load the largest paint image
Info: https://web.dev/articles/lcp
If the LCP element is dynamically added to the page, you should preload the image to improve the LCP.
Affected files and functions:
banner.jpg:
JPEG image data: 1899x1268 pixels==> this is WAY too large and punished by Google search.
Core Web Vitals > Desktop > warning LCP issue: longer than 2.5s (desktop)Images too large
Provide images that have an appropriate size to save mobile data and improve loading time.
Affected files and functions:
1008 x 6691114 x 5211008x669Core Web Vitals (Mobile)
Time To First Byte (TTFB): How quickly the server responds to a request: 999 milliseconds,
(Ideal target value < 800 milliseconds)
Page speed analysis (mobile)
Largest contentful paint
When is the main content visible: 10.75 seconds -> too slow
Removal of "GIS" from GRASS GIS
This recent project naming change will contribute to a SEO ranking decrease.
Take a look at the following screenshot: it shows that while the term "grass" gets a lot of impressions, the click rate is a fraction of that of the term "grass gis", simply because "grass" can be anything.
List of issues
Meta description too long
Text in
<body>too short:Hierarchy of titles incomplete:
<h1>is lacking text.<h2>is missing.HTML errors:
Image attributes missing:
Open Graph Protocol:
og:type missing-> https://ogp.me/#types -> "Website"?Largest Contentful Paint (LPC): several images too large:
banner.jpg:JPEG image data: 1899x1268 pixels1008 x 6691114 x 5211008x669Focus on main site, not on mirror sites - canonical:
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ .Site.BaseURL }}" />missing: Add canonical URL #514