Weekly site checks
Once a week, and once soon after you install the script, WunderlyBot reads your site and looks for what keeps people from finding it or using it. Each finding stays on your fix list until a later check no longer sees it, or you dismiss it. Automated checks catch some accessibility problems, not all.
The fix list
On your main page, under “What we noticed”: one line per open problem, the page it's on, and the fix. Problems that keep people from finding or reaching you come first, then those on the pages with the most visitors. Dismiss a line you've decided to leave, and Undo brings it back. When a problem matters to people reaching out, such as a slow page that phone visitors leave, it's also one of the insights above.
What the check reads
- Reads
- Your robots.txt and sitemap, then up to 250 pages, starting from your home page, your 20 most-visited pages and the pages your forms were opened on, and following links to your own site. Links and images are asked whether they answer, not downloaded.
- Never
- It sends nothing: GET and HEAD requests only, and no form is ever sent. It asks for one page, link or image a second at most; a page opened in a browser loads its own files as any browser would. It obeys robots.txt under the name WunderlyBot.
- When
- About once a week, at a time set for your site, and once within an hour of your first visit.
- In a browser
- A page with almost no text (under 200 characters) is opened in a browser once, at most 20 a check, so links drawn with scripts are found.
Hidden from search
- Noindex
- A page that tells search engines not to list it (a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header saying noindex or none), shown only when it had a visitor in the last 30 days.
- Robots.txt
- Your robots.txt keeps every search engine out of the whole site.
- Sitemap
- No sitemap in robots.txt, at /sitemap.xml or at /sitemap_index.xml; or a sitemap that leaves out one of your 10 most-visited pages. A sitemap over 500 addresses isn't judged.
Titles and descriptions
- Missing
- A page search engines may list (it loaded, isn't noindex, and doesn't name another page as its canonical) with no <title>, or no meta description, or only spaces.
- The same
- Two or more such pages with the same title, or the same description, ignoring case and spacing. Pages with a query string or a redirect aren't compared.
Broken links and images
- Broken
- A link to your own site, or an image on any site, that answers with an error or not at all. A site that turns the bot away (a challenge, or too many requests) doesn't count as broken.
- Asked twice
- A failure is asked again a day later, and shown only if it fails again. It leaves the list when a later check finds it working, or no longer finds the link.
Large images and insecure files
- Large
- An image over 500 KB, by the size the server reports, or by reading it when it doesn't say.
- Alt text
- An image with no alt attribute. An empty alt (alt="") is fine: it marks a decoration.
- Insecure
- A file loaded over http: on a page served over https:, which browsers may block.
Speed on phones
- Measured
- On your home page and your 2 most-visited pages, in a browser set up as a phone (a 412 by 915 screen, the processor slowed 4 times), waiting for the page to load and 3 seconds more.
- Slow
- Load time (largest contentful paint) over 4.0 seconds, time blocked by scripts over 0.6 seconds, or layout shift over 0.25: Google's lines for "poor". Times round down to a tenth of a second.
- A caveat
- The network isn't slowed, so a phone on a weak connection can be slower than the time shown. We'd rather say too little than too much.
Accessibility
- Checked
- axe-core's automated rules for WCAG 2.0 and 2.1, levels A and AA (wcag2a, wcag2aa, wcag21a, wcag21aa), on your home page, up to 2 pages with a form and your 2 most-visited pages. Only problems axe rates serious or critical are shown.
- Not checked
- Automated checks catch some accessibility problems, not all. Nothing here says a site meets a law or a standard.
Phone visits that ended there
- Counted
- Visits from a phone whose first page was this one, and of those, the visits that saw no other page. Each visit is one device on one day; a reload of the same page stays one page.
- Used by
- The note about a slow page that loses people.
WunderlyBot
The checks are read by WunderlyBot. WunderlyBot says what it is and how to keep it out of parts of your site. A check never claims a page is fully accessible or ready for search: automated checks find some problems, not all.
Want to see one page checked now, before you sign up? Try the free site check.