As of 17 October 2026
All 120 checks, open for anyone to see
searchVIU checks every URL of your website with every full crawl. Here you find every single check, with a description and severity.
In short
Every check runs with every crawl.
Below you find all active checks, sorted by topic. The columns show how serious a finding can get, whether it triggers an alert email and whether Page Watch also checks it. Not every check triggers an alert email. Some findings only appear in the report. Which change triggers an email in Page Watch is listed in the Alert list.
Every weekall 120 checks run with the full crawl.
41 also in Page WatchPage Watch also checks these points on your most important pages, continuously throughout the day. On top come its own signals such as response time or the analytics tag, 45 in total.
99 by alert emailThe rest appear in the report, for example duplicate content or orphan pages.
Severity
One finding, three possible levels
Every check has three possible levels. Which one applies depends on how many pages and clicks are affected. The levels range from Info to Critical. For each check, the list shows the range from low to high impact.
Title missingLevel depends on impact
Low impactfew pages, hardly any clicks
MediumMedium impacta noticeable share of pages or clicks
HighHigh impactmany pages or a large share of clicks
CriticalAccessibility & indexing
27 checks on accessibility, indexing and redirects
Status codes, server errors, noindex, canonicals and redirects. This is where it is decided whether a page gets into the index at all.
Accessibility & crawl errors · 6
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNS error Checks whether the URL's hostname can be resolved. | high to critical | yes | – |
| Page returns 4xx Checks whether a URL returns a 4xx status (e.g. 404, 403, 410). | medium to high | yes | yes |
| Server timeout Checks whether the server responds within the time limit (ERR_TIMED_OUT). | high to critical | yes | – |
| Server error (5xx) Checks whether a URL responds with a 5xx status. | high to critical | yes | yes |
| Invalid HTTP status code Checks whether the server returns a status code outside 100 to 599. | medium to critical | yes | – |
| Connection refused Checks whether the server actively refuses the connection (ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED). | high to critical | yes | – |
Indexability & robots · 8
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indexing issue reported by Google Search Console Uses the Search Console API to check whether Google reports an indexing issue for the URL (e.g. “Crawled – currently not indexed”). Requires Search Console. | medium to critical | yes | – |
| Non-indexable page with traffic Checks whether pages with noindex or a canonical to another URL still get organic clicks. Requires Search Console. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Blocked by robots.txt but linked internally Checks whether internally linked pages are blocked in the robots.txt. | medium to high | yes | yes |
| Rendering resources blocked by robots.txt Checks whether CSS, JavaScript, images or fonts needed for rendering are blocked in the robots.txt. | medium to critical | yes | – |
| Soft 404 Checks whether a page with status 200 looks like an error page (little text, “not found” in the title or H1). | medium to high | yes | yes |
| noindex on an important page Checks whether a page with internal links, traffic or rankings is not indexable. | high to critical | yes | yes |
| noindex in the X-Robots-Tag header Checks whether HTML pages are set to noindex via the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header. | low to high | yes | yes |
| noindex page in the main navigation Checks whether pages at click depth 1 to 2 carry a noindex. | medium to high | yes | – |
Canonicals · 5
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canonical missing Checks whether an indexable page has a canonical tag at all. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Canonical points to a page without status 200 Checks whether the canonical target responds with a redirect, an error or a status other than 200. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Canonical points to a redirect Checks whether a page's canonical target redirects itself. | low to high | yes | – |
| Canonical points to a noindex page Checks whether the canonical target carries a noindex. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Multiple canonical tags Checks whether a page delivers more than one canonical tag. | medium to high | yes | yes |
Redirects · 8
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| JavaScript redirect Checks whether a page redirects to another URL path via JavaScript. | medium to high | yes | yes |
| Long redirect chain (more than 5 steps) Checks whether a redirect chain has more than five steps. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Meta refresh redirect Checks whether a page redirects via meta refresh or a Refresh header. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Redirect chain Checks whether a URL redirects through several intermediate steps. | medium to high | yes | yes |
| Redirect loop Checks whether a URL is stuck in a redirect loop. | critical | yes | yes |
| Temporary redirect Checks whether a page redirects with 302, 303 or 307. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Outdated redirect status code Checks whether redirects use outdated codes such as 300 or 305. | low to high | yes | – |
| Redirect to an error page Checks whether the final target of a redirect responds with 4xx or 5xx. | medium to high | – | – |
As of 17 October 2026
Structure & linking
25 checks on linking, URLs and sitemaps
How pages are connected, what their URLs look like and whether the sitemaps match the website. Many of these checks need the full crawl.
Internal linking · 9
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| High click depth Checks whether an indexable page is more than 5 clicks away from the homepage. | – | – | – |
| Internal link to an error page Checks whether internal links point to URLs that respond with 4xx or 5xx. | medium to critical | yes | – |
| Non-descriptive anchor texts Checks whether at least 80 percent of the internal links to a page use generic anchor texts such as “here” or “more”. | low to high | yes | – |
| Only one internal link Checks whether a page receives just one internal link. | low to high | – | – |
| Linked only from nofollow pages Checks whether an indexable page is linked internally only from pages with nofollow (meta tag or X-Robots-Tag). | low to high | – | – |
| Dead-end pages Checks whether an indexable page links to no other internal page. | low to high | yes | – |
| Very many links (over 3,000) Checks whether a page links to more than 3,000 targets. | low to high | yes | – |
| Orphan page Checks whether an indexable page receives no internal link at all and is only known from the sitemap or other sources. | low to high | – | – |
| Few internal links (fewer than 3) Checks whether an indexable page receives fewer than three internal links. | low to high | – | yes |
URLs & parameters · 11
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double slashes in the URL path Checks whether a URL path contains consecutive slashes (//). | low to medium | yes | – |
| Upper-case letters in the URL Checks whether URLs contain upper-case letters. | low to high | yes | – |
| Internal links to parameter URLs Checks whether internal links point to URLs with parameters. | low to high | yes | – |
| Spaces in the URL Checks whether URLs contain spaces. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Non-ASCII characters in the URL Checks whether the URL contains umlauts, accents or non-Latin characters. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Special characters in the URL Checks whether URLs contain characters such as %, & or @. | low to high | yes | – |
| URL longer than 2,000 characters Checks whether a URL has more than 2,000 characters. | low to high | yes | – |
| URL too long Checks whether a URL is longer than 100 characters. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Underscores in the URL Checks whether URLs use underscores instead of hyphens as word separators. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Repeated path segments in the URL Checks whether path segments repeat directly (e.g. /category/category/). | low to high | yes | – |
| www and non-www both reachable Checks whether the www and the non-www version both respond with 2xx. | medium to high | yes | – |
XML sitemaps · 5
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indexable page missing from the XML sitemap Checks whether an indexable HTML page is not listed in any known XML sitemap. Requires XML sitemaps in the crawl. | low to high | yes | – |
| Non-indexable page in the sitemap Checks whether the sitemap contains pages with noindex, an error status or a redirect. Requires XML sitemaps in the crawl. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Page only in the sitemap, without internal links Checks whether a page is listed in the sitemap but not linked internally. Requires XML sitemaps in the crawl. | low to high | – | – |
| Sitemap contains redirects Checks whether the sitemap contains URLs that redirect. Requires XML sitemaps in the crawl. | low to high | yes | – |
| Sitemap contains non-canonical URLs Checks whether the sitemap contains URLs whose canonical points to another URL. Requires XML sitemaps in the crawl. | medium to high | yes | – |
As of 17 October 2026
JavaScript & technology
27 checks on rendering, performance and security
What is different after rendering compared with the source code, how heavy a page is and whether certificates and headers are right.
JavaScript rendering · 7
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canonical changed by JavaScript Compares the canonical in the HTML source with the rendered DOM. Requires JavaScript rendering. | medium to critical | – | yes |
| JavaScript removes content Checks whether a large part of the text in the HTML source is missing after rendering. Requires JavaScript rendering. | medium to high | – | yes |
| JavaScript removes internal links Checks whether, after rendering, at least five and at least half of the internal links from the source are missing. Requires JavaScript rendering. | low to high | – | yes |
| JavaScript errors in the console Checks whether the page's own scripts trigger errors in the browser console. In Page Watch only in the log, without email. | low to high | – | yes |
| Meta description changed by JavaScript Compares the meta description in the HTML source with the rendered DOM. Requires JavaScript rendering. | low to medium | – | – |
| Robots meta tag changed by JavaScript Compares noindex/nofollow in the HTML source with the rendered DOM. Requires JavaScript rendering. | high to critical | – | yes |
| Title changed by JavaScript Compares the title in the HTML source with the rendered DOM. Requires JavaScript rendering. In Page Watch only in the log, without email. | low to high | – | yes |
Performance & page weight · 6
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broken internal CSS file Checks whether embedded internal stylesheets respond with 4xx or 5xx. | – | yes | yes |
| Broken internal JavaScript file Checks whether embedded internal JavaScript files respond with 4xx or 5xx. | medium to critical | – | yes |
| Document without compression Checks whether HTML, CSS or JavaScript is delivered without gzip, Brotli, deflate or zstd. | low to high | yes | – |
| Large HTML file (over 2 MB) Checks whether the HTML document is larger than 2 MB. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Large JavaScript/CSS file (over 2 MB) Checks whether an embedded JavaScript or CSS file is larger than 2 MB uncompressed. | low to high | yes | – |
| JavaScript/CSS/SVG without compression Checks whether your own JavaScript, CSS or SVG files over 10 KB are delivered without compression. | low to high | yes | – |
HTTPS & security · 8
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| HSTS header missing Checks whether HTML pages send the Strict-Transport-Security header. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Mixed content on an HTTPS page Checks whether an HTTPS page loads images, scripts or stylesheets over HTTP. | medium to high | yes | yes |
| SSL certificate expired Checks whether the certificate of the HTTPS page had expired at the time of the crawl. | high to critical | yes | yes |
| SSL certificate expires soon Checks whether the certificate expires within the next 14 days. The early warning comes with the crawl. Page Watch only detects certificate errors. | medium to high | yes | – |
| SSL certificate does not match the hostname Checks whether the page's hostname is covered by the certificate. | high to critical | yes | yes |
| Page reachable via HTTP Checks whether a page is delivered over unencrypted HTTP with status 2xx. | medium to critical | yes | yes |
| Security headers missing Checks important security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy. | low to high | yes | – |
| Outdated TLS protocol Checks whether the page is still delivered over TLS 1.0/1.1 or SSL 3. | high to critical | yes | yes |
Mobile · 3
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invalid viewport setting Checks whether the viewport meta tag contains a responsive configuration (width=device-width or initial-scale). | medium to high | yes | – |
| Viewport meta tag missing Checks whether the viewport meta tag is present. | medium to high | yes | yes |
| Zoom blocked on mobile devices Checks whether the viewport prevents zooming (user-scalable=no or a restrictive maximum-scale). | medium to high | yes | – |
Technical basics · 3
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash content embedded Checks whether a page still embeds Flash content (swf, object, embed). | low to high | yes | – |
| Outdated Last-Modified header Checks whether the Last-Modified header of an indexable page is older than six months. | low to high | yes | – |
| Character set not specified Checks whether neither the HTTP header nor the HTML head specifies a character set (charset). | low to medium | yes | – |
As of 17 October 2026
Content & markup
30 checks on titles, headings and content
This is about what appears in the search results and on the page. That includes title, meta description, headings, text, images and structured data.
Title · 5
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicate titles Checks whether several pages use the same title. | low to high | – | – |
| Multiple titles Checks whether a page contains more than one title element. | low to medium | yes | yes |
| Title missing Checks whether an indexable page has no title. | medium to critical | yes | yes |
| Title too short Checks whether the title is shorter than 30 characters. | low to high | yes | – |
| Title too long Checks whether the title is longer than 60 characters. | low to medium | yes | – |
Meta descriptions · 4
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicate meta descriptions Checks whether several pages use the same meta description. | low to high | – | – |
| Meta description missing Checks whether an indexable page has no meta description. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Meta description too short Checks whether the meta description is shorter than 70 characters. | low to high | yes | – |
| Meta description too long Checks whether the meta description is longer than 160 characters. | low to medium | yes | – |
Headings · 6
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicate H1 Checks whether several indexable pages use the same H1. | low to high | – | – |
| H1 missing Checks whether a page has no H1. | low to high | yes | yes |
| H1 too long Checks whether the H1 is longer than 70 characters. | info to medium | yes | – |
| H2 missing Checks whether a page with an H1 has no H2 at all. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Empty H1 Checks whether an H1 tag is present but empty. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Multiple H1 Checks whether a page contains more than one H1. | low to medium | yes | – |
Content quality · 3
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicate content Checks whether a page's main content (without navigation, header and footer) matches another indexable page. | medium to high | – | – |
| Very long text Checks whether the text of a page is unusually long. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Little text (thin content) Checks whether a page has fewer than 200 words of text. | low to high | yes | yes |
Images · 4
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Images without alt attribute Checks whether img elements on an indexable page have no alt attribute. | low to medium | – | – |
| Broken internal images Checks whether embedded internal images respond with 404 or 410. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Large image file (over 500 KB) Checks whether one of the page's own images is larger than 500 KB. | low to high | yes | – |
| Large image in an old format Checks whether images over 100 KB are still delivered as JPEG, PNG or GIF instead of WebP/AVIF. | low to high | yes | – |
Structured data · 3
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rich result warnings Uses Search Console to check whether rich result items are valid but missing recommended fields. Requires Search Console. | low | – | – |
| Structured data missing Checks whether a page contains structured data based on Schema.org. | low to high | yes | yes |
| Invalid structured data Uses Search Console to check whether rich result items have an error. Requires Search Console. | low to high | yes | yes |
Open Graph & social · 5
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| og:description missing Checks whether an indexable page has an Open Graph description. | low to medium | yes | – |
| og:description too long Checks whether the Open Graph description is longer than 200 characters. | low | yes | – |
| og:image missing Checks whether an indexable page has an Open Graph image. | low to medium | yes | – |
| og:title missing Checks whether an indexable page has an Open Graph title. | low to medium | yes | – |
| og:title too long Checks whether the Open Graph title is longer than 60 characters. | low | yes | – |
As of 17 October 2026
International & backlinks
11 checks on hreflang, language and backlinks
For websites with several languages or countries. There is also a check for error pages that external websites link to.
Hreflang & language · 10
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Declared language does not match the content Checks whether the language in the html lang attribute matches the text language actually detected. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Hreflang without return link Checks whether the linked language version points back to the original page via hreflang. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Hreflang without self-reference Checks whether a page's hreflang annotations include the page itself. | low to medium | yes | yes |
| Hreflang without x-default Checks whether an hreflang set has an x-default entry. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Hreflang points to a faulty URL Checks whether an hreflang target responds with an error, a redirect or a block. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Hreflang points to a canonicalised URL Checks whether an hreflang target points to another URL via canonical. | low to medium | yes | – |
| Hreflang points to a noindex page Checks whether an hreflang target carries a noindex. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Invalid country code in hreflang Checks whether the region in the hreflang is a valid ISO 3166 country code. | medium to high | yes | – |
| Invalid language code in hreflang Checks whether the language in the hreflang is a valid ISO 639-1 code. | medium to high | yes | – |
| html lang attribute missing Checks whether an indexable page has a lang attribute in the html element. | low to high | yes | yes |
Backlinks · 1
| Check | Severity | Alert email | Page Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Error page with backlinks Checks whether a URL responds with 4xx/5xx even though external websites link to it. Requires backlink data. | high to critical | yes | – |
As of 17 October 2026
Separate monitors
searchVIU checks the robots.txt and sitemaps at their own pace.
searchVIU checks these two files separately from the crawl. That is why their alerts are listed in the Alert list.
robots.txt Monitoring
Every 15 minutes. Every change comes with a diff and severity.
More on robots.txt MonitoringXML Sitemap Monitoring
Every day, with separate alerts for your sitemaps.
More on XML Sitemap MonitoringStatus and upkeep
Only active checks are counted, always with a date.
The list comes from the platform's check catalog. We switch off checks that do not measure anything reliable. They then disappear from the list and no longer count.
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