The following audits check for errors or lack of recommended features in article’s HTML that may impact their indexing and ranking in seqrch engine pages.
canonical rel link does not match url
code: canonicalMetaMatchesURL
A canonical URL is the URL of the page that Google thinks is most representative from a set of duplicate pages on your site. By using this tag you inform Google that the page the user is on is not the original page and that there is another page that represents the original content of the page. The canonical URL may be different, but sometimes it is important to double-check that it is correctly implemented.
canonical rel link not found
code: canonicalMetaHasURL
A canonical tag specifies search engines like Google that the specified URL represents the original copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or duplicate content appearing on multiple URLs.
The general recommendation is that any URL containing original content should have a canonical tag pointing to itself.
http-equiv="Content-Type" tag is not "text/html; charset=utf-8"
code: httpEquivEncodingIsValid
This HTML tag defines the page’s content type and character set and is used by some search engines like Google to understand the encoding of the page. Make sure that you surround the value of the content attribute with quotes - otherwise the charset attribute may be interpreted incorrectly.
We recommend using Unicode/UTF-8 where possible.
<description> not found
code: description_exists
<title> has more than 60 characters
code: title_elementContentLength
The HTML <title> tag is one of the most important factors that search engines such as Google take into consideration when ranking content in their search results.
As a general rule, it is advisable not to use too long or too short titles.
The system has detected that some of your titles are longer than 60 characters. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is advisable to keep your titles shorter.
<title> not found
code: title_exists
<title> tag does not exist or is empty
code: title_elementExistsAndHasContent
The HTML <title> tag is one of the most important factors that search engines such as Google take into consideration when ranking content in their search results.
The system has detected that some of your pages do not have this tag. Please make sure to include it on all your pages, especially those that have editorial value or are strategically targeted for search engine optimisation campaigns.
Affiliate or paid link without proper markup
code: affiliate_link_no_rel
The page contains one or more links that look like affiliation or paid links and don’t have a rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored attribute in place.
Links to known affiliation platforms, with UTMs or with a param that contain aff are included in this alert.
<charset> tag is not "text/html; charset=utf-8"
code: charsetEncodingIsValid
This HTML <charset> tag defines the pages content type and character set. Its used by some search engines like Google to better understand the encoding of the page. Make sure that you surround the value of the content attribute with quotes - otherwise the charset attribute may be interpreted incorrectly.
We recommend using Unicode/UTF-8 where possible.
Different HTTP protocols found in page links
code: protocol_inconsistencies
Links with both HTTP and HTTPS protocols pointing to page’s domain have been found in its HTML. This suggests domain runs on HTTPS but still has links with HTTP protocol. This can confuse search engines and even consider site as insecure.
Followed external link
code: external_link_no_rel
The page contains one or more followed external links. That`s not a problem itself, but double-check that those links are not paid, affiliation, or part of a link exchange or linking schema.
Found HTTP canonical link
code: http_canonical
Canonical link is used by search engines to index content in an optimal way. On sites running on HTTPS protocol, declaring canonical as HTTP may confuse search engines and negatively impact indexing and ranking.
Invalid elements in head
code: head_contains_valid_elements_only
Google stops reading the head of pages when an unexpected tag is found inside it. Only valid tags should exist inside the head element.
meta name=description tag does not exist or is empty.
code: description_metaHasContent
Under some circumstances Google and other search engines use the <meta name="description"> tag to generate search results snippets, mainly if they think it gives users a more accurate description than with on-page content. A meta description tag should generally inform users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about.
The system has noticed that some of your pages do not have this tag and it is recommended that you specify it.
<meta name="googlebot"> tag contains a wrong directive
code: googlebot_metaHasAllowedDirective
The <meta name="googlebot"> tag is used to give behavioural guidelines to search engines like Google, on how their index should behave.
The system has detected that there are some properties of this tag that could be causing search engines not to index the content of the specified URLs. It is not necessarily an issues, but we recommend that you double-check that everything is OK.
meta name=robots tag contains a wrong directive
code: robots_metaHasAllowedDirective
The <meta name="robots"> tag is used to give behavioural guidelines to search engines like Google, on how their index should behave.
The system has detected that there are some properties of this tag that could be causing search engines not to index the content of the specified URLs. It is not necessarily an issues, but we recommend that you double-check that everything is OK.
Missing <link> tag with rel="alternate" element for mobile version
code: linkRelAlternativeHasMobileUrl
An alternate version for mobile was found, but it is not declared in desktop version using a tag with rel="alternate" element.
Missing language attribute
code: lang_exists
For content metrics to be extracted properly, the language of the text must be informed in a lang attribute in the html tag.
Multiple rel="amphtml" links found
code: amphtml_isUnique
The <link rel="amphtml"> tag specifies the URL of the AMP version of a page. It is important that this tag is unique in a page and that only one amphtml link is specified.
The system has found that there are multiple <link rel="amphtml"> tags within some of your URLs.
Multiple rel="canonical" links found
code: canonical_isUnique
A canonical tag is a way of telling search engines like Google that a specific URL represents the original copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or duplicate content appearing on multiple URLs.
The system has found that there are multiple <link rel="canonical"> tags within some of your URLs.
No charset or http-equiv tag found
code: encodingTagExists
Although not required, this tag provides additional information about the encoding of an article.
The system has not detected it and it’s recommended to specify it.
No image in image with width 1200px or higher found
code: image_contains_big_image
Google recommends that the detailed image within the Article structured data type contains an image that is at least 1200px wide. By doing this, you will increase the CTR of users who are impacted by your articles within Google Discover by 3%.
The system has detected articles where this criteria is not met.
Restricted referrer
code: referrer_isNotRestricted
If you’re encountering this situation, it means that to accurately track a user’s navigation, the front-end code requires access to the previously visited page, which is currently restricted due to the presence of <meta name="referrer" content="origin"/> in the URLs.
This meta tag forces the browser to consistently report the home page as the referrer. To address this, it’s advisable to modify the referrer policy from “origin” to “strict-origin-when-cross-origin” in the meta tag. This change ensures that the correct previous page information is transmitted, allowing for a complete tracking of user navigation.