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Your First Scan

Once your site is verified, you're ready to run your first scan. This guide explains what happens during a scan and how to interpret the results.

Starting a Scan​

  1. Go to your Dashboard
  2. Click on the verified site you want to scan
  3. Click Start Scan

The scan begins immediately. You'll see real-time progress as Auditoro works through your pages.

What Happens During a Scan​

1. Sitemap Discovery​

Auditoro first looks for your sitemap to identify pages:

  • Checks /sitemap.xml and common locations
  • Parses sitemap index files if present
  • Falls back to crawling from the homepage if no sitemap exists

2. Page Crawling​

For each discovered page, Auditoro:

  • Fetches the HTML content
  • Respects robots.txt directives
  • Extracts links to discover additional pages
  • Captures page metadata (title, description, headings)

3. Quality Checks​

Auditoro runs 20+ checks on each page across categories:

  • SEO - Titles, meta descriptions, headings, structured data
  • Performance - Compression, caching
  • Security - HTTPS, security headers, mixed content
  • Accessibility - Alt text, lang attributes
  • Content - Broken links, spelling errors, redirects, JS errors

4. Score Calculation​

After all checks complete, Auditoro calculates your health score using:

  • Issue severity (Critical, Caution, Advisory)
  • Issue category weights
  • Diminishing returns for repeated issue types

Understanding Results​

Health Score​

Your health score ranges from 0 to 100:

Score RangeStatusMeaning
80-100HealthySite is in good shape with minor or no issues
50-79Needs AttentionMultiple issues that should be addressed
0-49CriticalSignificant problems affecting the site

The score uses logarithmic diminishing returns, meaning:

  • The first few issues have the biggest impact
  • Many instances of the same issue type don't tank your score excessively
  • Diverse issue types indicate broader problems than repeated single issues

Issue Severities​

Each issue has a severity level:

Critical - Problems that significantly harm SEO, user experience, or security

  • Missing page titles
  • Broken internal links
  • HTTPS errors
  • JavaScript console errors

Caution - Issues that should be fixed but aren't emergencies

  • Duplicate meta descriptions
  • Missing alt text on images
  • Suboptimal heading structure

Advisory - Recommendations for improvement

  • Missing cache headers
  • Missing compression
  • Minor SEO optimizations

Issue Categories​

Issues are grouped into categories to help prioritize fixes:

CategoryImpactExamples
CrawlabilityVery HighMissing titles, HTTPS errors, robots.txt issues
Content QualityHighDuplicate titles, missing meta descriptions
User ExperienceHighBroken links, broken images, JS errors
SEO Best PracticesMediumHeading structure, canonical issues, structured data
PerformanceMediumCompression and caching issues
SecurityMediumMixed content, missing security headers
Technical HealthMediumRedirect chains
AccessibilityMediumMissing alt text, missing lang attribute
Modern StandardsLowMissing compression, cache headers, favicon

Reviewing Issues​

Click on any issue type to see:

  • Affected pages - List of URLs where the issue occurs
  • Issue details - Specific information about what's wrong
  • How to fix - Guidance on resolving the problem

Issue Statuses​

Each issue can have one of these statuses:

  • Open - Active issue that needs attention
  • Ignored - Marked as intentionally ignored (doesn't affect score)
  • False Positive - Incorrectly detected (doesn't affect score)
  • Resolved - Fixed and no longer detected in subsequent scans

After Your First Scan​

Now that you have baseline results:

  1. Review critical issues first - Focus on issues with the highest impact
  2. Fix and rescan - After making changes, run another scan to verify
  3. Set up scheduled scans - Automate regular monitoring
  4. Track trends - Watch your health score improve over time

Next Steps​