Understanding issues
An issue is a problem Page Canary found on your site. Each one says what's wrong, which page(s) it's on, and how to fix it.
Critical flow
Every week, Page Canary walks your site's critical flow (booking, contact form, checkout or signup) the way a customer would and records it. Each walk ends in one of three results:
- Works: it reached the end of the flow, such as the booking calendar or the checkout page.
- Broken: something stopped a customer, with evidence such as an error on the page, a request that failed, or a contact email that can't receive mail. A broken flow becomes an issue like any other.
- Can't test: the walk couldn't find its way, which isn't counted as a problem with your site.
It never books, buys, creates an account or types payment details. Contact forms are only sent when you press Send a test message on your site page; Page Canary then asks whether the message arrived. If it didn't, you get an issue saying messages from your contact form aren't arriving.
Page checks
Every day, Page Canary checks up to 15 key pages of each site, on desktop and on a phone-sized screen.
| Issue | What it means |
|---|---|
| Critical flow broken | The weekly walk of your booking, contact form, checkout or signup was stopped by an error. |
| Broken page | A page that fails to load or returns an error. |
| Broken link | An internal link that leads to a missing or broken page. Links are re-checked in a real browser before they're reported. |
| JavaScript error | An error from your site's own code, which often breaks buttons, forms or menus. |
| Broken image | An image that fails to load. |
| Mobile problem | The menu button doesn't open, or the page is wider than the phone screen. |
| Error message on the page | Visible database, PHP or hosting errors, "not found" pages, leftover placeholder text, or broken map embeds. |
| SSL or domain | An SSL certificate problem, or a certificate or domain that's about to expire. |
| Search visibility | The site tells Google not to index it (noindex or robots.txt). |
| Address | The www or non-www version of your address doesn't work. |
| The contact email address on your site can't receive mail. |
When you're alerted
A problem has to show up on two separate checks before we email you, so one-off blips don't trigger alerts. Serious problems, like the site being down, are re-checked within minutes instead of waiting for the next day.
Each alert explains what's wrong and how to fix it. Once an issue is gone for two checks in a row, it's marked resolved and you get a note.
Resolving and ignoring issues
From your dashboard you can also resolve an issue once you've fixed it, or ignore one that isn't a real problem for you. Ignored issues don't count toward your site's grade.