Site Quality Monitoring — Monitoring
Last modified: April 30, 2024
Overview
The Site Quality Monitoring interface (cPanel » Home » Metrics » Site Quality Monitoring) contains tabs that allow you to configure how the feature watches your websites for common issues. The Monitoring tab allows you to configure how the Site Quality Monitoring feature sets the threshold for monitoring check failure, as well as how many failures the check tolerates before internally reporting an error.
The Monitoring tab contains the following tabs:
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Availability | Scores in this category rate a user’s ability to reliably access your monitored website’s content. |
| Performance | Scores in this category rate your monitored website’s ability to display its content for users. |
| SEO | Scores in this category rate how well your website is configured for search engines. |
| Content | Scores in this category rate how well your monitored website’s content enables its performance. |
| Technical | Scores in this category rate how well your monitored website’s JavaScript functions. |
| Security | Scores in this category rate how secure your monitored website is. |
This tab does not allow you to configure your alert email frequency. To set how often you receive emails about errors, read our Site Quality Monitoring — Settings documentation.
The Site Quality Monitoring feature automatically performs all monitoring checks in this tab when the countdown bar reaches 0 days 0 hr. until next check.
Availability
Availability refers to the user’s ability to reliably access your website’s content. A website with good availability responds to users’ requests quickly and delivers resources that a web browser can load efficiently.
The Availability tab contains the Availability summary and Uptime tabs. In the left navigation bar, the Availability tab also displays the current performance score for your website. This score is a color indicator.
Availability summary
The Availability summary tab contains availability scores for your website. Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This tab includes the following scores with health bar color indicators:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Uptime | This score summarizes your website’s uptime. |
| Current Availability | This score summarizes your website’s availability at the time of the last availability check. |
| Past Availability | This score summarizes your website’s availability in the past 24 hours. |
URLs with errors in this category will be displayed in a Pages with hints list. To see more about these errors, navigate to specific check categories in this tab or hover the page title to see a hint about the error.
Uptime
The Uptime tab indicates whether your monitored website can deliver data to your users. For example, when users request to see your homepage, your website servers should deliver your homepage’s data to the browser. This data includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
This tab lists each URL that receives uptime checks with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A summary of the URL’s current and average uptime percentage with a color indicator
Note:
- The
currentpercentage uses uptime check results from the last hour. - The
averagepercentage uses uptime check results from the last 30 days.
- The
- A line graph that plots uptime percentages against the ideal success threshold.
Note:
The ideal success threshold for uptime checks is
99%. This means that your URLs should return data 99 out of 100 times to ensure that your website’s users can reliably access it. You cannot adjust this threshold.
Click More information about uptime to open a section that contains information about uptime.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers errors that result from these monitoring checks. The Uptime settings tab will open.
Uptime settings
The Uptime settings tab allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports uptime errors.
Site Quality Monitoring uptime checks send an HTTP request to your project’s root domain or monitored URL, then wait for a response. The response’s status codes determine whether the check succeeds as follows:
- An HTTP response lower than
400— The uptime check succeeds. - An HTTP response greater than or equal to
400— The uptime check fails.
To adjust when how many failures uptime checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time an uptime check returns a failure. |
| Moderate | Report an error when uptime checks return a failure twice in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when uptime checks return a failure three times in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Uptime section. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes and return to the Uptime section.
Performance
Performance describes how long it takes for a user to receive all of a monitored URL’s content in a web browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.
The Performance tab contains the Performance summary, Browser load time, Server load time, Page size, and Lighthouse performance rating tabs. In the left navigation bar, the Performance tab also displays the current performance score for your website. This score is a color indicator.
Performance summary
The Performance summary tab contains performance scores for your website. Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This section includes the following scores:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Performance | This score summarizes your website’s performance capability. |
| Server speed | This score summarizes your website’s server speed. |
| Browser speed | This score summarizes your website’s browser load time. |
| Page size | This score summarizes your website’s page size efficiency. |
| Large elements | This score summarizes your website’s oversize element checks. |
| Google performance rating | This score summarizes your website’s Lighthouse performance checks. |
URLs with errors in this category will be displayed in a Pages with hints list. To see more about these errors, navigate to specific check categories in this tab or hover the page name to see a hint about the error.
Browser load time
Browser load time is the time it takes a web browser to load and display the content of a URL. For example, when a user visits your website’s homepage, the browser load time is how quickly their browser can load your homepage’s CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. Faster browser load times mean that your users can view the resources your website delivers to them quickly.
This tab lists each URL that receives browser load time checks with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A summary of the URL’s browser load time in seconds with a color indicator
- A line graph that plots browser load times against the error threshold.
Click More information about browser loading times to open a section that contains information about browser load times.
Click Settings to adjust your URLs’ maximum time to load in a browser. The Browser load time settings menu will open.
Browser load time settings
The Browser load time settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports browser load time errors.
To set the maximum time that browser load time checks allow your URLs to load their content before registering a failure, select one of the following options for the Threshold setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Time to load faster than 1 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than one second to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 2 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than two seconds to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 3 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than three seconds to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 5 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than five seconds to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 10 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 10 seconds to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 20 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 20 seconds to load in a browser. |
| Time to load faster than 30 seconds | Future browser load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 30 seconds to load in a browser. |
This setting defaults to 15 seconds.
To set how many failures the browser load time checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time a URL fails to load and display its content in the maximum allowed time. |
| Moderate | Report an error when a URL fails to load and display its content in the maximum allowed time two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when a URL fails to load and display its content in the maximum allowed time three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to Moderate.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Browser load time section. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes and return to the Browser load time section.
Server load time
Server load time is the time it takes a server to send resources to a web browser when a user accesses your URL. For example, when a user clicks your website’s homepage, the server load time is how long it takes your server to send the first byte of your homepage’s HTML, JavaScript, or CSS files to the user’s web browser. Faster server load times mean that your users’ browsers can start to load content quickly.
This tab lists each URL that receives server load time checks with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A summary of the URL’s server load time in milliseconds with a color indicator
- A line graph plotting server load times against the error threshold.
Click More information about server load times to open a section that contains information about server load times.
Click Settings to adjust the error thresholds for your URLs’ maximum time to send content to a browser. The Server load time settings menu will open.
Server load time settings
The Server load time settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports server load time errors.
To set the maximum time that server load time checks allow your URLs to deliver their content to a browser before registering a failure, select one of the following options for the Threshold setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Server time is faster than 100 ms | Future server load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 0.1 second to send their first byte to the browser. |
| Time to load faster than 200 ms | Future server load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 0.2 second to send their first byte to the browser. |
| Time to load faster than 500 ms | Future server load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than half a second to send their first byte to the browser. |
| Time to load faster than 1 second | Future server load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 1 second to send their first byte to the browser. |
| Time to load faster than 2 seconds | Future server load time checks will register a failure if any of your URLs take longer than 2 seconds to send their first byte to the browser. |
This setting defaults to 1 second.
To adjust how many failures the server load time checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time a URL fails to deliver its content to a browser in the maximum allowed time. |
| Moderate | Report an error when a URL fails to deliver its content to a browser in the maximum allowed time two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when a URL fails to deliver its content to a browser in the maximum allowed time three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to Moderate.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Server load time tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Page size
Page size is the size of the files that make up a URL’s content. These can be CSS, HTML, or JavaScript files, among others. Oversize files can cause delays in your website’s browser and server load times, which makes the website more difficult to use.
This tab lists each URL that receives size checks. Each URL will display the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A summary of the URL’s page size in megabytes (MB) at the time of its most recent monitoring check with a color indicator bar
- A line graph that plots page sizes against the error threshold.
Click More information about page size to open a section that contains information about page sizes.
Click Settings to adjust the error thresholds for your URLs’ maximum page size. The Page size settings menu will open.
Page size settings
The Page size settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports size errors for both your monitored URL as a page and its individual elements.
To set the maximum size of all your URL’s individual elements added together, select one of the following options for the Threshold setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| At most 1 MB | Future page size checks will register a failure if a URL contains individual elements whose sizes add up to more than 1 megabyte. |
| At most 2 MB | Future page size checks will register a failure if a URL contains individual elements whose sizes add up to more than 2 megabytes. |
| At most 3 MB | Future page size checks will register a failure if a URL contains individual elements whose sizes add up to more than 3 megabytes. |
| At most 5 MB | Future page size checks will register a failure if a URL contains individual elements whose sizes add up to more than 5 megabytes. |
| At most 10 MB | Future page size checks will register a failure if a URL contains individual elements whose sizes add up to more than ten megabytes. |
If you have not selected a page size threshold, it defaults to 5 MB.
To adjust how many failures the page size checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Page size) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time a URL’s elements fail to stay below the maximum page size. |
| Moderate | Report an error when a URL’s elements fail to stay below the maximum page size two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when a URL’s elements fail to stay below the maximum page size three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To adjust how many failures the element size checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Large elements) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time an element is bigger than 1 megabyte. |
| Moderate | Report an error when we detect an element bigger than 1 megabyte two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when we detect an element bigger than 1 megabyte during three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Page size tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Lighthouse performance rating
The Lighthouse performance rating tab provides a Lighthouse performance rating for your website. Lighthouse is an open-source Chrome development tool.
This tab lists each Lighthouse performance check with the following information:
- A screenshot
- A summary of the its most recent check result with a color indicator bar.
The Potential list displays Lighthouse checks that your website did not pass, while the Fulfilled list displays Lighthouse checks that your website passed.
Click details in any check listing to open that section of the Lighthouse check report.
Click More information about Lighthouse performance metrics to open a section that contains information about Lighthouse performance scores.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers errors related to low Lighthouse performance scores. The Lighthouse performance settings menu will open.
Lighthouse performance settings
The Lighthouse performance settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports errors for your website’s Lighthouse performance score.
To adjust how many failures the Lighthouse performance checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time your website fails to meet the minimum Lighthouse performance score. |
| Moderate | Report an error when your website fails to meet the minimum Lighthouse performance score two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when your website fails to meet the minimum Lighthouse performance score three times in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To set the minimum Lighthouse performance score your website must achieve to avoid a failure, select one of the following options for the Threshold setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Lighthouse Score 0 (switch check off) | Future Lighthouse performance checks will not register failures. |
| Lighthouse Score 25 | Future Lighthouse performance checks will register a failure if the Lighthouse performance score falls below 25. |
| Lighthouse Score 50 | Future Lighthouse performance checks will register a failure if the Lighthouse performance score falls below 50. |
| Lighthouse Score 75 | Future Lighthouse performance checks will register a failure if the Lighthouse performance score falls below 75. |
| Lighthouse Score 100 | Future Lighthouse performance checks will register a failure if the Lighthouse performance score falls below 100. |
This value defaults to Lighthouse Score 75.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Lighthouse performance tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to how efficiently search engines can index your monitored website. A higher SEO rank means that search engines like Google can easily understand your website’s content and judge when to show it in search results.
The SEO tab contains the SEO summary, Lighthouse SEO rating, and Sitemap and mobile optimization tabs. In the left navigation bar, the SEO tab also displays the current SEO score for your monitored website. This score is a color indicator.
SEO summary
The SEO summary tab contains SEO scores for your website. Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This tab includes the following scores:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Search engine optimization | This score summarizes your website’s SEO rank. |
| Google SEO rating | This score summarizes the Lighthouse SEO rating of your website. |
| Accuracy of the sitemap | This score rates how well your website’s sitemap matches your content’s structure. |
| Mobile friendliness | This score rates how well your website’s content is configured to fit on a phone screen. |
URLs with errors in this category will be displayed in a Pages with hints list. To see more about these errors, navigate to specific check categories in this tab or hover the page title to see a hint about the error.
Lighthouse SEO rating
The Lighthouse SEO rating tab provides a Lighthouse SEO rating for your website. Lighthouse is an open-source Chrome development tool.
This tab lists each Lighthouse SEO check with the following information:
- A screenshot
- A summary of its most recent result with a color indicator bar.
The Potential list displays Lighthouse checks that your website did not pass, while the Fulfilled list displays Lighthouse checks that your website passed.
Click details in any check listing to open that section of the Lighthouse check report.
Click More information about Lighthouse SEO metrics to open a section that contains information about Lighthouse SEO scores.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports errors related to low Lighthouse SEO scores. The Lighthouse SEO settings menu will open.
Lighthouse SEO settings
The Lighthouse SEO settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports Lighthouse SEO errors.
To adjust how many failures the Lighthouse SEO checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time your website’s Lighthouse SEO score falls below 75. |
| Moderate | Report an error when your website’s Lighthouse performance score falls below 75 twice in a row. |
| Low | Report an error every time your website’s Lighthouse performance score falls below 75 three times in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Lighthouse SEO rating tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Sitemap and mobile optimization
Your website’s sitemap.xml file allows search engines like Google to identify your website’s structure. Accurate sitemaps help search engines deliver the correct results to a user. For example, if a user searches your website’s contact information, a search engine should return the URL for your Contact Us page.
Mobile optimization refers to how well your website’s content is configured for phone screen display. A website that is mobile-friendly can be easily accessed on a phone.
This tab lists each URL that receives mobile optimization or sitemap checks with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A summary of the check result with a color indicator bar.
Click More information about sitemap and mobile optimization to open a section that contains information about sitemap configuration and mobile optimization.
To run a mobile optimization check on a specific URL manually, click the To the mobile test link in that URL’s Mobile optimization list entry. The mobile optimization test will open in a new tab.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers errors related to your website’s sitemap configuration and mobile optimization. The Sitemap and mobile optimization settings menu will open.
Sitemap and mobile optimization settings
The Sitemap and mobile optimization settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports errors related to sitemap configuration and mobile optimization.
To adjust how many failures the sitemap configuration checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Sitemap) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Register a failure every time your website’s sitemap fails a configuration check. |
| Moderate | Register a failure when your website’s sitemap fails a configuration check twice in a row. |
| Low | Register a failure when your website’s sitemap fails a configuration check three times in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To adjust how many failures the mobile optimization checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Mobile optimization) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time your website’s mobile configuration fails an optimization check. |
| Moderate | Report an error when your website’s mobile configuration fails an optimization check twice in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when your website’s mobile configuration fails an optimization check three times in a row. |
This setting defaults to Moderate.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Sitemap and mobile optimization settings tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Content
Your website’s content is everything that a user receives when they access your monitored website. This includes image files, text files, links, and more.
The Content tab contains the Content summary and Dead links and broken elements tabs. In the left navigation bar, the Content tab also displays the current content score for your website. This score is a color indicator.
Content summary
The Content summary tab contains content scores for your website. Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This tab includes the following scores:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Content | This score summarizes the results of all monitoring checks that verify that your website successfully delivers all its content to your users. |
| Dead links | This score rates how many links on your URLs return results when clicked. Links that do not return results are called dead links. |
| Broken resources | This score rates how many of your URLs contain broken image, script, or CSS files. |
Dead links and broken elements
Dead links are links that do not return information to a user when clicked. For example, a link to a website that has been removed from the Internet is dead, because a user that clicks that link will see an error message instead of the intended page. Broken elements are elements that the browser cannot render for a user. For example, if you attempt to display an image file that you have deleted, your users will see a broken element instead.
Internal links lead to other resources in your website, while external links lead elsewhere. Elements are the individual pieces of your website as designated by HTML tags. Broken elements are elements that cannot display their content.
This tab lists each URL that receives the check by its Name value. Each URL will display a Dead links and Broken elements health bar.
If there are dead links or broken elements in your URL, you will also see a List of faulty elements or List of dead links. You may click these to display a list of all that URL’s dead links or broken elements. The list will include if a dead link is internal or external.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports errors that result from these monitoring checks. The Dead links and broken elements settings menu will open.
Dead links and broken elements settings
The Dead links and broken elements settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports errors for dead internal and external links, as well as broken elements.
The dead link and broken element monitoring checks will register a failure each time they encounter a dead link or broken element.
To adjust how many failures the dead internal link checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Dead links) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time an internal link fails to return data. |
| Moderate | Report an error when an internal link fails to return data two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when an internal link fails to return data three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To adjust how many failures the broken elements checks allow in a row before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Broken elements) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time an element fails to render. |
| Moderate | Report an error when an element fails to render two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when an element fails to render three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To adjust how many failures the dead external link checks allow in a row before reporting a failure, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Dead links) menu, select one of the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time an external link fails to return data. |
| Moderate | Report an error when an external link fails to return data two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when an external link fails to return data three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Dead links and broken elements tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Technical
JavaScript is a popular language for creating interactive website functions. Many websites contain both internal JavaScript and external JavaScript. Internal JavaScript is JavaScript that you directly embed or host on your website’s server. External JavaScript comes from linked files hosted elsewhere. Often, external JavaScript files relate to third-party advertising integrations or user tracking.
The Technical tab contains the Technical summary and the Javascript errors tabs. In the left navigation bar, the Technical tab also displays the current technical score for your website. This score is a color indicator.
Technical summary
The Technical summary tab contains scores for your website’s JavaScript usability.
Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This tab includes the following scores:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Technology | This score summarizes the result of all monitoring checks that verify that your internal and external JavaScript files do not return errors. |
| Internal JavaScript errors | This score rates the health of your website’s internal JavaScript files. |
| External JavaScript errors | This score rates the health of your website’s external JavaScript files. |
JavaScript errors
The JavaScript errors tab provides monitoring check results for individual monitored URLs’ internal and external JavaScript files.
This tab lists each URL that receives JavaScript error checks. Each URL will display their Name and whether that URL contained internal or external JavaScript errors.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers internal and external JavaScript errors. The JavaScript error settings menu will open.
JavaScript error settings
The JavaScript error settings menu allows you to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature reports internal and external JavaScript errors.
Both internal and external JavaScript monitoring checks will register a failure when they encounter a JavaScript function that produces a runtime error.
To adjust how many times the internal JavaScript checks can register failures before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (Internal JavaScript errors) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time we detect an internal JavaScript runtime error. |
| Moderate | Report an error when we detect an internal JavaScript runtime error two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when we detect an internal JavaScript runtime error three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
To adjust how many times the external JavaScript checks can register failures before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity (External JavaScript errors) menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time we detect an external JavaScript runtime error. |
| Moderate | Report an error when we detect an external JavaScript runtime error two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when we detect an external JavaScript runtime error three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the JavaScript errors tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.
Security
The Security tab contains the Security summary, HTTPS certificates, Insecure elements, and Cookie analysis tabs. In the left navigation bar, the Security tab also displays the current security score for your website. This score is a color indicator.
Security summary
The Security summary tab contains scores for your website’s security. For good security scores, your website’s security certificates should be up-to-date, its cookies should be safely configured, and you should not be sending users unencrypted data.
Each score is titled with its monitoring check category and contains a color indicator bar. If a check category permits, you may click details to see the results of checks made in that specific category for your individual monitored URLs.
This tab includes the following scores:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Security | This score summarizes the result of all security checks on your website. |
| Certificate check | This score rates if your website’s SSL/TLS certificates require renewal. |
| Cookie Analysis | This score rates the health of your website’s cookies. |
| Unsecure elements | This score measures whether you are encrypting data that you send to your website’s users. |
SSL/TLS certificates
An SSL/TLS certificate allows your website to use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This protocol lets users know that your website encrypts its transmitted data.
This tab lists each URL that receives a check for its SSL certificate’s validity and approaching expiration date with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- The certificate’s validity
- The certificate’s expiration date.
Insecure elements
Insecure elements are elements that you transmit to your website’s users without encryption, such as image or CSS files. These elements can present a security risk and cause search engines to decrease your SEO rank.
This tab lists each URL that receives a check for element security with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A color bar indicator with the number of secure and insecure elements the URL contains. Secure elements will be displayed in green, while insecure elements will be displayed in red.
Cookie analysis
Cookies are small text files that track your website’s users if they give permission. For security purposes, and because cookie sizes can increase your page size, we recommend that you limit the number of cookies you add to your website.
This tab lists each URL that receives a check for cookie load with the following information:
- The URL’s
Namevalue - A screenshot
- A color indicator summary of the current and average number of cookies attached to the URL
Note:
- The
currentpercentage uses cookie load results from the last hour. - The
averagepercentage uses cookie load results from the last 30 days.
- The
- A line graph that plots the number of cookies attached to the URL against the error threshold
- A list of the URLs to which the cookies provide data.
Click Settings to adjust how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers cookie load errors. The Cookie analysis settings menu will open.
Cookie analysis settings
The Cookie analysis settings menu allows you to change how the Site Quality Monitoring feature registers errors related to the number of cookies you allow each URL to contain.
To adjust the threshold for cookie load failures, select one of the following options in the Threshold setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Check for 0 cookies | Future cookie load checks will register a failure if any of your URLs contain any cookies. |
| Check for 5 cookies | Future cookie load checks will register a failure if any of your URLs contain five or more cookies. |
| Check for less than 10 cookies | Future cookie load checks will register a failure if any of your URLs contain ten or more cookies. |
| Check for 20 cookies | Future cookie load checks will register a failure if any of your URLs contain 20 or more cookies. |
| Check for less than 50 cookies | Future cookie load checks will register a failure if any of your URLs contain 50 or more cookies. |
This setting defaults to Check for 20 cookies.
To adjust how many times the cookie load checks can register failures before reporting an error, select one of the following options in the Error sensitivity menu:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| High | Report an error every time a URL fails to stay below the maximum number of cookies. |
| Moderate | Report an error when a URL fails to stay below the maximum number of cookies two checks in a row. |
| Low | Report an error when a URL fails to stay below the maximum number of cookies three checks in a row. |
This setting defaults to High.
Once you have selected an option, click Save to update your preferences and return to the Cookie analysis tab. You may click Cancel to instead discard your changes.