Step 3 of 8
Read the results
Short answer: errors are things that stop a page being indexed or understood, so look at those first. Warnings are improvements, and some of them rest on a rule of thumb. Below are the rules SEOSnip uses, so you can decide when one doesn't apply.
Errors and warnings
The Issues tab filters by Errors and Warnings.
| What it means | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| Error | The page may not be indexed, may be indexed under the wrong URL, or is missing something every page needs | noindex, robots.txt blocks the page, missing title or H1, canonical to a broken page, invalid JSON-LD |
| Warning | The page works, but could do better in search results or for visitors | Title or description length, skipped heading levels, missing alt text, security headers |
A ticket made from an error starts at High priority. You can change it.
Read the evidence
Each issue shows the evidence in the layout that suits it: the server HTML next to the rendered page, the title against a length bar with the cut-off struck through, a table of the elements at fault, the robots.txt lines that match, or a checklist of headers. The same evidence goes on the ticket, so the developer sees what you saw.
The judgement calls
Some checks are facts (the page has no title). Others rest on a rule that reasonable people set differently. These are SEOSnip's, with the reason for each:
| Check | Rule | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Title too short | Under 30 characters | The common audit threshold (Screaming Frog uses it too). Short titles leave out what the page is about. A famous brand's homepage can get away with it; most sites can't. |
| Title too long | Over 60 characters, even if it fits | Google cuts by pixel width, and SEOSnip measures that too. Over 60 is still flagged because mobile results and Google's own rewrites tend to cut long titles anyway. See title tag length. |
| Description length | Under 70 or over 160 characters, or too wide in pixels | Too short says too little; too long gets cut with "…". See meta descriptions. |
| Skipped heading levels | Content headings only | Headings in the footer, menus, sidebars and popups rarely follow the content's levels, so they're left out. See H1 and headings. |
| Hidden headings and links | Not counted | An H1 in a closed menu, or a link hidden from everyone, isn't part of the page anyone meets. Headings hidden only visually are still counted, because screen readers read them. |
| Security headers | Flagged when HSTS, nosniff or frame protection is missing | A missing Content-Security-Policy alone is a project of its own, and browsers already default Referrer-Policy, so neither raises a ticket on its own. Both still show in the checklist. See security headers. |
| robots.txt blocks files | Same-site files only; platform files ignored | Shopify's checkout preload and tracking scripts and Cloudflare's bot-check script are blocked by the platforms' own defaults and don't draw the page. See robots.txt blocking. |
| Thin content | Under 200 words in the main content | A rough floor, not a target. Some pages (a contact page) are short on purpose: mark those Not an issue. |
If a rule doesn't fit a page, that's what Not an issue is for. A check you disagree with on every page of a site can be switched off for that site.
Learn more about a check
Most checks have a guide that explains the problem, how to check it by hand and how to fix it. Tickets link to it under How to fix ("Learn more"), so a developer who hasn't met the problem can read up. Browse them all in the guides.