Q: Can I check the associated pages from different domains as just one Web CEO project?
A: Yes. Click 'Options, go to Site properties > Internal domains, and enter the URLs or masks of URLs that are considered internal.
Q: Can I scan the local copy of the site?
A: By default, Auditor scans the web copy of your site, but you can set it to scan the local copy if needed.
Select 'Local Scanning' from the Auditor screen to scan the local copy of your site. You can browse the folders to indicate the path to your local copy on your hard drive.
Q: Can I use Auditor to test a dynamic site?
A: It depends on the type of dynamic technology your site uses. If it is a server-side technology like PHP, ASP, then Auditor tests links with no problem. If the scripts are executed in the browser to display a specific page, then you should create special patterns in the 'Script Scanning' section of Auditor's settings (File > Settings > Auditor tab > Scan Rules > Script scanning) so Auditor can access the dynamic URLs Web pages.
Q: How can I set Auditor not to scan certain URLs?
A: You can specify patterns for ignored URLs in the 'Exclusions' list. Click the 'Options' button, go to Site Properties > Exclusions, click 'Add', and enter the URLs that should be ignored during the scanning, for example:
Click "Save" or "Apply" to save changes in the settings.
Q: How do I change the rules for character limits in titles and meta tags?
A: To change the character or word limits for title, meta description, and keywords tags, go to the Page evaluation section (File-> Settings-> Auditor-> Scan Rules-> Page evaluation). Go to 'Options' to change settings. In 'Check Rules', mark the tags that you wish to examined.
Q: How does Auditor work?
A: Auditor sends an HTTP request to the web server, which responds with an HTML page, image, audio file, etc. If an HTML page returns, then Auditor checks it for links. It then requests pages found at the link URLs from the server until all links are done or until you deactivate Auditor.
If the returned URL includes an ftp or mailto scheme, only the syntax of the URL is checked.
Q: My site is very large, how can I make Auditor scan it faster?
A: Large sites are better tested in sections. You can add parts of your site to the Web CEO projects list (such as http://www.mywebsite.com/folder1/) to limit the initial number of links to be scanned.
Another option is to specify patterns for ignored URLs in the Exclusions list found in the (Options > Site properties > Exclusions). For example, to exclude images, you can specify file type patterns such as *.jpg or *.gif or exclude the folder where images are stored, http://www.mywebsite.com/images/*.* .
Q: What are orphaned files and how do I find them?
A: Orphaned files are found on the servers but have no links pointing to them. This makes orphaned files useless. Orphaned files can be searched for either directly on your Web server by FTP or in the local copy. Typically, you may want to either remove them or restore some navigational links.
You can set up Auditor to look for such files in the local copy or by using FTP.
To find orphaned files:
1. On the 'Features' menu, select 'Auditor'.
2. Click the 'Options' button.
3. Select 'Orphaned files'.
4. The default option is 'Do not search'. Change it to 'Search via FTP' or 'Local search'.
If you search via FTP (which is a better idea), you should specify your FTP account details so that the program can connect and make a check.
Q: What does Auditor check?
A: Auditor tests all links on a site, starting with the index page. Its main goal is to make sure that links point to real files on your server. It can also check page elements such as titles, meta tags, image attributes, and anchors. Auditor also detects other important usability problems like slow pages and old content.
Q: What is a broken link and how to fix it?
A: A broken link is a hyperlink which does not work, sometimes because the target file is missing, has been moved, or has no public read permission. Another reason the link may not be working is because of an error in the code syntax.
This is how to locate and fix broken links with the help of Auditor:
After you run the Auditor scan for your site, you will see a list of pages with symbols. An exclamation mark indicates a potential problem, while a red cross denotes a serious error. Select any webpage to view properties (URL, size of the HTML code, full download size including images title, description, and keyword tags) or errors and warnings.
For example, let's assume that mypage11.html has a broken link to mypage22.htm. Use the Editor tool to locate and fix this link in the code of your page.
To learn more about Auditor, go to Help > Help Topics > Part IV. How to Maintain Your Website > Step 10 Control the quality of your site.
