Pages

The Pages screen of Page Monitoring lists every page that you watch on the domain, with its status and its last change. It is the first screen of Page Monitoring. From here, you add pages and open the panel of each watched page.

Before you startCopy Anchor Link

• Open a domain. In the Site checks group of the sidebar, select Page Monitoring > Pages.
• The domain must be verified. See Verify ownership.
• Only workspace owners and admins can add pages, change their settings and stop watching them. Members can see the pages and their changes.

No pages watched yetCopy Anchor Link

Before you add a page, the screen shows the chip No pages watched yet and the headline "Watch your important pages and hear when they change". Owners and admins can add the first page from this screen. The first check runs right after you add a page.

Status summaryCopy Anchor Link

At the top of the Pages screen, a summary card shows what needs your attention. It shows only when something needs a look:

• A headline, for example "3 pages need a look", "2 pages can't be checked" or "1 page is paused".
• A line with the other counts and the number of changes in the date range, for example "12 changes on 5 pages".
• Buttons that filter the table: Needs a look (N), Can't check (N) and Paused (N).
• Site move (N) when pages with a migration check do not redirect as you expect. See Migration check.
• Allow our crawler when a firewall blocked the crawler on some pages. The button opens Let our crawler through with the values to allowlist.

Watched pages tableCopy Anchor Link

The Watched pages card lists all watched pages on the domain.

Click a column header to sort. Click a row to open the watched page panel. Hover over the page address to see its migration check and its Site Health Monitoring issues.

Page statusCopy Anchor Link

Paused statusesCopy Anchor Link

If a firewall turned the crawler away, the page also shows Blocked by firewall.

FiltersCopy Anchor Link

The filter bar at the bottom of the screen has a date range and these filters: Status, Page address, Google clicks (last 90 days), Last change, What changed, Label, Checked every and Migration check. Some filters show only when they apply. For how the filter bar works, see Using the app.

If no page matches, the table shows No watched pages match these filters. Change or clear a filter.

Bulk actionsCopy Anchor Link

Owners and admins can select pages with the checkboxes. Then use the bar above the table:

• Check every…: change the interval of the selected pages.
• Add label… and Remove label…: change the labels.
• Resume checks: start the checks again on paused pages, if your plan has room.
• Stop watching: stop the checks. VitalSentinel keeps the stored history until it expires.

Add pagesCopy Anchor Link

You can add pages in three ways. A page must be on the domain that you opened.

Enter the addressesCopy Anchor Link

1. On the Watched pages card, click Add pages.
2. On the Enter URLs tab, enter the addresses in Page URLs, one per line. Start each address with https://.
3. In Check every, select how often VitalSentinel checks the pages. Your plan sets the options.
4. Optional: in Labels, enter labels separated by commas, for example pricing, checkout.
5. Optional: click Advanced to add Elements to watch. See Page elements.
6. Click Watch N pages.

After the pages are added, a summary shows. It can list pages that VitalSentinel could not add and why, and pages that redirect. For a page that redirects, click Watch the destination instead to watch the final page. First check found lists problems that the first check found. Click Done to close the dialog.

Upload a CSV fileCopy Anchor Link

1. Click Add pages, then select the Upload CSV tab.
2. Select the CSV file. You can add up to 500 pages at a time.
3. In For rows without an interval, select the interval for the rows that do not have one.
4. Click Watch N pages.

The first column is the page address. It is required.

The other columns are optional. The interval column sets how often to check the page, for example 4h or 24h. Your plan sets the allowed values. In the labels column, separate more than one label with |. A header row is optional. With a header row, the columns can be in any order.

url,interval,labels
https://example.com/pricing,4h,pricing|checkout
https://example.com/signup,24h,
https://example.com/about

After VitalSentinel reads the file, it shows how many pages are ready and which lines it skipped, with the reason.

Site move in a CSV fileCopy Anchor Link

If you move your site to new addresses, put the new address of each page in the second column. VitalSentinel then checks that each old page redirects to its new address. See Migration check.

old url,new url
https://example.com/old-page,https://example.com/new-page

Watch from other modulesCopy Anchor Link

Many tables in VitalSentinel have a Watch in Page Monitoring button, for example the Pages tab of Site Health Monitoring.

1. Click Watch in Page Monitoring on the row.
2. In the dialog Watch this page in Page Monitoring, select Check every.
3. Optional: add Elements to watch.
4. Click Start watching.

A page that you already watch shows Watched in Page Monitoring. If your plan has no room, the button shows "All watched pages on your plan are in use."

Watched page panelCopy Anchor Link

Click a page in the table to open its panel. The header shows:

• The status of the page, its migration check, the chip Top pages, kept current and its labels.
• A link to its Site Health Monitoring issues, if it has some.
• When VitalSentinel last checked the page and how often it checks it, for example "Checks every 24 hours".
• An Open in menu to open the page in other modules, or on your site.
• Check this page again (owners and admins). See Check a page again.
• Stop watching (owners and admins).

The panel has three tabs: Changes, Page details and Settings. A notice shows above the tabs when the page needs an action, for example when the page is paused. If there is room on your plan, the notice has a button to resume the checks.

Stop watching a pageCopy Anchor Link

1. In the panel header, click Stop watching.
2. In Stop watching this page?, click Stop watching.

The checks stop and nothing on the page gets flagged. VitalSentinel keeps the stored history until it expires.

Check a page againCopy Anchor Link

Owners and admins can check a watched page at once, without a wait for the next scheduled check.

1. In the panel header, click Check this page again. While the check runs, the button shows Checking….
2. Wait for the toast. For example, "Check finished – nothing changed." or "Check finished – 2 changes: Title, Main heading (H1)."

When the check finishes, the panel shows the new check and its changes.

Each workspace has an hourly allowance of checks for all its pages: 5 on Free and 20 on paid plans. See Plans and limits. The ? next to the button shows how many checks are left this hour. A check from the app costs no API credits. If you click the button while a check of the page runs, it costs nothing.

The button is not available for a paused page, or when VitalSentinel cannot reach your site. If your site does not answer, VitalSentinel puts off the check. If a check takes more than 3 minutes, its result appears in the history of the page when it finishes.

Changes tabCopy Anchor Link

The Changes tab of the watched page panel shows, from top to bottom:

1. A verdict, for example "No changes on this page need a look".
2. What needs a look: each change on this page that needs your attention, with the values before and after. Use the More menu of a change to mark it as seen, snooze it or mark it as normal. See Actions on a change.
3. Google search since your changes: the daily Google clicks and impressions, with a marker for each check that changed something important. Needs Google Search Console.
4. How Google sees this page: Indexed, Canonical, Last Googlebot visit and the robots.txt verdict for Googlebot, each from its module.
5. This page elsewhere: the page in other modules, for example its speed for real visitors or its visits.
6. Checks and the comparison. See below.

Checks and the comparisonCopy Anchor Link

The Checks card lists the checks of the page. Select Changed to see only the checks with changes, or All checks. Click a check to compare it with the check before it.

The comparison has four views:

• Changes: each changed field. Your elements show first. Numbers show as "37 → 0". Lists show what was added and removed. Text shows before and after, with the changed words marked.
• Text: the visible text, word by word.
• HTML source: the HTML that your server sent.
• After JavaScript: the page after scripts ran.

To compare any two checks, select them in From and To. What else happened around a date shows other events on your site at about the same time.

Page details tabCopy Anchor Link

The Page details tab shows what VitalSentinel found on the last check of the page:

• AI & crawlers: readability without JavaScript, robots.txt verdicts for each crawler and AI directives. See AI readability.
• Technical details: the response (HTTP status, transferred size, time to first byte and render time), Redirects, Response headers, Resources, Console errors and Other values.
• Every field of the page, as served and after JavaScript, with its history. This includes the structured data types and their key properties. For the article markup of your whole site (author and date), see the AI files tab of AI readability.

If VitalSentinel did not check the page yet, the tab shows Not checked yet.

Settings tabCopy Anchor Link

The Settings tab of the watched page panel has the settings of one page. Owners and admins can change them. Members see "Only owners and admins can change these."

How we check this pageCopy Anchor Link

The How we check this page card has three settings:

• Check every: how often VitalSentinel checks the page. Your plan sets the options.
• Labels: separate labels with commas. Labels group and filter your pages.
• Ignore text edits smaller than (%): VitalSentinel ignores changes to the main text that are smaller than this percentage. Leave it empty to use the default of your domain.

Click Save settings.

Page elementsCopy Anchor Link

An element is one part of the page that VitalSentinel reads on every check, for example a price or the stock status. Changes to your elements show first in the list of changes.

1. On the Elements card, click Add element.
2. In Name, enter a name, for example Price.
3. In CSS selector (class, id or tag), enter the selector, for example .product-price or #stock.
4. Check the preview. VitalSentinel tests the selector on the last stored copy of the page and shows the value that it found.
5. Click Add.

If the selector matches more than one place, VitalSentinel reads the first one. The number of elements on each page depends on your plan. When you reach it, the card shows "You have reached your plan limit. Upgrade to watch more elements."

Changes to your elements never get the Needs attention flag. To get told about them, create an alert rule. See Alerts.

Migration checkCopy Anchor Link

Use a migration check after a site move. It tells VitalSentinel where the page must go. A redirect that lands where you expect is then not flagged.

1. On the Migration check card, add a check.
2. In Migration check, select Should redirect to a new address, Should redirect to another page of the site or Should stay where it is (no redirect).
3. If the page must redirect to a new address, enter the New address. Use a full address or a path that starts with /.
4. Save the check.

Migration check resultsCopy Anchor Link

The result shows as a chip on the page:

Ignore parts of this pageCopy Anchor Link

Some parts of a page change on every visit, for example a timestamp. VitalSentinel ignores changes inside the parts that you add on the Ignore parts of this page card.

1. Click Add part to ignore.
2. In Type, select Text pattern (for example Last updated: .*) or CSS selector (for example .last-updated).
3. Enter the rule and save it.

You can add up to 20 parts on each page.

Danger zoneCopy Anchor Link

Delete this page's history permanently deletes every stored check, every extracted field, every recorded change and the issues raised for the page. Alerts, notifications and emails that VitalSentinel already sent do not change.

1. On the Danger zone card, click Delete this page's history.
2. In Type "delete" to confirm, type delete.
3. Click Delete history.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

Why does a watched page show "Can't reach"?Copy Anchor Link

Your site did not answer, or a firewall blocked the VitalSentinel crawler. If the red crawler banner shows, allow the crawler. See Crawler access. If your site was down, VitalSentinel checks again when it is back.

Why does a watched page show "Blocked by robots.txt"?Copy Anchor Link

Your robots.txt blocks the VitalSentinel crawler for this page. To check the page, allow VitalSentinel-Bot in robots.txt.

Why can I not check a page again?Copy Anchor Link

If the toast says "You have used this hour's checks", the workspace used its hourly allowance. The toast shows when the next check is available. A paused page cannot be checked. Resume the checks first.

Why does Page Monitoring flag a timestamp or a counter on my page?Copy Anchor Link

Add the part to Ignore parts of this page on the Settings tab of the watched page panel. Or set Ignore text edits smaller than (%) for small text changes.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Changes - all changes on your watched pages
• Settings - defaults, top pages and ignored changes
• Overview - how Page Monitoring works and the plan limits
• Site Health Monitoring - issues from serious changes on watched pages
• Opportunities - pages worth a watch in Google Search Console