Watching Pages

Adding pagesCopy Anchor Link

Only workspace owners and admins can add pages. A page must be on the domain that you opened. You can add pages in three ways.

Enter the addressesCopy Anchor Link

1. Select Page Monitoring > Pages, then click Add pages.
2. On the Enter URLs tab, enter the page addresses, one on each line.
3. In Check every, select how often VitalSentinel checks the pages. The options depend on your plan.
4. Optional: in Labels, enter labels, separated by commas, for example pricing, checkout. Labels help you group and filter pages.
5. Optional: open Advanced to add Elements to watch. See Page elements.
6. Click Watch N pages.

When all pages are added, the dialog closes and a message shows the number of added pages. If VitalSentinel has something to tell you, the dialog shows a summary:

• Pages that VitalSentinel could not add, and why. For example, the address is not on this domain, or your plan has no room left.
• Pages that redirect. Click Watch the destination instead to watch the final page.
• First check found: problems that the first check found on the new pages.

Upload a CSV fileCopy Anchor Link

Use a CSV file to add up to 500 pages at a time.

1. Click Add pages, then select the Upload CSV tab.
2. Select the CSV file.
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:

• interval: how often to check the page, for example 4h or 24h. Your plan sets the allowed intervals.
• labels: 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 moveCopy 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.

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

See Migration check.

Watch from other modulesCopy Anchor Link

Many tables in VitalSentinel have a Watch in Page Monitoring button (an eye icon). For example, it is in Site Health Monitoring, RUM Monitoring, Server Log Monitoring, Uptime Monitoring and Google Search Console tables.

1. Click the eye icon on the row.
2. Select Check every.
3. Optional: click Choose what to track… to add page elements.
4. Click Start watching.

If your plan has only one interval, VitalSentinel starts to watch the page immediately. A green check shows on pages that you already watch.

The Pages screenCopy Anchor Link

The Pages screen is the main screen of Page Monitoring. It has two cards.

Needs a lookCopy Anchor Link

This card shows only when something needs your attention:

• Status tiles: the number of pages that Need attention, Can't be checked or are Paused. Click a tile to filter the table.
• Site move: if pages have a migration check, a progress bar shows how many pages land where you expect. Click Show the N pages to see the pages that need a look.
• Blocked crawler: if a firewall blocked the crawler, the card shows how many pages it could not check. Click See how to allowlist us for the steps.

Watched pagesCopy Anchor Link

This table lists all watched pages on the domain, 25 on each page.

By default, the table shows the pages that need a look first, then the pages with the most clicks. Click a column header to sort. Click a row to open the watched page panel.

Page statusCopy 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 these filters: Status, Page address, Google clicks (last 90 days), Last change, Label, Checked every and Migration check. Some filters show only when they apply. The filters stay in the page address, so you can share a filtered list.

Bulk actionsCopy Anchor Link

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.

Watched page panelCopy Anchor Link

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

• The page address and an Open the page button.
• The status, the labels, and the time of the last and next check.
• Check now and Stop watching (owners and admins).
• The migration check and the Site Health issues, if the page has them.

The panel has three tabs: Changes, Page details and Settings.

A notice shows above the tabs when the page needs an action. For example, the page is paused, robots.txt blocks it, or it redirects to a different address.

Check nowCopy Anchor Link

Click Check now to check the page immediately. The header shows the progress: Queued, Fetching the page, Rendering the page, then Done. The result shows what changed, for example "Done – 2 changes: Title, Main heading (H1)."

The number of Check now runs each hour depends on your plan and is shared by the whole workspace. When you use all of them, VitalSentinel shows when the next run is available. You cannot check a paused page.

Changes tabCopy Anchor Link

From top to bottom:

1. A verdict, for example "No changes on this page need a look."

2. What needs a look: each change that needs your attention, with the before and after values. Use More actions 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 for 90 days. A marker shows each check that changed something important. If clicks fell a lot in the last 14 days, the chart tells you, and lists what else happened at that time. Needs Google Search Console.

4. How Google sees this page:

   Row	What it shows	Source
   Indexed	Whether Google indexed the page	Search Console URL Inspection
   Canonical	The canonical on your page, and the canonical that Google chose	Page Monitoring and URL Inspection
   Last Googlebot visit	The last verified Googlebot visit in the last 28 days	Server Log Monitoring
   robots.txt	Whether robots.txt allows Googlebot, and the rule	Robots.txt Monitoring
   Our last check	The status of the last check, for example "Answered 200 OK"	Page Monitoring

5. Checks: the list of checks. Select Changed to see only the checks with changes, or All checks. Click a check to compare it.

6. Compare: what changed in the selected check, compared with the check before it. Click Compare with another check to select any two checks.

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.

What else happened around shows other events on your site at about the same time.

Page details tabCopy Anchor Link

This tab shows what VitalSentinel found on the last check:

• AI & crawlers: readability without JavaScript, robots.txt verdicts and AI directives. See AI readability.
• Technical details: Response (HTTP status, transferred size, time to first byte and render time), Redirects, Response headers, Resources, Console errors and Other values.
• Every field on the page, as served and after JavaScript: the current value of each field, with its history.

Settings tabCopy Anchor Link

Owners and admins can change the settings of the page. Members can see them.

Settings card:

• Check every: how often VitalSentinel checks the page.
• Labels: separate labels with commas.
• 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.

To add an element:

1. In 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. Save the element.

If the selector matches more than one place, VitalSentinel reads the first one. VitalSentinel cannot read content inside iframes.

Each watched page can have up to 10 elements on paid plans. The Free plan has no elements. To get an alert when an element changes, create a Page element changed alert rule.

Migration checkCopy Anchor Link

Use a migration check after a site move. It tells VitalSentinel where the page must go. A redirect that goes where you expect then does not need your attention.

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

The result shows as a chip:

A redirect that ends on the homepage, an error or a noindex page always needs your attention.

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 here.

1. Click Add part to ignore.
2. Select the type:
   • Text pattern, for example Last updated: .*
   • CSS selector, for example .last-updated
3. Save the part.

You can add up to 20 parts on each page.

Danger zoneCopy Anchor Link

Delete this page's history permanently deletes all stored checks, fields and changes of the page. It also deletes the issues for the page, and its address and quoted text in other Site Health issues. Alerts, notifications and emails that VitalSentinel already sent do not change.

1. Click Delete this page's history.
2. Type delete.
3. Click Delete history.

After the deletion, the page starts again with a first check.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link