Verification · Check site-reachable
Site reachable (HTTP 200 from canonical URL)
Sanity check: the audit can successfully GET your homepage and receive an HTTP 200 response within a reasonable timeout. Tests DNS resolution, SSL certificate validity, server uptime, and basic routing.
Why it matters
The case for reachable
Foundational — if Google or ChatGPT can't reach your site, nothing else matters. A site that returns 5xx or times out gets de-indexed surprisingly fast (Google retries less aggressively than people assume). DNS misconfigurations and expired SSL certificates are the most common causes.
How this audit checks it
What we actually look at
We GET your homepage URL with a 10-second timeout. PASS if response is 2xx; FAIL otherwise.
Steps
How to apply it
- Check the domain resolves: `dig <yourdomain>` from a terminal, or https://dnschecker.org from a browser
- Verify your host is up — Vercel, Wix, Squarespace, Cloudflare all publish status pages
- Check SSL certificate validity at https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest
- If your site is behind a paywall or login, the audit will fail — but so will Google. Use staging URLs for auth-required content
Common mistakes
What goes wrong
- DNS pointing to old host after a migration (TTL can take 24-48hr to fully propagate)
- Expired SSL certificate (auto-renewal failed silently — happens more often than you'd think)
- Cloudflare or other proxy challenging the audit's User-Agent (whitelist your audit tools)
Other checks in the baseline
Continue your audit walk-through.
Next step
See how your site scores.
Run the free 13-point audit on your URL — takes ~10 seconds, shows exactly which checks pass and fail with copy-pasteable fixes.