How the free check works

What is “read-only access”, and do I need it?

Don’t worry if you don’t know what read-only access is. We’ll talk you through every step.

The free check does not need it. Nor do the Quick Fix Plan or the Local Audit. Only the Full Audit asks for it, and even then it is your choice.

• What it is. Google and Bing each give you a free dashboard, called Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, that shows how your site does in their search results. Read-only access means you invite us to view that dashboard, a bit like sharing a view-only link to a document.
• We can look, we can’t change. On Google you add us as what it calls a “Restricted” user, which Google describes as having “simple view rights on most data”. It does not let us change your settings, add other people or touch your website. On Bing you choose its read-only option.
• No password changes hands. You add our email address from inside your own account. You never share your password with us.
• We walk you through it. Step by step, by email or on a call. It usually takes a couple of minutes.
• You can remove it whenever you like. It is your account, so you can take us off at any time. When we send your report we remind you how, and we stop using the access then.
• You can say no. We still check everything that is public, and the report says clearly what we could not check.

What it reads

• Your public pages, read once. Your homepage (following up to 3 redirects), its plain http:// address, robots.txt (the file that tells search engines what they may read), your sitemap (the list of your pages, up to 3 of its parts), llms.txt, and the address your canonical tag names (the page you say is the main version): at most 14 requests in all, as ordinary page requests that say who we are. About our check bot
• Google’s PageSpeed Insights API, Google’s free speed test, which runs Lighthouse’s lab test of your homepage on a simulated phone.
• The Chrome UX Report API, Google’s record of real visitors’ experience, where Google has eligible data for your page or site.

It runs no Google searches, never pretends to be Googlebot or any other crawler, and does not script any consumer AI app.

How the score is worked out

• “Could not check” is never a fail. If a check cannot run (a timeout, an API error), its points are taken out, the score is worked out from the checks that did run, and the result says “partial”.
• Bands. 85 to 100 is “strong foundations”, 60 to 84 “room for improvement”, below 60 “major improvement needed”.
• Critical problems override the number. If your homepage does not load over HTTPS, tells search engines not to index it, or robots.txt blocks Google or Bing from it, the band is “critical issues” whatever the number, that problem is shown first.
• Enough evidence first. A score is shown only when checks worth at least 70 of the 100 points returned a result. Below that the result says not enough could be checked, and lists what did run.
• No real-visitor data. If Google has no eligible Chrome data for your page or site, those 7 points move to the lab speed test, and the result says so.
• Versioned. The weights live in one versioned set, and every result shows the version it was scored with. This page describes version 1.1.

The result calls it your ProudSite visibility score because that is what it is: our method, not Google’s. Lighthouse figures are Google’s lab test on a simulated phone, not Google’s ranking of your site.

What it cannot see

• Only your public pages. It cannot see your Search Console data, which needs your permission. The Full Audit reads it with read-only (view-only) access, if you choose to give it.
• robots.txt is a request, not a gate. A robots.txt that allows AI crawlers does not prove your server lets them in: some hosting and security settings block them at the server. And a block does not stop an assistant mentioning you from other sources. The audit tests your server with each crawler’s user agent (the name a crawler gives when it visits), with your permission.
• No Business Profile, reviews or listings. There is no official way to read them for an anonymous check, and scraping Google Maps breaks Google’s terms.
• No rankings. Checking rankings means automated Google searches, which Google’s spam policies forbid without express permission.
• No backlinks. There is no official free source for them.
• No AI answers. The free check does not ask AI assistants anything: an answer from a model’s API is not what the apps show a particular customer. The Local and Full Audits record answers by hand in the real apps.
• Not an official or Google test. It is an independent check with a published method, rigorously tested and created by ProudSite.