Common questions.
If yours isn't here, just ask.
SEO in plain English
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation: making sure search engines such as Google and Bing can crawl your website, index its pages and understand what each one is about, so it has the best chance of appearing when people search. Headnoted checks the technical and on-page side: crawler access, indexing, titles, headings, structured data and mobile.
Which search engines does the check cover?
We check robots.txt access for 6 crawlers: Googlebot and Bingbot, which matter most (Bing's index also feeds DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Ecosia), plus Googlebot-Image, Applebot, DuckDuckBot and YandexBot. The rest of the checks apply to any search engine that reads web pages.
Does a high score guarantee my site will rank?
No. A high score means your page did well on the checks we can perform, not that every obstacle has been ruled out. Rankings also depend on your content, links from other sites, the competition and what the searcher wants. Nobody can promise a position on Google, and we don't.
Do you track my rankings or find keywords?
No. Headnoted is a checker: it does not track rankings, analyse backlinks or suggest keywords. It tells you what on your pages may be holding them back and how to fix it.
What's the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO is about search engines: can Google and Bing crawl, index and rank your pages? GEO (generative engine optimisation) is about AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude: can they find, read and cite your site? Headnoted covers search engines. Our sister tool, Footnoted, checks whether AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude can find and cite your site. They are separate products, each with its own account.
The free check
Is it really free?
Yes. The check and the report are free, with no card and no account needed. There is a fair-use limit on how many scans you can run per hour.
What does the report include?
A score out of 100, a breakdown across six areas — crawling and indexing, titles and metadata, headings and content, structured data, technical and mobile, and trust and freshness — every check explained with how to fix it, your top fixes ranked by impact, and a table of which search engine crawlers your robots.txt allows.
How is the score worked out?
Each check is worth points, and the score is the share of available points you earned. Checks that decide whether a page can be crawled and indexed at all, such as robots.txt access and noindex, carry the most weight. See every check on the What We Check page.
Why does my page look empty to you?
We read the HTML your server sends without running JavaScript. Search engines can render JavaScript, but often later and not always fully. If your content is rendered in the browser, server-side rendering or pre-rendering puts it in the HTML from the start.
Can I share or download my report?
Yes. Every report has a link you can share and a PDF download. If you have an account you can turn the shareable link off for any report.
The extensive audit
What does the extensive audit add?
A crawl of up to 20 pages, site-wide issues such as duplicate titles, broken pages and noindex pages, and every issue turned into a fix: ranked from critical to optional, with the pages it affects, the steps, a ready-made snippet and where to click on your platform. Every fix comes with a prompt to paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot or Cursor, plus one prompt that walks you through all of them. You also get a prioritised action plan, a ready-to-publish XML sitemap, Organization and WebSite schema, and a downloadable fix pack.
How do the AI prompts work?
Copy a prompt into the AI assistant you already use. It tells the assistant your site, the issue, the pages affected and our suggested code, and asks it to explain the fix, give you exact steps for your platform, check it worked — and ask you for anything it does not know rather than make it up. Always check what it suggests before you publish.
How much does it cost?
It will be £1.99, paid once per report. Extensive audits are not on sale yet.
Is there a subscription?
Only if you want one. The extensive audit is a one-off payment. Headnoted Pro is an optional monthly plan — £4.99 a month for up to 10 extensive audits — that you can cancel any time; it runs to the end of the month you've paid for, and unused audits don't roll over.
How long does it take?
Usually five to ten minutes. You can leave the page; we email you when it is ready.
What if it fails?
You can rerun a failed paid audit from your report at no charge. If that does not work, open a support ticket and we will sort it out or refund you.
Is the search visibility test the same as my Google ranking?
No. It is a snapshot from one live web search (the search tool Claude uses), not Google's own rankings. Results vary by location, device, personalisation and day, so treat it as a picture of how things look today.
Your data
What do you store about my site?
The address you checked and what the report shows: scores, the checks, page titles, headings and a short text excerpt of the page. We only read public pages, the same way any crawler would.
Who can see my report?
Anyone you give the link to. Reports are kept out of search engines. With an account you can switch sharing off for any report, and delete it.
Do you send my site to an AI provider?
No. Neither the free check nor the extensive audit sends your site to an AI provider. The fix prompts are written by us, not by AI, and you choose whether to paste one into an AI assistant.
How do I delete my reports?
Delete any report from its page in your dashboard. Deleting your account deletes all of your reports. For a report you ran without an account, contact us with its link.
Account
Do I need an account?
Not for the free check. A free account keeps every report on your dashboard so you can re-check after each fix, and is needed to buy an extensive audit or Headnoted Pro.
How do I delete my account?
Settings → Profile → Delete account.
I forgot my password.
Use the "Forgot password" link on the sign-in page and we will email you a reset link.