Changes since the last audit

Change checks compare each page with the same URL in the site's previous full audit. They catch template or CMS changes that silently rewrite titles or add noindex across many pages. Most are notices to confirm; BECAME_NOINDEX is a warning because the page will leave search results. None is recheckable.

#How pages are compared

• The previous audit is the latest earlier full audit of the same site that finished. Previews and rechecks never count. If that audit's data has been archived, or the site has no earlier full audit, no change issues are reported.
• Only URLs that answered 200 with text/html in both audits are compared.
• Title, meta description and H1 changes are only reported on pages that are indexable now (no noindex, no canonical pointing elsewhere).
• Values are compared in full; old and new in the details are cut to 200 characters.
• The H1 compared is the first <h1> on the page.

Details (all five): old, new. For the title, description and H1 codes they are the text values (null when absent); for the noindex codes they are the robots meta tag contents.

These issues describe a change, not necessarily a problem. Once you have confirmed a change was intended, it does not come back: the next audit compares against this one.

#TITLE_CHANGED — Title changed

• Severity: notice. Recheckable: no.
• Trigger: the page's <title> text differs from the previous audit.
• Why it matters: the title is the search result headline; changing it can move rankings and click-through.
• How to fix: confirm the new title is intended. If a template, CMS or plugin change rewrote it by mistake, restore it.

#META_DESCRIPTION_CHANGED — Meta description changed

• Severity: notice. Recheckable: no.
• Trigger: the page's meta description differs from the previous audit.
• Why it matters: the search snippet changed. Unintended template changes often hit many pages at once.
• How to fix: confirm the new description is intended; restore it if not.

#H1_CHANGED — H1 changed

• Severity: notice. Recheckable: no.
• Trigger: the page's first <h1> text differs from the previous audit.
• Why it matters: the main heading can shift what the page ranks for.
• How to fix: confirm the new H1 is intended; restore it if not.

#BECAME_NOINDEX — Page became noindex

• Severity: warning. Recheckable: no.
• Trigger: the page's robots meta tag contains noindex now and did not in the previous audit. Reported on any page, indexable before or not.
• Why it matters: the page will drop out of search results. A noindex left over from a staging environment or a plugin setting is a common cause of sudden traffic loss.
• How to fix: if it was not deliberate, remove noindex from the robots meta tag and redeploy. Check for an environment flag or CMS setting ("discourage search engines") that adds it site-wide.

#BECAME_INDEXABLE — Page became indexable

• Severity: notice. Recheckable: no.
• Trigger: the page had noindex in the previous audit, does not now, and is indexable (no canonical pointing elsewhere).
• Why it matters: the page can now appear in search results.
• How to fix: confirm the page should be in search results. If not, restore the noindex.

#For agents

The audit diff (GET /v1/crawls/{id}/diff) summarises new and fixed issues against the previous audit. Change issues are listed like any other issue with GET /v1/crawls/{id}/issues?check_code=BECAME_NOINDEX or the MCP tool list_issues.

#Related

• Issue reference
• Indexability checks
• Comparing audits