Adding Pages to a Site
Introduction
There are various ways to add pages to your site’s AAArdvark plan, either through sitemaps or manually. Depending on the page plan your site is using, the available features will also vary.
What’s a sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that provides information on a website’s pages, categories, and relationships. Uploading a sitemap to AAArdvark will allow you to easily view and add pages from your site.
Add the Site
Before we begin, please add your site to AAArdvark. If you aren’t familiar with how to set this up, please refer to this nifty Site Configuration guide.
Page Limitations by Plan
AAArdvark website plans are differentiated by the number of pages they support. Homepages are always free, but if you plan to add more pages, you’ll need to upgrade your plan.
Homepage Only Settings
If you’re using the Homepage Only plan, after adding a site, you’ll have access to the Homepage Settings menu item in the sidebar. Navigating to this page will let you:
- Edit the Base URL Path for the site by clicking on the “I understand, unlock editing” button
- Enable Authentication Settings in case a login is necessary to scan the page
- Set a Scan Delay to help with pages where the scan is not fully capturing all the elements due to slower loading speeds
To test more than the homepage for your site, you’ll need to upgrade to add more pages.
Editing Homepage
To edit the Base URL Path, click on the “I understand, unlock editing” button and enter the slug for the new Homepage. Please note that this should only be used if the homepage changes location, for example, when a subdirectory is added.
Pages Overview
After adding a site, your homepage will be added automatically. But if you’d like to add more pages, you can begin the plan upgrade process from your site dashboard. Either click on the Add More Pages link on the Site Dashboard or open the User Menu and visit the Plan & Billing list item link.
Visit the Plan & Billing guide for more information on upgrading plans.
Pages Page
Once your site plan is upgraded, head back to the Site Dashboard and click on the new Pages menu item in the sidebar. The old Homepage Settings tab will be replaced with the new Pages menu item.
From the Pages page, you’ll be able to see a list of all the pages included for your site, and when you first visit, it’ll show your homepage in the table.
From the Pages page, you can:
- Filter your pages
- Search for a page
- Add a page via Sitemap or Manually
- Open issues in Visual Mode or List View
- Edit or Delete Pages
Page Listings
Each page listing includes a few actions and useful links to their related issues.
Page Listing Actions
Within the Actions column for each listing you can edit or delete the page. Use the pencil icon with the Edit Page link to edit the Page Path, add Authentication Settings, or set a Scan Delay. Or, use the trash can icon with the Delete Page button to remove this from the AAArdvark site plan and scope.
Page Listing Issues
The Issues column includes an Issues menu button for each page listing where you can see at a glance how many Issues each page has. Clicking the menu button shows you items for Open in Visual Mode, and for Open in List View. These will take you to the respective issue viewing pages with that specific page already pre-selected.
Filter Pages
Select the All button at the top-left corner of the Pages listing table to use the filter checkboxes. Filters for the pages include:
- All
- Pages with scan errors
- Pages with issue instances
- Pages without issue instances
- Pages manually added
- Pages imported from sitemap
Sorting Pages
The pages listing table also has the ability to sort pages by Issues count. Click on the Issues column button to sort pages in ascending or descending order by the number of issues per page.
Searching Pages
The Search Pages bar helps you find pages by their slug. Enter a search term, and you’ll immediately see the results for matches. The matching words or letters will also be highlighted in yellow.
Adding Pages to a Site
AAArdvark lets you add pages using two methods: From Sitemap and Manually. The Sitemap option is best for adding pages in bulk while adding pages manually lets you add a single specific page at a time.
Uploading a Sitemap
Click the Add a Page menu, and select the Upload Sitemap menu item. This will take you to the Add a Sitemap page, where you will have a few options to begin using a sitemap.
- AAArdvark can auto-detect existing sitemaps on your site if they exist under conventional filenames (ex. https://yoursite/sitemap.xml). If AAArdvark is auto-detecting this, you can click Use Sitemap.
- If AAArdvark doesn’t detect a sitemap on your website, you can also enter the custom Sitemap URL or filename and click Set Sitemap.
- Or, Upload the Sitemap XML file, which can be up to 10MB.
Add Pages From Sitemap
After the sitemap is uploaded, it’ll load the Add Pages From Sitemap page, where you can start adding pages from your Sitemap. You can also come back at any time to add more pages to your AAArdvark site by clicking on Add a Page menu and then the From Sitemap menu item.
In the Add Pages from Sitemap page, use the checkboxes to select all the pages that you’d like to include in your AAArdvark site scans and audits. When you’re done selecting pages, click on the Add Selected Pages button.
Add All Pages Not Added
If you have enough space remaining in your AAArdvark site plan, a popup will prompt you to add all the pages from your sitemap. This will automatically add the remaining pages, but you can still modify, remove, and customize them as needed later.
If you don’t see this popup, you can still add all the remaining pages by using the Select All menu button and checking the box for Select All not added.
Filter, Sort, and Search From Sitemap
From this page, you can also Filter the pages by priority order or by whether they’ve been added to AAArdvark. You can also use the Date Last Modified and Priority columns to sort the pages. And you can search for pages.
Lastly, you can use the trash can icon, which is also the Remove all items button, to clear all your checkbox selections. This does not delete pages or sitemap entries.
Priority and Date Last Modified
The Priority and Date Last Modified columns in the Sitemap page listing come from your XML file attributes. Both of these attributes are optional for XML files, so they may be blank.
- Priority values range from 1.0 – 0.0, where 1.0 is the highest priority
- Priority usually defaults to 0.5
Add Pages Manually
AAArdvark will also let you manually add individual pages. To get started, click on the Add a Page menu and then the Manually menu item. This will open the New Page editor, where you can enter the Page Path, Add Authentication Settings, and set a Scan Delay.
If you do not have your Authentication Settings set up and you’d like to scan the page as a logged-in user, you’ll be directed back to your Site Configuration settings to finish the setup.
When you’re done, click the Save & Add More button to continue adding pages, or click the Save & Done button to finish the manual page creation process.
Running Scans on the Pages
Now that you have your pages added, you’re ready for the next step: Scans.
Follow along with our guide on Scanning.
