Adding Pages to a Site
Introduction
AAArdvark makes it easy to add pages to your site, whether you’re using a sitemap for bulk uploads or manually adding individual pages. The features you can access depend on your plan, so this guide will walk you through all the options to get started quickly.
What’s a sitemap?
A sitemap is like a blueprint for your website – it lists all your site’s pages and their structure. By uploading a sitemap to AAArdvark, you can easily view and add multiple pages at once, saving time and effort.
Add the Site
Before you can add pages, make sure your site is set up in AAArdvark. If you’re unsure how to do this, check out our Site Configuration Guide.
Page Limitations by Plan
Each AAArdvark Workspace plan includes a set number of pages and sites.
The first site and page are free, but upgrading your Workspace Plan lets you scan and audit additional pages and sites. Check out the AAArdvark Workspace pricing.
Homepage Only Settings
If you’re using the single 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. If your Workspace plan supports multiple pages, you’re set – skip ahead to Adding Pages to a Site. If you’re on the free plan or you’ve used up your page allowance, you’ll need to upgrade your Workspace plan first.
To start an upgrade from your site dashboard, click the Upgrade Workspace link in your Dashboard, or open the User Menu and go to Plan & Billing.
Visit the Plan & Billing guide for more information on upgrading plans.
Pages Page
If your Workspace plan supports multiple pages, the Site Dashboard sidebar shows a Pages menu item where Homepage Settings used to be. If you don’t see it, upgrade your plan, then head back to the Site Dashboard and click it.
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
- View and update the Manual Testing Status to the pages
- Assign a tester to the pages
- Scan a single page or a subset of pages
- Edit or Delete Pages
Page Listings
Each page listing includes a few actions and useful links to their related issues.
Page URL
When clicking the URL, you can choose to either open the page in a new tab or view it in visual mode.
Page Listing Actions
Within the Actions column for each listing, you can scan, edit, or delete the page.
Use the Scan Icon to start scanning the single page you selected, the pencil icon with the Edit Page link to edit the Page Path, add Authentication Settings, or set a Scan Delay, or the trash can icon with the Delete Page button to remove this from the AAArdvark site plan and scope.
Also, if you select multiple pages with the checkbox, you can scan a subset of pages.
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.
Status
Each page listing includes a Status indicator showing its Manual Testing Status: Not Started, In Progress, Tested, or Skipped. Click the indicator to update the status directly from the row.
For what each status means and how to use them to track an audit, see Tracking Audit Progress in the Manual Testing Workflow guide.
Owners, Administrators, Project Managers, and Accessibility Testers can set and change page status. Developers and Clients see the status as a read-only badge.
Assigned Tester
Each page can have a team member assigned to it for manual testing. Click the tester field on a page row to assign or change who’s responsible for that page. Only team members whose role can be assigned issues appear in the dropdown – Developers and Clients don’t show up as options.
Accessibility Testers and above can assign testers. Developers and Clients cannot. See Assigning Testers in the Manual Testing Workflow guide for more detail, and Team Settings for the full role breakdown.
Batch Selecting Pages
Pages can be batch-selected by selecting the checkboxes next to them, or the top-most checkbox to select everything. With this, multiple pages can be scanned, deleted, have their status updated, have a tester assigned, or have their login settings updated at once.
If your site has authentication credentials saved, a Login settings option appears in the bulk action bar. Use it to mark multiple pages as Log in before scanning in one step, instead of editing each page individually. See the Site Authentication guide for details.
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
- Manual Testing Status (Not Started, In Progress, Tested, or Skipped)
Tester
Use the Tester button in the toolbar to filter pages by assigned team member. Each team member is shown with a count of their assigned pages.
Sorting Pages
The pages listing table allows you to sort pages by issue count or by using the sort filter options listed below:
- Page Path (A-Z)
- Newest
- Oldest
- Page Name (A-Z)
Sorting by Issues
Click the Issues column header to sort pages in ascending or descending order based on the number of issues per page.
Sorting By Filters
Click the Sort By button to sort pages using any of the filter options.
When a new sorting option is selected, the previously applied sorting is automatically cleared. Only the most recently selected sorting option will be active.
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.
Only upgraded workspaces with paid plans can add more pages to a site.
Uploading a Sitemap
To upload a sitemap:
- Click the Add a Page menu, then select Upload Sitemap.
- On the Add a Sitemap page, choose one of these options:
- Auto-detect a Sitemap: If your site uses a standard sitemap file (e.g.,
sitemap.xml), AAArdvark will detect it automatically. Click Use Sitemap to proceed. - Enter a Sitemap URL: Paste the link to your sitemap file and click Set Sitemap.
- Upload a Sitemap File: Select an XML file from your computer (up to 10MB).
Once the sitemap is uploaded, you can start adding pages to your plan!
Empty Sitemap State
If your sitemap uploads successfully but no pages appear in the list, the list shows an empty state. This usually means the sitemap is valid, but the pages could not be retrieved.
If this happens, try the following steps:
- Open your sitemap URL in a browser to confirm it lists page URLs as XML – not a download or an empty page.
- If your sitemap is compressed or generated dynamically, download the file and upload it directly instead of using the URL.
- Double-check that the sitemap URL is correct and points to the right file.
Add Pages From Sitemap
Once a sitemap is loaded, open Add a Page > From Sitemap on the Pages screen. The Add Pages From Sitemap page lists your sitemap’s pages with Path, Date Last Modified, and Priority columns. Above the list, a Current Sitemap card shows the sitemap URL with Edit URL and Update Sitemap buttons.
To add pages:
- Use the checkboxes to select the pages you want, then click Add selected pages.
- Or select an entire path-segment section at once using its section checkbox (see Grouped by Path below).
Grouped by Path
Pages from your sitemap are grouped into collapsible sections by their top-level path (for example, all pages under /blog group together). Each section header has its own checkbox to select every not-yet-added page in that section, a page count for the section, and a small bar showing that section’s size relative to the largest section. If a path has only a single page under it, that page shows as a plain row instead of a group – nothing to expand.
Add All Pages Not Added
If your plan has room, AAArdvark offers to add every not-yet-added page in one step. When you open the sitemap page, a “Let’s make things easier for you” popup appears: “Workspace has space for [N] more pages, and your sitemap currently contains [X] pages that are not being tested.” Click Yes to add all [X] pages at once, or Cancel to choose pages yourself.
If you dismissed the popup, you can still add everything using the select-all menu (the caret next to the top checkbox) and choosing Select All not added.
Setting Up a New Site? Use the Guided Wizard
If you’re adding pages while setting up a new site on a paid, multi-page plan, you go through a guided 3-step wizard instead, and Step 2 (Add pages) replaces the screen above with a single command bar: the sitemap’s page count, a room for [N] more badge, a capacity meter, the folded sitemap source, and one Import all [N] pages button. When your sitemap is larger than your plan allows, the badge reads room for [N], the capacity meter shows a Limit reached state, and the button becomes Import the first [N] alongside a Get more room on your plan link. The grouped page list sits below the command bar.
See Adding a Site for the full wizard walkthrough.
Added Pages
Once the pages are added to AAArdvark, the page listing will be shown alongside a paragraph that says Added. Also, the checkbox for those added pages is disabled and non-clickable.
Scan Now Prompt
After adding pages via the sitemap flow or manually, a prompt will appear at the top of your Pages list with the option to start a scan right away.
This is a quick way to kick off a scan right after expanding your page coverage. If you’re not ready to scan yet, you can dismiss the prompt and start a scan later from the Pages list.
Filter, Sort, and Search From Sitemap
Above the page list, a toolbar holds a filter button, a search box, a select-all checkbox with a dropdown caret, and a circular remove icon that clears all your checkbox selections. Clearing selections does not delete pages or sitemap entries.
The filter button opens a Filter pages list with Not added to AAArdvark plus High, Medium, and Low Priority options. The priority options only appear when your sitemap’s XML includes priority values. By default the list is filtered to Not added to AAArdvark.
You can also use the Date Last Modified and Priority columns to sort the pages.
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
Want to add specific pages one at a time? Here’s how to do it manually:
- Click the Add a Page menu, then select Manually.
- In the New Page Editor, fill out:
- Page Path: Enter the URL path for the page. Page paths can be up to 3,000 characters long, so you can add pages with long or complex URLs.
- Authentication Settings: Indicate if logging in is required to view this page
- Scan Delay: Set a delay to handle slow-loading elements.
- Click Save & Add More to continue adding pages, or Save & Done to finish.
Add Pages in Visual Mode
Already exploring your site in Visual Mode? You can add pages to your site as you discover them; no need to jump back to the Pages table or upload a sitemap. This is handy for pages that aren’t in your sitemap, like content behind a login or pages you only find by clicking through the site.
- Open any added page in Visual Mode.
- Enable the Browse Site toggle.
- Click through your site until you reach a page you’d like to add.
- Turn on Show Page Info to confirm the current page path at the top of the screen.
- Click Add Page to add the current page to your site.
- Once added, click Scan Page to scan it right away, or continue browsing to add more pages.
Pages added this way appear in your Pages table just like pages added from a sitemap or manually, where you can filter, sort, and re-scan them at any time.
Updating Sitemap
When your site changes – pages removed, new pages added, etc. – your sitemap in AAArdvark won’t automatically reflect those changes.
To update the sitemap, head to Pages > Add a Page > From Sitemap and click the Update Sitemap button on the Current Sitemap card.
Updating the sitemap will:
- Delete all existing sitemap pages
- Fetch and process the latest version of your sitemap
- This will not affect pages you have already added to your site
To go ahead with the update, click on Yes, Update Sitemap. The new Sitemap will display updated pages that will load in the next step.
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.