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Cannot Add Site

Introduction

This guide provides solutions for common errors that may arise when adding a site to AAArdvark. If these steps don’t resolve your issue, our support team is here to help.

Error messages include:

  • “The entered URL could not be reached.”
  • “example.com is not a valid URL.”
  • “Access Denied: Access to the page was denied”
  • It looks like you pasted HTML code. Please enter a URL (e.g., https://example.com) to scan your site.
  • It looks like you entered a local host address. AAArdvark is a cloud-based scanner and can only scan websites that are publicly available on the internet.

URL Is Not Valid

If you encounter the error ‘[your site] is not a valid URL,’ try these solutions:

  1. Check for Invalid Characters:
    Remove spaces or unsupported symbols from the URL.
  2. Ensure Proper Formatting:
    Follow the format: “https:// + domain + top-level domain (e.g., .com, .org).”
  3. Use HTTPS Protocol:
    Verify that the URL uses the HTTPS protocol for secure access.

Examples of invalid URLs:

  • https://example…com – Contains extra dots before the top-level domain.
  • https://ex amp le.com – Includes spaces, which are not allowed in URLs.
  • https://example – Missing a top-level domain (e.g., .com or .org).

Pasted HTML Code Instead of a URL

If you see this error: ‘It looks like you pasted HTML code. Please enter a URL (e.g., https://example.com) to scan your site.‘ It means HTML markup was pasted into the URL field instead of a plain web address.

Invalid URL error shown when HTML code is pasted into the Base URL field instead of a web address.
Invalid URL error shown when HTML code is pasted into the Base URL field instead of a web address.

To resolve it, enter your site’s domain URL directly – for example: `https://yoursite.com`

Local or Non-Public URL

AAArdvark is a cloud-based scanner, which means it can only access sites that are publicly available on the internet. If you enter a local or non-public URL, you’ll see this message:

“It looks like you entered a local host address. AAArdvark is a cloud-based scanner and can only scan websites that are publicly available on the internet.”

An error returned when adding a site with URL Not Publicly Accessible
An error returned when adding a site with URL Not Publicly Accessible

This error appears when the URL entered is a local development environment address that AAArdvark’s scanner cannot reach from the internet. Common examples include:

  • localhost URLs – for example, http://localhost:3000 or http://127.0.0.1
  • Local development domains – for example, .local, .test, or .dev domains used by tools like MAMP, DDEV, or Lando (e.g., mysite.lndo.site, mysite.ddev.site)
  • Private IP addresses – for example, http://192.168.1.10 or http://10.0.0.5
  • File paths – for example, file:///Users/yourname/mysite/index.html

To scan one of these, deploy your site to a staging or production environment with a public domain. If the staging site needs to stay private, you can use HTTP Basic Auth instead. See the Site Authentication guide.

URL or Site Could Not Be Reached

If you encounter the following errors:

  • ‘The entered URL could not be reached’
  • ‘Host Resolution Error’
  • ‘Connection Failed’
  • ‘SSL/TLS Connection Error’
  • ‘Empty Response’
  • ‘Connection Interrupted’
  • ‘Invalid SSL Certificate’
The site could not be reached due to a host resolution error, and therefore could not be validated.

Work through these checks in order:

  1. Check for typos:
    Ensure the domain name is spelled correctly and includes the right extension (e.g., `.com`, `.org`).
  2. Verify server status:
    Open the URL in a browser to confirm the site is live. If the site doesn’t load for you either, it’s down. Contact your hosting provider.
  3. Avoid server overload:
    Ensure your server isn’t overloaded with requests or processes that make it unresponsive.
  4. Resolve DNS issues:
    Confirm the URL points to a live, registered domain. AAArdvark cannot scan locally hosted sites.
  5. Check page availability:
    If you added a specific page URL (not just the homepage), make sure it hasn’t been moved or deleted.
  6. Check the site’s SSL certificate:
    Ensure the site has a valid SSL certificate. If you use Cloudflare, set your SSL/TLS mode to Full or Full (Strict) rather than Flexible. See the Cloudflare Compatibility guide.

Request Accepted but Not Completed

If you see ‘Request Accepted but Not Completed,’ your server confirmed it received the request but didn’t return the page itself (an HTTP 202 response). AAArdvark needs the actual page content to scan, so it can’t continue.

Make sure the URL points to a regular web page, not a job-queue, webhook, or API endpoint.

Request Accepted but Not Completed error.

Connection Error

‘Connection Error’ is a catch-all for any other network problem AAArdvark runs into while validating your site. The alert includes a numeric code (for example, cURL error 18) that’s helpful to share with our support team.

  • Retry the validation once, since transient network issues usually clear on their own.
  • If it keeps happening, contact our support team and include the code shown in the alert.
Connection error, unable to validate the site.

Access Denied or Request Timeout

The error ‘Access Denied: Access to the page was denied’ or ‘Request Timeout: The site took too long to respond and validation could not complete’ typically occurs when your site’s security settings block bot traffic.

To resolve this, follow our guide on allowlisting AAArdvark requests.

Access Denied error, “Access to the page was denied”.

Workspace Limit Reached

When the workspace limit is reached, you cannot add any more sites to your workspace. To resolve this, the workspace will need to be upgraded.

Visit the Plan & Billing page to upgrade.

Still stuck?

File a support ticket with our five-star support team to get more help.

File a ticket

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  • Please provide any information that will be helpful in helping you get your issue fixed. What have you tried already? What results did you expect? What did you get instead?

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