Best practices
HTTP/2, compression, caching, consent, privacy links and the basics of a well-built site.
Guides
- Best practices9 min read
ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE: when there is no route to the address
ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE means your device found no route to the site's address. A VPN remnant, broken IPv6 or a stale router causes most cases.Updated 29 Oct 2026 - Best practices10 min read
Is my website down? The 5-minute triage
A website down checker tells you whether your site is down for everyone or just you. Here is the 5-minute triage, and what to do in the first 10 minutes.Updated 28 Oct 2026 - Best practices10 min read
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT: what the silence means and how to fix it
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT means the browser asked for a connection and nothing ever answered. Clear the visitor-side causes in minutes, then find what is swallowing packets on the way to your server.Updated 26 Oct 2026 - Best practices10 min read
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED: fix it on Android and desktop
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED means Chrome could not get any usable DNS answer for the address, so it had nothing to connect to. Here is the Android fix ladder with the exact settings paths, the short desktop version, and the rare case where the site is the cause.Updated 23 Oct 2026 - Best practices12 min read
WHOIS lookup: read a domain's public record
What a WHOIS lookup shows and how to run one: every field of the record explained, the status codes that protect a domain, and where RDAP has taken over.Updated 22 Oct 2026 - Best practices12 min read
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: fixes for visitors, localhost and servers
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED means the machine is there and actively turned the connection away. Here are the visitor steps, the localhost diagnosis with the exact commands, and the server-side causes in the order they actually occur.Updated 21 Oct 2026 - Best practices13 min read
DNS lookup: how to run one and read every record
Run a DNS lookup with dig or nslookup and read every field of the answer: sections, flags, TTLs and all ten record types, with commands to copy.Updated 18 Oct 2026 - Best practices12 min read
"This site can't be reached": every variant of the Chrome error
"This site can't be reached" is Chrome's cover page for several different failures, and the sub-code underneath decides the fix. Match your code in the table, jump to its fix, or run the checklist that clears most cases.Updated 15 Oct 2026 - Best practices21 min read
What is DNS? Records, resolvers and TTLs in plain language
DNS turns the names people type into the addresses machines connect to. How a lookup really travels, every record type that matters, TTLs, caching and the commands to see it yourself.Updated 11 Oct 2026 - Best practices14 min read
What is a reverse proxy? Caddy, nginx and Cloudflare explained
A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of your website or app: it receives every request from the internet and forwards each one to the application behind it. What it is used for, the minimal Caddy and nginx configs, and the headers that keep it from breaking your site.Updated 9 Oct 2026 - Best practices12 min read
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN: fixes for visitors and site owners
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN means the DNS lookup came back with "no such name", so the browser had no address to connect to. Here are the visitor fixes in order, then how site owners find the expired domain or missing record behind it.Updated 8 Oct 2026 - Best practices13 min read
Brotli compression: gzip vs Brotli and how to enable it
Brotli compression shrinks HTML, CSS and JavaScript by around 80 % before they leave your server, a few percent better than gzip. What to compress, which to pick, and configs for nginx, Apache, Caddy and Cloudflare.Updated 4 Oct 2026 - Best practices13 min read
Browser caching: what to cache, for how long, and how to set Cache-Control
Browser caching lets returning visitors load your CSS, scripts, fonts and images from their own device instead of downloading them again. Three Cache-Control policies cover every file, with configs for nginx, Apache, Caddy, Cloudflare and WordPress.Updated 4 Oct 2026 - Best practices14 min read
What are cookies on a website? First-party, third-party, session and persistent
Cookies on a website are small pieces of text a site asks your browser to store and send back on later visits. What they do, first-party vs third-party, session vs persistent, and whether they are safe.Updated 4 Oct 2026 - Best practices16 min read
Cookie banner requirements: what a compliant banner needs, with examples
A cookie banner asks visitors for permission before a site sets analytics or advertising cookies. What EU and UK rules require from it, examples that pass and fail, and how to build and test one.Updated 27 Sept 2026 - Best practices15 min read
Strictly necessary cookies: what may load before consent, and how to prove the rest waits
Strictly necessary cookies are the only ones a site may set before a visitor answers the cookie banner. Which cookies qualify, why cookie walls rarely do, and how to make Tag Manager, Consent Mode and your consent platform hold back everything else.Updated 27 Sept 2026 - Best practices14 min read
CCPA cookie banner: what California requires for cookies and "Do Not Sell or Share"
The CCPA does not require an EU-style opt-in cookie banner, but covered businesses must give notice, offer "Do Not Sell or Share", honour Global Privacy Control and design choices without dark patterns. What that means for your cookies.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices23 min read
Cookie consent: what the law requires and how to check your site
Cookie consent is the permission a website needs before it stores or reads non-essential cookies on a visitor's device. What EU, UK and US rules require, what Google Consent Mode v2 does, and how to check what your site really does.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices14 min read
Cookie policy: what it is, whether you need one and what it must list
A cookie policy is the page that tells visitors which cookies and similar technologies your website uses, why, who sets them and for how long. When you need one, what to put in it, and how to keep it true.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices14 min read
Google Analytics and the GDPR: is it compliant, and how to run it with consent
Google Analytics can be used lawfully under the GDPR, but not by default: it needs prior consent in the EU, the right GA4 settings, a data processing agreement and an honest privacy notice. What the regulators decided and what to set.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices13 min read
Google Consent Mode v2: basic vs advanced, and what it changes in GA4 and Ads
Google Consent Mode passes each visitor's cookie choice to Google tags so they adjust what they store and send. What v2 added, basic vs advanced mode, what changes in GA4 and Google Ads, and how to set it up and verify it.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices20 min read
How to make a website mobile-friendly: viewport, layout, text and tap targets
Add the viewport tag, let the layout fit any screen, keep text readable and tap targets large, and serve phones the same content Google indexes.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
Media queries and breakpoints: which screen sizes to design for
CSS media queries change a layout when a condition is true, usually the screen width. The syntax, the features worth using, which breakpoints to choose based on real screen sizes, and the mistakes that break layouts.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices14 min read
Mobile-first design: content priority, layout and speed, phone first
Mobile-first design means designing and building the phone version of a page first and adding to it for larger screens. How to decide content priority, lay out for thumbs, and keep the page fast.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
Responsive web design: what it is, how it works, and responsive vs adaptive
Responsive web design is one page whose layout adapts to every screen with CSS. How it works, the layout patterns with examples, how it compares with adaptive design and separate mobile sites, and how to test it.Updated 26 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
Console errors and deprecated APIs: what the report flags
What the console errors, deprecated APIs and document.write findings mean, where the errors usually come from, and how to reproduce and fix each one, with code for the common cases.Updated 25 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
Custom 404 pages that help: status codes, content and the check
A good 404 page keeps the visitor on your site and tells search engines the page is gone. What to put on it, how to make sure it returns a real 404, and how getReport tests yours with a random URL.Updated 25 Sept 2026 - Best practices14 min read
GA4 and Tag Manager: what they cost your page and how to load them
See what GA4 and Google Tag Manager cost your page in bytes and main-thread time, the loading options ranked by cost, Consent Mode v2 defaults in code, and a container clean-up list.Updated 25 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
HTML validation errors: which ones matter and which are noise
A validator can list 200 errors on a page that works. Learn the handful that change how browsers, screen readers and Google read the page, how to find them, and which ones you can safely ignore.Updated 25 Sept 2026 - Best practices11 min read
Privacy policy and contact links: the trust signals a report checks
What the privacy policy and contact checks look for, what a small site's privacy policy and contact page should contain, where to link them, and how to keep the policy in line with your cookies.Updated 25 Sept 2026
Check all 28 at once
The HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 test runs every check on this page against your site.