GitHub

Rules Reference

All 245 audit rules organized by category

squirrelscan includes 245 rules across 22 categories. Each rule checks for specific SEO, accessibility, performance, security, or site-integrity issues.

Most rules run locally for free. A handful of cloud rules use AI analysis, full filter lists, or live search data - they require login and are skipped when you’re not logged in. Cloud rules carry a notice banner on their doc pages.

Categories

Core SEO

Essential meta tags and page structure for search engines (13 rules)

Content

Text quality, readability, and content structure (14 rules)

Links

Internal and external link health and structure (14 rules)

Images

Image optimization and accessibility (14 rules)

Structured Data

Structured data and rich snippet eligibility (10 rules)

Security

HTTPS, headers, and safe link practices (14 rules)

Site Integrity

Signs of compromise: injected pages, phishing kits, malware, SEO spam (6 rules)

Accessibility

Accessibility for users with disabilities (59 rules)

Internationalization

Language declarations and multi-region support (2 rules)

Agent Experience

AI-agent readiness: AI crawler access, LLM parsability, page-type, site profile (5 rules)

Performance

Page speed and loading performance (26 rules)

Social Media

Open Graph and social sharing metadata (4 rules)

Crawlability

Robots.txt, sitemaps, and crawl directives (17 rules)

URL Structure

URL structure, length, and formatting (8 rules)

Mobile

Mobile-friendliness and responsive design (6 rules)

Legal Compliance

Privacy policy and legal compliance signals (4 rules)

Local SEO

Local business schema and NAP consistency (3 rules)

Video

Video content markup and accessibility (3 rules)

Analytics

Tracking and measurement implementation (2 rules)

E-E-A-T

Experience, expertise, authority, trust signals (15 rules)

Blocking

Content, links, and trackers blocked by ad blockers and privacy filters (3 rules)

Gap Analysis

Keyword and content gaps backed by live search data (2 rules, opt-in)

Configuration

Enable/Disable Rules

Use glob patterns in squirrel.toml:

squirrel.toml
toml
[rules]
# Enable specific rules or categories
enable = ["*"]  # all rules (default)

# Disable specific rules
disable = [
  "ax/*", "ai/*",   # disable all Agent Experience rules
  "content/word-count",  # disable specific rule
]

Rule Options

Some rules have configurable options:

squirrel.toml
toml
[rules."core/meta-title"]
min_length = 30
max_length = 75

[rules."content/word-count"]
min_words = 300

See individual rule pages for available options.

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