Scanning FAQ

Short answers to the questions we get most about how Consent Studio Monitoring scans your website. Where there's more to say, the answer links to the article with the full details.

Scan schedule

When is my website scanned?

On Essential and up, Monitoring scans your website automatically every seven days, on a fixed day of the week. You can usually find your next scan by adding 7 days to your last scan. You don't need to schedule anything.

Can I start a new scan myself?

On Professional and up, you can run a scan on demand whenever you like. On Essential, on-demand scans are not included: contact us and we can request a new scan for you.

I use Shopify. Does saving my crawler signature start a scan?

Yes, it starts a new scan automatically. See Shopify Monitoring access.

Will requesting several scans in a row speed things up?

No. Monitoring never runs two scans of the same site at once, and leaves a site alone for a few hours after any scan attempt.

Does adding a page under Pages to Scan start a new scan?

No, it does not. It will only be included on the next scan.

When was my website last scanned?

The Scan Context block at the top of your dashboard shows it. See Finding your way around the dashboard homepage.

What gets scanned

Which pages are scanned?

Your home page plus the pages you add under Pages to Scan. See How to tell Consent Studio which pages to scan?

Does Monitoring use my sitemap?

On Professional and up, it also scans a changing sample of pages from your sitemap. See How sitemap-based scanning works.

Are domain aliases scanned?

No. Domain aliases are not scanned separately; only your primary domain is scanned. See How Domain Aliases (and subdomains) work in Consent Studio.

Access problems

What happens when a scan fails?

Monitoring never reports "zero tracking technologies found" for a site it could not read. If our scanner is blocked, you get the critical recommendation Site access blocked.

What does "Site access blocked" mean?

Our scanner could not load your website. Your site and consent banner keep working for visitors; only Monitoring is on hold. See Site access blocked.

Which IP addresses does the scanner use?

See Scanner IP addresses.

My website uses Cloudflare or another firewall. What do I do?

Allowlist our scanner IP addresses. See Cloudflare and other firewalls.

My website is password-protected. Can it be scanned?

Yes, if it uses HTTP Basic Authentication (the browser's username/password prompt). Login forms, such as a WordPress login page, are not supported. See Password-protected sites (Basic Authentication).

I use Shopify. How do I give Monitoring access?

With a crawler signature, because Shopify does not let you allowlist IP addresses. A password-protected store can't be scanned until the store password is removed; Basic Authentication does not support it. See Shopify Monitoring access.

Some of my pages time out. Why?

Our scanner bypasses caches, so pages that load quickly from cache for you can still be too slow for the scanner, especially on mobile. See Pages timing out.

Effects on your website

Does a failed scan affect my visitors or my consent banner?

No. Your consent banner keeps working for your visitors; only Monitoring is affected. See Site access blocked.

Do scanner visits show up in my analytics?

They can. You can filter them out using the addresses in Scanner IP addresses.

Question not listed? Contact us.