How Bernard checks your site - and what he does about it
Most website tools hand you a hundred warnings and wish you luck. Bernard works the other way round: he watches your site, tells you the handful of things that actually matter, fixes them when you say so - and then proves the fix worked.
The prompt
“Check my site for problems, list the most important ones in plain words, and wait for me to choose what to fix.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
What gets checked
Every time you publish, Bernard re-reads your live site and runs four checks:
- Broken links - a link on your site pointing at a page that doesn’t exist. Visitors hit a dead end; Google notices too.
- Page details - every page should have its own title and description, because that’s what Google shows in search results. Missing or duplicated ones make pages easy to skip.
- Structured data - the behind-the-scenes description that tells search engines what your business offers. If it’s broken or incomplete, Google can’t read it.
- Speed and usability - Google’s own independent test (the same one behind your Lighthouse score) grades how fast and usable your home page is, on a phone and on a computer.
What you’ll see
Problems appear on your site’s page under Things Bernard can still improve, grouped in plain English - “People are being sent to a missing page”, “Missing page details” - with the heaviest first. Each one explains why a real visitor would care, keeps the technical detail one click away, and carries two buttons:
- Fix this - Bernard prepares the change on a draft. You see a preview; nothing goes live until you approve it.
- Dismiss - not everything is worth doing. Dismissed items stay quietly out of the way. Dismissing a speed suggestion puts away that kind of suggestion for that device, so it doesn’t come back with a new name.
Speed: phones and computers, separately
Speed suggestions say which device they are about - Slow to load on phones or Slow to load on computers - because a site can be quick on one and slow on the other. Above the list, How fast your site is gives each device’s score out of 100 and says whether there is still something worth doing.
Bernard only suggests speed changes that are worth it. A device scoring 90 or more gets none, and a change Google expects to save less than about a tenth of a second is left off, because the last few points often cost quality (smaller pictures, plainer fonts). These are put away, never marked Fixed, and they come back by themselves if the score drops. If you and Bernard agree the speed is good enough on phones or computers, tell him in the workshop and he will stop suggesting it until you ask again.
To have several done at once, tick them and let Bernard work through them while you get on with your day, then approve them together. See I want Bernard to fix several things on my list at once.
If automated fixes are switched on, Bernard may prepare one suitable routine fix without waiting for you to tick it. It is marked Automated fix in the email, on the draft and in the review. The email explains what Bernard found, which pages are affected, the prepared change, and why it supports the goal you chose. You still make the decision: Apply fix publishes that prepared change, while Discard fix removes it and stops the same finding being prepared again.
Automated fixes need a goal. If the site has none, Bernard asks you to choose what he should work towards, such as better Google visibility, more enquiries or more purchases. He does not guess one, and he does not prepare an automated fix until one is set. See How do I choose what Bernard works towards?.
Bernard checks his own work
After a fix goes live, the same check runs again. A genuine win shows as ✓ Fixed, with the proof. If the checker still flags the problem, Bernard says so honestly - “Published - though Google’s checker still flags this one” - and offers another pass. There are no quiet ticks.
The story, kept
Open What’s happened under any item and you’ll see its whole story: when Bernard spotted it, when you asked for it to be sorted, when the change went live, and what the re-check found. A few weeks after a fix, Bernard adds the final chapter from real Google data - how often the page was shown, and how many people came.
That last part is the point. Anyone can generate a to-do list; Bernard keeps the receipts.
What to do first
Speed and page-detail findings live here, on your site’s page. For the short answer to “what should I improve first?”, across everything Bernard checks, look at Bernard’s list on your home page.
Bernard’s list is also where you choose the goal he works towards and how much of his own work, over time, he does without asking - see How Bernard looks after things for me.
When Bernard is allowed to fix a routine problem himself, he checks his own work the same way: the fix must be live and nothing else may have changed (Is it safe to let Bernard do things on his own?, What happens when Bernard gets something wrong?).
Questions people ask
- What exactly does Bernard check?
- Four things. Links that point at missing pages, so visitors never hit a dead end. Page details - the titles and descriptions Google shows in search results. Structured data - the behind-the-scenes description that tells search engines what your business offers. And Google’s own speed and usability test, which grades how fast and usable your pages are on a phone.
- When do the checks run?
- Every time you publish, Bernard re-reads the live site and re-runs the checks - so the list is always about the site as it is now, not as it was. Google’s speed test is also re-measured after publishes, and once a week Bernard gathers results for fixes that have had time to bed in.
- Does the speed test cover every page?
- No - it measures your home page, on a phone and on a computer, because that is the page most visitors land on first. There is no separate score for each of your other pages. If one page feels slow, ask Bernard to look at that page and he will check what is weighing it down.
- Why doesn’t Bernard list every speed fix Google suggests?
- Because past a point they stop being worth it. Phones and computers are judged separately: once your site scores 90 or more out of 100 on one of them, Bernard stops suggesting speed changes for it, and he never lists a change Google itself expects to save less than about a tenth of a second. Squeezing out the last few points can mean smaller, blurrier pictures or plainer fonts, and a fast, good-looking site beats a slightly faster, worse-looking one. If your score drops, the suggestions come back by themselves.
- Can I tell Bernard the speed is fine as it is?
- Yes. Tell him in the workshop - for example “the speed on phones is good enough, stop suggesting changes” - and he will put those suggestions away until you ask him to look again. Dismissing one speed suggestion puts away that whole kind for that device, so it doesn’t come back reworded.
- Will I get buried in warnings?
- No. Bernard only lists problems worth acting on, grouped in plain English - things like “People are being sent to a missing page” - with the heaviest first. Anything he can’t explain in a sentence, with evidence, stays off your list.
- What happens when I press Fix this?
- Bernard prepares the change on a draft and shows you a preview. Nothing goes live until you approve it. If you’d rather not deal with something, Dismiss tucks it away and it won’t nag you again.
- How do I know a fix actually worked?
- Bernard checks his own work. After a fix goes live, the same check runs again: a genuine win shows as Fixed with the proof, and if the problem is still there, Bernard says so honestly and offers another pass - no quiet ticks.
- What is “What’s happened” under each item?
- Every item keeps its own story: when Bernard spotted it, when you asked for it to be sorted, when the change was prepared, when it went live, and what the re-check found. A few weeks after a fix, Bernard adds what it earned - how often Google showed the page and how many people came.