What do verified, likely and unverified mean on an audit finding?

What gets pitched

Only verified and likely findings become problems under Detected Problems, and only those are used in your AI emails, on the proof page and in the lead's score. Unverified findings are listed under Worth a look, not verified instead, so you can check the site yourself. A lead can still make a filtered search because of one, as explained in why a lead appears without the problem you searched for.

How each level looks in the audit

• Found, Installed or Yes in green: the audit saw it on the site.
• Not found (verified) in red: Google's rendered page load confirmed it is missing.
• Not found in red, with no label: likely. It was missing from every page the audit read.
• Not found (unverified) in amber: unverified. The same label appears on other rows, such as None seen (unverified) for the H1 heading.

Some rows say Missing or No viewport tag in place of Not found, with the same labels after them.

Why a finding shows unverified

An absence is marked unverified when the audit could not have seen the thing even if it was there:

• The site is built with JavaScript. The homepage code arrives with very little readable text, and the content is filled in as the page loads. Missing tools and sections are unverified, and so are the homepage's H1, image alt text and word count.
• Only the homepage could be read. The audit found no contact, about or booking page it could open. See which pages the audit checks.
• A page was too large to read in full. The audit reads about the first 1 MB of each page, and what looks missing may be in the part it did not read.
• The site uses a website builder. Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Duda, GoDaddy's builder, Webflow and Shopify often add forms, analytics, pixels, chat, booking and email signups while the page loads. On these sites a missing contact form, analytics, Meta pixel, chat widget, online booking or email capture is unverified.
• Google Tag Manager is installed. Tag Manager can load a Meta pixel, a Google Ads tag or a chat widget after the page opens, so those are unverified.

How Google's page load settles them

Google's PageSpeed test opens the site in a real browser on a phone, so it sees what JavaScript adds.

• Automatically. After a search completes, the test runs on up to 25 leads that still have a likely or unverified finding. Each takes about 20 seconds, so changes can land a few minutes after the search finishes.
• By hand. Open a lead that has no Google PageSpeed row yet and click ⚡ Get Google's Official Score in the Live Website Audit section. It takes about 20 seconds.

If analytics, a Meta pixel, an ad tag or chat loads during Google's test, the finding is cleared. If a full page load shows none, the finding becomes Not found (verified) and moves to Detected Problems. For a contact form, booking tool or email signup, Google's load can only confirm that one is there. It also settles the mobile viewport, title tag, meta description and image alt text.

When the test worked, the Pages checked row ends with + Google rendered load. If Google's load was blocked or cut short, the tool findings stay as they were. See why findings change after PageSpeed runs.