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heddle check --only tools

Free Tool Page Check

The tools check fails a free tool page that only describes a tool, doesn't say it's free, hides how it decides, or tracks the visitor. Without it, a free tool can turn into a page about a tool, or quietly pick up the same analytics as the rest of the site. A free tool page has to be a tool.

When Heddle is set up on your site, this check runs on every build alongside 25 others, so a page that fails it is fixed before a buyer or a search engine sees it.

runs offlineruns every build

Why it exists

A free tool page has to be a tool. The family exists because a working generator or checker earns links and searches that an article about one doesn't. It goes wrong in two ways. The page describes a tool instead of being one, or it's a lead form in disguise that tracks whoever uses it.

For every row of the tools family (heddle/generated/tools.json), on its built page:

  • the tool is in the HTML, as a form control (input, textarea, select or button) inside the main content, so it's there before any script runs and an engine can see the page is the thing it's named for;
  • WebApplication (or SoftwareApplication) markup with a name, an applicationCategory, and either isAccessibleForFree or an offer at 0;
  • the method is on the page. The opening of the row's method appears in the text, so a visitor can check how the tool decides;
  • no tracking, so no script, iframe or pixel from another host, and no inline analytics (gtag, a tag manager, PostHog, Plausible, Segment, Hotjar, Clarity, the Meta pixel, Mixpanel, Matomo, Umami). What a visitor types into a free tool isn't anybody's business.

Skipped when the site has no tools family.

From lib/checks/tools.mjs in the Heddle repository at ddb1b16.

Questions

What does the tools check look for?

Free tool pages: the tool is in the HTML, WebApplication markup says it is free, the method is stated, and nothing on the page tracks the visitor.

Does the tools check need an AI model?

No. It reads the built pages or the sources directly, so it runs offline and costs nothing per run.

How do I run it?

Build the site, then run node bin/heddle.mjs check <site> --only tools from the Heddle repository.

Work with us

Let the agents bring you the leads.

Tell us about your business and who buys from you. On a short call we'll show you the searches your buyers make where you don't show up yet, and what the agents would do about them in their first month.

See the plans

On the call, for your site

  1. The searches your buyers makeMeasured, with how many people make each one
  2. Where you show up, and where you don'tOn Google and in ChatGPT's answers
  3. The agents' first monthThe pages, fixes and links they would start with