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Changelog

Notable changes to VitalsLens. We log methodology shifts, new pages, schema improvements, and dataset expansions here so anyone citing the site can verify what changed and when.

  1. Rebrand to VitalsLens · dual-axis discoverability lens · free for 6 months

    • Rebranded from Web Vitals Explorer / WebVitalsTool to VitalsLens (canonical brand). Old name preserved as schema.org alternateName for SEO equity. Canonical domain transitions from webvitalstool.com to vitalslens.com (pending registration).
    • Concept pivot: from "performance monitoring tool" to dual-axis discoverability lens. Same Performance axis (CrUX) PLUS new Citation-readiness axis (Aleyda Solis 10-characteristic LLM-citation checklist scored 0.0 — 1.0 per dimension, server-side parse of static HTML).
    • NEW route /audit?url=<URL> — single-scan dual-axis audit, force-dynamic, ~5 min. Renders both axes + top-6 prioritized fixes + embed snippet.
    • NEW route /pricing — Free for 6 months (until November 2026) framing. Pro tier (€19/mo URL fleet monitoring) deferred to December 2026 launch; waitlist signups keep a free locked-in window.
    • NEW route /embed/audit?url=<URL> — iframe-friendly widget with mandatory "Powered by VitalsLens" attribution footer. Distribution moat: every embed = permanent backlink channel.
    • NEW route /api/audit?url=<URL> — JSON twin (CORS open, 20 req/min/IP, 5-min cache).
    • NEW route /vs — VitalsLens vs webvitals.dev vs PageSpeed Insights vs Plausible (side-by-side comparison + decision tree).
    • NEW lib/geo-audit.ts — ~530 LOC Aleyda 10-characteristic scoring engine. Server-side HTML parse via node-html-parser. Scores Accessible · Useful · Recognizable · Extractable · Consistent · Corroborated · Credible · Differentiated · Fresh · Transactable.
    • Schema additions: WebPage with datePublished + dateModified on homepage (Fresh signal); Person.sameAs[] (Credible signal); WebApplication offers updated for dual-tier (Free until Nov 2026; Pro PreOrder Dec 2026).
    • FAQPage JSON-LD on /pricing (8 Q&A pairs, ≤1 FAQ block per page per v18 LEARNED penalty).
    • Lens-family pairing: sister to HoldLens (holdlens.com), Person.sameAs cross-references operator identity on both properties.
    • Self-vitals + self-GEO: the auditor passes its own audit. Internal mandate ≥0.75 on both axes.
    • Homepage rewrite: dual-axis hero "Are humans AND AI finding your site?" + authoritative outbound links to web.dev, MDN, schema.org, Chrome docs + visible last-verified date + explicit POV markers.
    • Bug fix: CrUX returns CLS as a string ("0.05"); audit + embed widget now coerce via Number() before .toFixed() / comparisons.

  2. Schema saturation + glossary + JSON catalog

    • New /glossary page with stable per-term anchor IDs (deep-link to any Core Web Vital definition)
    • New /methodology page documenting data lineage, refresh cadence, and rating thresholds
    • New /api/guides JSON catalog + per-guide JSON twin endpoints (machine-readable concept canon)
    • New guides: "What is a good Core Web Vitals score?", "CrUX vs PageSpeed Insights", "How often does CrUX update?", "Third-party scripts and Core Web Vitals", "Fonts and CLS"
    • Industry coverage expanded 60 → 120 popular domains (staged for re-seed)
    • Article schema enriched with wordCount + timeRequired
    • WebApplication schema on home page
    • GitHub-style anchor IDs on every guide heading
    • Reading-time + word-count badges on guide pages
    • Better 404 with suggested domains, industries, guides
    • Preconnect hints for Plausible, Clarity, AdSense
    • Thin-content noindex guard on no-data domain pages
    • New link-audit tooling: npm run check-links

  3. Launch (as WebVitalsTool)

    • Site live at webvitalstool.com (now redirects to vitalslens.com per 2026-05-20 rebrand)
    • 60 seed domains across 6 industries (SaaS, e-commerce, news, finance, dev tools, AI)
    • 15 guides covering the Core Web Vitals concept canon
    • Mobile + desktop + combined views with 30-day history
    • Free JSON API at /api/[domain]
    • Foundation: robots.txt with 23 AI-crawler allowlist, llms.txt manifest, IndexNow auto-ping per deploy
    • Schema saturation: Organization, WebSite, Article, Dataset, BreadcrumbList, Person, DefinedTermSet, FAQPage, HowTo
    • Day-1 analytics stack: Plausible, Microsoft Clarity, Cloudflare Web Analytics

For deeper change history (per-commit), see the public GitLab commit log. For methodology decisions in full, see Methodology.