A sampled scan is a scan that reads some of a site’s pages rather than all of them. It happens when the sitemap lists more pages than your plan reads in one scan. Rather than stop part-way through the list, Link Signals chooses a set of pages that represents the whole.
Why not read the first pages?
Reading only the first pages of a large sitemap would miss everything lower down, which is where old links tend to be. Sitemaps are often ordered by section or by age, so the first pages might be a single category or the oldest posts. A scan that stopped there would report a clean bill of health for a few hundred pages and say nothing about the rest. A sample covers the whole site instead.
| In the sample | Why |
|---|---|
| The homepage | It carries the links on every page of the site. |
| The most recently changed pages | Where new links appear. |
| An even spread of the rest | So older pages are covered too. |
How the choice is made
The most recently changed pages are taken from the dates in the sitemap, up to a quarter of what your plan reads, so they depend on the sitemap having lastmod dates. The rest is an even spread: pages at regular steps through the whole list. The pages are ordered so that a scan that stops early has already seen a mix. There is no randomness, so the same sitemap gives the same sample.
A report says how much of your sitemap it read, and what plan would read all of it. See which plan does my site need.
Common misunderstandings
- A sample is not a full check. A link on a page that was not chosen is not seen, and a clean report covers only the pages it says it read.
- A sample is not a random pick. The homepage, recent changes and the spread make it a fair picture of the site, not a lucky draw.
- A site that fits within your plan is read in full. Sampling only starts when the sitemap is larger.
Questions
How can I cover more of my site?
Choose a plan that reads more pages, or add the site to monitoring, which reads different pages over time. See how monitoring works.
Is the sample the same every time?
For the same sitemap and plan, yes. If pages are added or their dates change, the sample changes with them.
Run a scan and find where these show up on your own site.
