What's new at KT8: Search Inspector, status pages, speed tests from 26 countries and more

It's been a busy few days. We've added two new tools, taken the speed test worldwide, made every tool free to try and made signing in safer and quicker. Here's what's new, and where to find it.

Search Inspector: see every page the way Google does

Search Inspector is our newest tool. It reads up to 500 pages of your website and shows how each one looks in Google's results, on a computer and a phone. Titles and descriptions that get cut short, go missing or repeat across pages are flagged, and we suggest better wording, taken from the page's own words, that you can copy straight in.

It also finds pages hidden from Google by mistake, missing headings, canonical tags pointing the wrong way and gaps between your sitemap and your pages.

On Business, Business Plus and Agency plans you can switch on weekly checks. We read every page each week, look at your home page every day, and email you only when something breaks for Google, such as a page dropping out, a title being wiped or the whole site being blocked. A product or two coming and going in a busy shop doesn't count, so you won't be flooded with alerts.

Status pages that update themselves

Status pages come with every KT8 Tools plan. You get a hosted page with your name, logo and colours, on kt8status.com or your own address, such as status.yourcompany.com.

• It follows your website checks. We visit every 5 minutes. If a website fails two visits in a row (about 10 minutes), the page opens an incident, and closes it again when the site answers, with how long it was down.
• Post your own updates in plain words, and tell customers about planned maintenance before it starts.
• Customers can subscribe. They get one email when an incident is resolved, with a one-click unsubscribe.
• An RSS feed and a badge. Feed readers, Slack and Teams can follow the page, and a one-line badge shows your current status on your website or help centre.

There are no cookies or trackers on the page, and subscribers' addresses are only ever used for updates.

The speed test goes worldwide

The speed test can now load your page from other countries at once, so you can see how fast it is where your visitors actually are.

• Quick test: six countries in one go: the UK, Germany, the USA, Brazil, Singapore and Australia. It's included in the free daily try.
• Full test: 26 countries, each with its own full report. Full tests have their own monthly allowance on every plan, and the 14-day trial includes three.

You can also now test pages behind a login, such as members' areas, dashboards and staging sites. Add a username and password, or a sign-in cookie, and we use it for that one test only. We never keep it.

Every tool is free to try once a day

You no longer need an account to see what a KT8 tool can do. The DNS checker, mail tester, speed test, Link Inspector and Search Inspector each give you one free run a day. Link Inspector and Search Inspector check the first page of any website, and a trial or plan unlocks the whole site.

If you like what you see, the result offers to keep watching it for you.

Monitoring addresses for your mailing list

The mail tester has always scored one test email at a time. On Business Plus and Agency plans you can now create monitoring addresses: permanent addresses to add to your mailing list or copy into your own emails.

We score every email that reaches them and email you if your score drops or your sender lands on a blocklist, so you hear about a problem before your readers do.

One-click DNS fixes on Cloudflare

If your domain's DNS is on Cloudflare, you can now connect your Cloudflare account once and let us make the fixes for you. From a domain in My domains, or from a mail tester report, we can repair your SPF record, add a DMARC record, send your DMARC reports to KT8 and, once your reports show it's safe, move DMARC to the next enforcement level.

You see every change before it's made, nothing happens until you press Apply, and any change can be undone for 30 days. We only ask Cloudflare for permission to read your domains and edit DNS records.

Secure your account

After signing in with an emailed code, you'll now be offered three choices: add a passkey (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, your phone or a security key), set up an authenticator app, or skip for now. Either of the first two means you can sign in next time with no email to wait for.

The same choice is there for agency clients on their own branded portals. We've also tidied up the sign-in itself: code emails now show the code big and clear, the code box is split into six digits that you can still paste into in one go, and the sign-in wording is shorter.

More new features in the tools

• DNS checker: record builders that write SPF, DMARC and MTA-STS records for you, a full DNSSEC chain of trust check, and a BIMI logo and mark certificate check.
• My domains: a website security check (HTTPS, HSTS, security headers and risky open ports) alongside everything else we watch every 6 hours.
• Link Inspector: weekly checks by email on Business Plus and Agency plans, suggested replacements for broken links, and a list of pages nothing links to.
• IP checker: open ports for any address, and, on Business Plus and Agency plans, whole address blocks and blocklist alerts for an address you watch.
• QR codes: contact cards, print sheets of 1 to 24 codes, scan alerts for editable codes, and editable codes from the API.
• Short links: campaign tags, expiry dates and a QR code for every link.

Clearer pages and plans

• A fresh design across kt8.com, with one Tools menu, one footer and breadcrumbs on every page.
• Plan comparison tables on the pricing page and every tool page, so you can see exactly what each plan includes at a glance.
• Pay in sterling, euros or US dollars. Prices show in your local currency, and we sell to businesses in the UK and worldwide.
• The KT8 Mail and Blog Builder pages have a new section on why people choose them and answers to common questions. If you already hold a licence, the page now shows your licence, an update button, what's new and what's coming instead.

For agencies

Agency plans gain a health report for every client in one go: check every client's domains with one button, download the lot as a spreadsheet, print a branded report for each client, or email each client their own report under your brand.

The agency guide has been updated to cover the agency plans, the new account layout, the new tools, client health reports and status pages.