Clear form error messages: Crawl Audit check 120

Short answer: when someone gets a field wrong, tell them which one and how to fix it, right next to the field. A vague "Something went wrong" at the top loses people. Check 120 warns when a form has no sign of inline error handling in its markup.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Pass: no form, or a form containing an element with "error" in its class, an aria-invalid attribute, or role="alert".
• Warning: a form with none of these.

Many forms only add error messages after you submit, using JavaScript. Crawl Audit reads the page before anyone types, so a form with good error handling can still get this warning. Try submitting yours with a mistake to see what really happens.

What the standards say

• WCAG 3.3.1 Error Identification (level A): "If an input error is automatically detected, the item that is in error is identified and the error is described to the user in text."
• WCAG 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (level AA): where the fix is known, "the suggestions are provided to the user".
• The GOV.UK Design System: "Show an error message next to the field and in the Error summary component when there is a validation error." And: "Always show an error summary when there is a validation error, even if there's only one."
• Nielsen Norman Group: errors next to the field mean "users can see the error message while fixing the error instead of having to remember it."

<label for="email">Email</label>
<p id="email-error" class="error">Enter an email address, like name@example.com</p>
<input id="email" type="email" aria-invalid="true" aria-describedby="email-error">

On devmarde.com

Our homepage forms had no inline error markup in the HTML on 6 October, so they get this warning.

Sources

• W3C, Understanding 3.3.1 Error Identification and 3.3.3 Error Suggestion, checked 6 October 2026.
• GOV.UK Design System, Error message and Error summary; Nielsen Norman Group, 10 design guidelines for reporting errors in forms (2019).