HTML Formatter & Source Checker
An HTML formatter (or HTML beautifier) re-indents raw markup into a readable structure — the same thing "View Source" shows you, just easier to actually read. Paste a URL or raw HTML to view the syntax-highlighted, formatted source, plus quick checks for title, meta description, canonical and other on-page SEO tags.
1 Get the HTML
Fetching a URL routes through our server to work around browser restrictions most sites impose on cross-site requests — the fetched content isn't stored or logged. Pasting HTML directly stays fully in your browser.
Why the raw source still matters
What DevTools shows you as the "Elements" tab is the live DOM after JavaScript has run — it's not what a server actually sent, and it's not always what a crawler that doesn't execute JavaScript will see. The raw HTML source is the ground truth: the exact title tag, meta description, canonical URL and heading structure that shipped with the response.
This tool exists for the moments a quick "View Source" isn't convenient — checking a competitor's page, auditing a URL you don't have DevTools open for, or confirming exactly what a CMS or static export actually output, with the key on-page SEO tags checked automatically instead of scanning the markup by eye. Once the markup looks right, the HTML Viewer & Live Renderer shows how it actually renders, not just how it reads.
For example, this minified line:
<div><h1>Hi</h1></div>becomes:
<div>
<h1>
Hi
</h1>
</div>How to use this tool
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1
Choose a source
Pick "Paste HTML" to work with markup you already have, or "Fetch from URL" to load a live page.
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2
Load the HTML
Paste the source, or enter the page address and click "Fetch source".
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3
Switch between views
The Formatted view indents the markup so nesting is easy to follow; the Raw view shows it exactly as received.
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4
Review the SEO checks
The tool checks the doctype, lang attribute, title and its length, meta description, canonical, viewport, charset, H1 headings, noindex and Open Graph tags.
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5
Copy the code
Click "Copy code" to take the formatted or raw source into your editor.
Common use cases
- Confirming the title, meta description and canonical that a CMS or SEO plugin actually outputs.
- Reviewing a competitor's on-page setup without opening developer tools.
- Making minified or single-line HTML from a build tool or email template readable.
- Catching a noindex tag left over from a staging site.
- Seeing what a crawler that does not run JavaScript receives from a script-heavy page.
Tips and common mistakes
- Compare with the rendered page. If content appears in your browser but not in this source, JavaScript adds it. Google can usually render it, but many other crawlers and AI bots cannot.
- A missing H1 is a clue. Pages with no H1 often style their main heading as a plain div, which gives search engines a weaker signal about the topic.
- Some sites vary their HTML. A site may send different markup to different visitors, or block automated requests, so if fetched results look odd, compare them with your browser's View Source.
- Fix what you find. The Meta / OG Tag Generator writes missing title, description and social tags, and the JSON-LD Schema Generator adds structured data. The HTML source code guide covers what to look for in more depth.
Frequently asked questions
Raw HTML only — either what you paste, or exactly what the server returned before any client-side JavaScript executes. For a page that builds content dynamically, this will look different from what you see in DevTools, and that difference is often exactly what's worth knowing for SEO.
Browser DevTools show the live DOM after JavaScript has modified it. This tool — like a browser's actual "View Source" — shows the original HTML document as delivered by the server, which is closer to what a crawler that doesn't execute JavaScript actually sees.
It only re-indents the tag structure for readability — it doesn't touch the actual markup, attributes or text content. Useful when a page's source comes back minified into a single unreadable line.
Fetching another site's raw HTML from your browser is blocked by CORS for almost every real-world site. Checking a URL routes through Frost Rank's server to work around that — nothing fetched that way is stored or logged. Pasting HTML directly stays fully in your browser.
Yes, completely free with no signup. Pasted HTML is processed entirely in your browser — the one exception is the optional URL-fetch feature, documented above.
Checks the same on-page tags reviewed in a real technical SEO audit — title, meta description, canonical, viewport, H1 count, robots meta and Open Graph — parsed from the actual HTML document, not a JavaScript-rendered approximation.
Was this tool helpful?
Rate it and leave a comment — takes 10 seconds, and genuinely helps decide what to fix or build next.