Before they pick a way in
Social login.
Put the email field first.
Email above the provider buttons. A first visit should not read as a return. Name the account before the page leaves your site.
The short answer
Put the email field above a “Continue with” button, and offer an email field when the only buttons are provider buttons. On the first screen, don't greet a new person with “Welcome back” or “Sign in”. If the next page is another site's account page, say which account before the click.
Walk your signup
What Stumblet flags
1“Continue with passkey” is above the email field
A provider button that comes before the email field. The title quotes the button, then “is above the email field”. The fix is “Put the email field above “Continue with passkey”.” The line is rewritten to match what Impatient did. Opened that button, and did not fill an email: “Continue with passkey” comes before the email field, so I hit that first. Filled an email, which wins even if the button was opened: “Continue with passkey” comes before the email field, and I filled the email. Otherwise: “Continue with passkey” comes before the email field.
The button counts in three cases. The whole label is a provider name the walker already knows, including a passkey or a wallet. Or the label contains a provider name and also says continue, sign, log, or with. Or the label starts with Continue, Sign up, Sign in, Log in, or Login, and contains a provider name. Those lists are not the same. A name that matches as the whole label can be missing from the second check. A name that matches in the middle of a longer label can be missing from the third.
A div, span, link, or button before the email field still counts when its whole label is a provider name and it is not already recorded. It has to be visible and clickable. A div or a span is clickable with a pointer cursor or role=button. A link or a button is clickable on its own. It has to be at least 24 pixels wide and 16 tall. A smaller one does not count. The walker gives it a position just before the email field. A button after the email field is not this finding. A provider button is not the finding for a button that only says Continue. That one is on signup page copy.
2Continue with passkey instead of an email field
No email field, at least one provider button from the shorter list, and no other signup control. The title does not add quotes: Continue with passkey instead of an email field. The fix is “Put an email field on this screen, next to the other way in.” The line is “The way in says “Continue with passkey”, and I wanted an email field.”
The shorter list is the second case above: a provider name, plus continue, sign, log, or with. “Passkey” on its own, with no email field and no signup button, is not this finding. “Continue with passkey” is. The first matching control is the one quoted. Another way in, of 48 characters or fewer, drops the finding. The words that count are in the questions below. A returning greeting on that same first screen outranks this finding.
3“Welcome back” for a first visit
Only the first screen. The title is “Welcome back” for a first visit. The fix is “Say “Welcome back” works for new accounts too.” The line is “This says “Welcome back.”, and I'm here for the first time.” The quoted words are the heading. A heading of 70 characters or fewer is kept whole, so a full stop on “Welcome back.” stays inside the quotes. The title drops that mark. Sign in and Log in use the same title shape, with their own words.
The walker reads the headline, then the other headings, and skips a repeated line. The first returning greeting wins. A signup heading of 80 characters or fewer stops the search, so a later “Sign in” is ignored. If there is any heading, the document title is not used. If there is no heading, a login page's title can still raise it: “Login” from “Login | the product”, using the first piece. If the walker can take a separate signup path, such as Create account, the greeting is not flagged. Later screens are not checked. “Welcome to” the product is not a returning greeting.
4The only way in is a … account
The walk leaves the product's domain for an account page on another site. The step says it handed off, and then it stops. If the screen before the click did not name that account, and it had no email field and no other way in, the finding sits on that screen. The account name fills the gap. The title is “The only way in is a … account.” The fix is “Say that this needs a … account before the click.” The line is “Nothing here says I need a … account, and I may not have one.”
Naming the account is a whole word in the heading, the step notes, a recorded button, or a recorded field. An email field is one of up to eight fields on that step whose shown name contains email or e-mail. Another way in is one of up to six recorded buttons. If the pasted link opens the account page directly, there is no previous screen. The title is “This opens a … account.” The fix is “Tell people this opens a … account before they arrive.” The line is “This opens a … account, and I may not have one.” Same-site auth stays in the walk. The address checks are in the questions below.
Questions
Does a provider button below the email field get flagged?
No. The button has to be recorded before the email field. A button after that field is not “above the email field”. If the email field has no position, or the button has none, it is not this finding. The email field is one whose type is email, whose autocomplete is email, or whose label, name, or placeholder says email or e-mail. Only the first matching button is quoted. A long label is shortened past 42 characters.
What if the signup only shows provider buttons?
That is a different finding, and only when there is no email field. The button's label has to contain a provider name from a shorter list than the button above the email field, and it also has to say continue, sign, log, or with. A label that is only the provider's name, such as “Passkey”, does not raise this one. A label that matches only because it starts with Continue, Sign up, Sign in, Log in, or Login may not raise it either, when that name is not on the shorter list. The title is the button's words, then “instead of an email field”. The first letter is capitalised, and a trailing colon or asterisk is dropped. The fix is “Put an email field on this screen, next to the other way in.” The line is: The way in says “Continue with passkey”, and I wanted an email field. The words in quotes are shortened past 40 characters. The title is not.
What counts as another way in beside a provider button?
Three checks, and the lists are not the same. The provider-only finding is dropped by another control of 48 characters or fewer that is not itself a provider button: sign up with a space (not sign-up, and not signup as one word), create account, create your account, create an account, or create my account, get started, start free, start tracking, start plus a digit, 7-day trial, try free, start your trial, continue with email, your plan, choose a plan, select a plan, continue to payment, or a label that starts with Continue or Next. Register is not in that list. The handoff looks at the buttons the step recorded, up to six, keeping the submit control: email or e-mail, sign up, sign-up, signup, create account (including create your account, create an account, and create my account), register, get started, start free, start your trial, try free, or continue with email. A button that only says Continue does not cancel the handoff. A separate signup path that cancels a returning greeting is the button the walker is about to open, 60 characters or fewer, and not a provider button or a sign-in button: sign up, sign-up, signup, create account (including those same create-account phrases), register, get started, start free, start your trial, or try free. Continue does not count as that path.
Why is Welcome back a problem on a new-user page?
Only the first screen of the walk. The title is “Welcome back” for a first visit. A trailing full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark is removed, and the title is shortened past 42 characters. The fix is “Say “Welcome back” works for new accounts too.” The line quotes the heading as written, shortened past 60 characters: This says “Welcome back.”, and I'm here for the first time. Sign in, Sign-in, Signin, Log in, Log-in, and Login match the same way, including “to your account”. A line of 70 characters or fewer is quoted in full. A longer line, up to 140 characters, quotes only the greeting. Past 140, that line is skipped. Sign in and Log in have to start with no more than 16 characters before them. Welcome back can have up to 24. A later screen is not checked.
What if the page says Sign in and also offers Create account?
A signup heading of 80 characters or fewer stops the search, so “Create your account” with a Sign in link further down is not this finding. That heading is sign up, sign-up, signup, create account, create your account, create an account, create my account, get started, register, start trial, start your trial, start free trial, start your free trial, or start your followed by a number. A heading that also says welcome back or sign in is not one of those, so the greeting check still runs. If the walker is about to open a separate signup path, the greeting is not flagged. If the page has no heading, the document title is used. The title is split on a space, then a bar, a middle dot, a bullet, or a dash, then a space. Only the first piece is checked. “Login | the product” uses “Login”. “Welcome to” the product is not a returning greeting. When the first screen has both the greeting and a provider-only button, the greeting ranks first.
What if the click opens another site's account page?
The walk stops. It does not fill that page. The step says “Hands off to” the account name, then “This hands off to” that name, “so I stopped.” A name past 32 characters is shortened on the step, and the screen name is shortened past 42. Same-site sign-in stays in the walk: www is ignored, a subdomain on the same registrable domain stays, and a public suffix the walker treats as one piece, such as co.uk, stays with the name in front of it. The other address has to be http or https, and it has to look like an account page: the path or the query contains both oauth and authorize, or the query has both client_id and redirect_uri, or the host is one the walker already treats as only an account login, or the host is a known account host and the path is login, sign-in, sign-up, signup, session, oauth, authorize, a single sign-on segment, join, or register. A known account host on some other path is not an account page. If the screen before the click already names that account, in the heading, the step notes, a recorded button, or a recorded field, there is no finding. The name has to be a whole word. If the pasted link opens the account page directly, the title is “This opens a … account.” The fix is “Tell people this opens a … account before they arrive.” The line is “This opens a … account, and I may not have one.”
What the first screen should say, including a button that only says Continue, is on signup page copy. Which fields to cut is on signup fields. Asking for the password twice is on confirm password. A button that stays disabled is on signup button. Showing the rules before anyone types is on password rules. Asking for a work email is on work email. Running it yourself, and keeping the top five, is the new-user signup test. The short list is the onboarding checklist. The AI onboarding audit is the walk, and the signup prompt is the job it runs.
The walk is free. It starts on the home page.
Walk your signup