# BeaverCheck Audit Report — https://www.spiegel.de

**Date:** April 7, 2026  
**URL:** https://www.spiegel.de  
**Overall Grade:** C (79/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/a90ea7d8-0906-3cc5-b076-7316d53a50be

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** 1 link(s) with no accessible text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality
2. **[CRITICAL]** 2 control(s) without accessible label — Accessibility > Form Accessibility
3. **[CRITICAL]** 219 image-only link(s) without alt text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality
4. **[CRITICAL]** 43 button(s) with no accessible text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality
5. **[CRITICAL]** No H1 heading found — Accessibility > Heading Hierarchy

---

## Lighthouse Scores

| Category | Score |
|----------|-------|
| Performance | 54 |
| Accessibility | 93 |
| Best Practices | 100 |
| SEO | 100 |

---

## Security

### Security Headers (D — 40/100)

*3 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[WARNING]** HSTS is missing includeSubDomains — Without includeSubDomains, subdomains can still be accessed over HTTP.
- **[WARNING]** X-Content-Type-Options header is missing — This header prevents MIME-type sniffing, which can lead to XSS attacks. Set it to 'nosniff'.
- **[WARNING]** X-Frame-Options header is missing — This header prevents clickjacking by controlling who can embed your page in a frame. Set it to DENY or SAMEORIGIN.
- **[WARNING]** Referrer-Policy header is missing — Controls how much referrer information is sent with requests. Set to 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin' or stricter.
- **[WARNING]** Permissions-Policy header is missing — Controls which browser features (camera, microphone, geolocation) are allowed. Set it to restrict unused features.
- **[PASS]** Content-Security-Policy is present
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header is missing — COOP isolates your browsing context, preventing cross-origin side-channel attacks. Set to 'same-origin'.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — COEP prevents loading cross-origin resources without explicit permission. Required for SharedArrayBuffer and high-resolution timers.
- **[PASS]** X-Powered-By header is not present
- **[PASS]** Server header is not present

### Content Security Policy (B — 70/100)

*2 of 10 CSP checks passed*

- **[INFO]** Raw CSP policy
- **[WARNING]** default-src directive is missing — default-src provides a fallback for other directives. Set it to restrict default resource loading.
- **[INFO]** No script-src or default-src to check for 'unsafe-inline'
- **[INFO]** No script-src or default-src to check for 'unsafe-eval'
- **[INFO]** No script-src or default-src to check for wildcard
- **[PASS]** object-src falls back to default-src
- **[WARNING]** base-uri directive is missing — Without base-uri, attackers can inject a <base> tag to hijack relative URLs. Set it to 'self' or 'none'.
- **[PASS]** frame-ancestors directive is set
- **[WARNING]** form-action directive is missing — form-action restricts where forms can submit data, preventing form hijacking.
- **[INFO]** upgrade-insecure-requests is not set — This directive upgrades HTTP resources to HTTPS automatically, preventing mixed content.

### TLS & Certificates (A+ — 100/100)

*TLS 1.3, 7 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** TLS 1.3 is used
- **[PASS]** Strong cipher suite is used
- **[INFO]** HTTP/2 is not negotiated — HTTP/2 provides multiplexing and header compression for better performance.
- **[PASS]** Certificate is valid (expires in 241 days)
- **[PASS]** Certificate chain has 2 certificates
- **[PASS]** Certificate uses modern signature algorithm
- **[PASS]** Certificate covers 3 domain(s)
- **[PASS]** Certificate is issued by a trusted CA

### Cookie Security (A+ — 100/100)

*No cookies set — no cookie security risks*

- **[PASS]** No cookies set — no cookie security risks

---

## Advanced Security

### Subresource Integrity (F — 20/100)

*0 of 9 external resources have SRI*

- **[WARNING]** External link from cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from sp-spiegel-de.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from assets.adobedtm.com lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.
- **[WARNING]** External script from sp-spiegel-de.spiegel.de lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.

### JS Library Vulnerabilities (A+ — 100/100)

*No known vulnerabilities*

- **[PASS]** No known JavaScript library vulnerabilities detected

### Information Leakage (A+ — 100/100)

*No exposures*

- **[INFO]** No security.txt found — Consider adding a security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt.
- **[PASS]** No sensitive files exposed

### Email Security (F — 30/100)

*No DMARC*

- **[WARNING]** No DMARC record found — Without DMARC, email receivers have no policy for handling authentication failures.

### Permissions-Policy (D — 40/100)

*No header set*

- **[WARNING]** No Permissions-Policy header — Consider adding a Permissions-Policy header to restrict browser feature access from embedded content.

### CORS Configuration (B — 80/100)

*No CORS headers*

- **[PASS]** No CORS headers present — secure default

---

## Performance

### Page Weight Budget (B — 73/100)

*1.4 MB transferred, 73 requests*

- **[PASS]** Page weighs 4.8 MB (1.4 MB transferred)
- **[INFO]** Fonts are 399 KB — consider subsetting or using system fonts — Subset fonts to include only used characters, or switch to system font stacks.
- **[INFO]** 73 HTTP requests
- **[INFO]** Estimated 0.30 g CO2 per page load

### Third-Party Impact (D — 50/100)

*84% third-party, 0 ms blocking*

- **[WARNING]** Third-party code accounts for 84% of page weight (1.2 MiB of 1.4 MiB)
- **[PASS]** Third-party blocking time is low (0 ms)

### Text Compression (A+ — 100/100)

*All text resources are compressed*

- **[PASS]** All text resources are compressed

### Image Optimization (A — 90/100)

*33 images, 0 KB saveable*

- **[PASS]** All images are well-optimized

### JS Execution Cost (F — 20/100)

*6075ms total JS execution*

- **[WARNING]** https://www.spiegel.de/: 3308ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Unattributable: 704ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://sp-spiegel-de.spiegel.de/Notice.8f529.js: 635ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://sp-spiegel-de.spiegel.de/unified/wrapperMe...: 461ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/public/shared/gene...: 344ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** Third-party scripts: 2767ms (46% of total)

### Font Loading (A+ — 100/100)

*12 fonts (399 KB)*

- **[INFO]** 12 font(s) use font-display: swap (FOUT risk but functional)

### JS Bundles (B — 80/100)

*12 scripts, 129 KB unused*

- **[WARNING]** https://sp-spiegel-de.spiegel.de/Notice.8f529.js: 63 KB unused (69%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[WARNING]** https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/public/shared/gene...: 42 KB unused (77%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[WARNING]** https://assets.adobedtm.com/cc10f7b4369d/32ae8c335...: 24 KB unused (20%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[INFO]** Total unused JavaScript: 129 KB

### Resource Caching (A+ — 100/100)

*All resources properly cached*

- **[PASS]** No caching issues found

### Critical Rendering Path (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected

### Resource Hints (A+ — 100/100)

*18 hints, 0 missing preconnects*

- **[PASS]** Page uses 18 resource hint(s)

### Render-Blocking Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources detected*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected in <head>

### Third-Party Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No third-party resources detected*


---

## Content Quality

### Links (A — 95/100)

*200 links checked, 199 healthy, 1 broken*

- **[WARNING]** 199 of 200 links are healthy
- **[WARNING]** Broken link: https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de — Found in <link href>. Returns HTTP 404.

### Mixed Content (A+ — 100/100)

*No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS.*

- **[PASS]** No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS

### Open Graph (B — 85/100)

*Open Graph tags are partially configured — some improvements recommended.*

- **[CRITICAL]** og:image is not reachable — The og:image URL could not be fetched. Social platforms won't be able to display it.
- **[INFO]** Missing og:site_name — The og:site_name tag displays the website name in social previews.

### Structured Data (A+ — 100/100)

*1 JSON-LD block(s) found — structured data is well configured.*

- **[PASS]** Custom type "WebPage" — unable to validate specific properties

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (B — 80/100)

*6 A records, 30 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 6 IPv4 address(es)
- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records
- **[WARNING]** CNAME record at zone apex — A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.
- **[INFO]** No NS records found
- **[INFO]** No MX records — email not configured via DNS
- **[INFO]** CAA records not checked — CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
- **[INFO]** No SPF record found in TXT records — SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.
- **[PASS]** DNS resolution time: 30 ms

### Redirect Chain (A+ — 100/100)

*No redirects — direct access*

- **[PASS]** No redirects — direct access

### IPv6 Readiness (C — 60/100)

*No IPv6 support*

- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records found — IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

### Crawlability (A+ — 100/100)

*robots.txt present, sitemap with 162 URLs*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is valid XML
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml contains 162 entries
- **[PASS]** robots.txt references sitemap

### URL Variants (A+ — 100/100)

*www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS*

- **[PASS]** www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: www)
- **[PASS]** HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

### Domain Intelligence (A+ — 100/100)

*spiegel.de — hosted on LINK11 Link11 GmbH, DE*

- **[PASS]** Hosting: LINK11 Link11 GmbH, DE

---

## Compliance

### WCAG Compliance (A+ — 100/100)

*No testable criteria*


### Cookie Consent & Privacy (B — 80/100)

*No consent signals detected*

- **[WARNING]** No privacy policy link detected — A privacy policy page is recommended for transparency and may be legally required.
- **[INFO]** No terms of service link detected
- **[INFO]** No cookie consent banner detected
- **[INFO]** This is an automated check, not legal advice — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators of consent management. This does not constitute a legal compliance assessment. Consult a privacy professional for GDPR/CCPA compliance.

### Language & i18n (A — 90/100)

*Lang attribute present*

- **[PASS]** <html lang> attribute is present
- **[PASS]** <html lang> value is valid
- **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header
- **[INFO]** Language signals are inconsistent — The <html lang> attribute and Content-Language header should agree.

### Readability & Typography (A+ — 100/100)

*Font sizes and tap targets checked*


### Viewport Configuration (A+ — 100/100)

*Viewport properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Viewport meta tag is present
- **[PASS]** width=device-width is set
- **[PASS]** User zooming is allowed

### Third-Party Trackers (D — 40/100)

*2 trackers detected*

- **[INFO]** 2 third-party trackers detected — Found 0 analytics, 1 advertising, 0 marketing, 1 tag manager trackers.
- **[WARNING]** 1 advertising/retargeting trackers detected — Advertising trackers collect user data for ad targeting. Under GDPR, these typically require explicit consent.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no cookie policy found — This page loads 2 trackers but no cookie policy was detected. GDPR requires disclosure when using tracking cookies.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no privacy policy found — Most data protection regulations require a privacy policy when collecting user data via trackers.

---

## Legal

### Legal Page Ecosystem (C — 65/100)

*3 of 7 expected legal pages detected*

- **[PASS]** Privacy Policy detected — Found at https://www.spiegel.de/datenschutz-spiegel.
- **[PASS]** Terms of Service detected — Found at https://www.spiegel.de/nutzungsbedingungen.
- **[INFO]** Cookie Policy not detected — No link matching common Cookie Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Cookie Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[PASS]** Accessibility Statement detected — Found at https://www.spiegel.de/barrierefreiheit.
- **[INFO]** DMCA / Copyright Notice not detected — No link matching common DMCA / Copyright Notice URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a DMCA / Copyright Notice, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Refund / Returns Policy not detected — No link matching common Refund / Returns Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Refund / Returns Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Acceptable Use Policy not detected — No link matching common Acceptable Use Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Acceptable Use Policy, especially those collecting user data.

### Copyright Notice (C — 55/100)

*No copyright notice detected*

- **[INFO]** No copyright notice detected — No copyright notice detected in the page content. While not legally required in most jurisdictions (copyright exists automatically), a notice is standard practice and signals site ownership.

### Regulatory Indicators

*2 regulatory indicator(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** This is a technical scan, not a legal assessment — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators that may suggest regulatory relevance. This is not a compliance audit and should not be relied upon for legal decisions. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance assessments.
- **[INFO]** GDPR indicators detected (strong confidence) — Indicators suggesting GDPR may be relevant: European TLD detected: .de; Privacy policy page found. EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs collection and processing of personal data of EU residents.
- **[INFO]** HIPAA indicators detected (weak confidence) — Indicators suggesting HIPAA may be relevant: Text mentions: phi. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — protects sensitive patient health information.

### Third-Party Data Sharing

*0 third-party service(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** Data inventory for transparency purposes — This inventory identifies third-party services that receive data from your site visitors. Under regulations like GDPR (Article 30), maintaining records of data processing activities is commonly considered a best practice. This automated scan provides a starting point — it may not capture all data flows.
- **[INFO]** No recognized third-party data-sharing services detected — This page does not appear to load external tracking, analytics, or advertising scripts.

### Compliance Badges (C — 55/100)

*0 compliance badge(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** No compliance badges detected — No recognized compliance certification badges or seals were found. This is common — many sites do not display compliance badges.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (A+ — 100/100)

*Google Cloud CDN (HIT)*

- **[PASS]** Site is served via Google Cloud CDN CDN
- **[PASS]** CDN cache status: HIT

### HTTP Caching (B — 75/100)

*public, max-age=0,s-maxage=90*

- **[PASS]** Cache-Control header is set
- **[PASS]** CDN TTL: 1 minute (s-maxage=90)
- **[INFO]** No ETag or Last-Modified header — Conditional requests (304 Not Modified) are not possible without validators.

### Transport Security (A+ — 100/100)

*HTTP/3, HSTS, and TLS version analysis*

- **[PASS]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) supported — The server advertises HTTP/3 via Alt-Svc for faster connections on mobile networks.
- **[PASS]** HSTS enabled (base policy)
- **[INFO]** HSTS missing includeSubDomains — Without includeSubDomains, HSTS only protects the exact domain.
- **[PASS]** TLS 1.3 in use (fastest handshake, 1-RTT)

---

## Accessibility

### Landmark Structure (B — 75/100)

*144 landmarks*

- **[PASS]** <main> landmark present
- **[PASS]** 8 <nav> landmark(s) found
- **[WARNING]** 8 of 8 <nav> elements are unlabeled — Multiple navigations need aria-label to distinguish them for screen readers.
- **[WARNING]** Skip navigation link is missing (WCAG 2.4.1) — Add a skip link as the first focusable element so keyboard users can bypass repeated navigation.

### Heading Hierarchy (C — 60/100)

*224 headings*

- **[CRITICAL]** No H1 heading found — Every page should have one H1 that describes the page content.
- **[WARNING]** 3 empty heading(s) — Empty headings appear in the document outline but provide no information.

### Alt Text Quality (A+ — 100/100)

*All 353 images OK*

- **[PASS]** 309 decorative image(s) correctly marked
- **[PASS]** 44 image(s) with good alt text

### Form Accessibility (D — 54/100)

*4 of 4 controls have issues*

- **[CRITICAL]** 2 control(s) without accessible label — Form controls need a <label>, aria-label, or aria-labelledby for screen readers.
- **[WARNING]** 2 control(s) rely on placeholder only — Placeholder text disappears on focus and is not a reliable label.

### Link & Button Quality (F — 38/100)

*44 issue(s) across 916 links and 237 buttons*

- **[CRITICAL]** 1 link(s) with no accessible text — Links without text are announced as raw URLs by screen readers.
- **[CRITICAL]** 219 image-only link(s) without alt text
- **[WARNING]** 54 link(s) open in new tab without warning — Add '(opens in new tab)' to link text or aria-label.
- **[CRITICAL]** 43 button(s) with no accessible text
- **[PASS]** 642 link(s) with descriptive text

---

## UX

### 404 Error Page (B — 80/100)

*HTTP 404, custom page*

- **[PASS]** Correct 404 status code returned
- **[PASS]** Custom styled 404 page
- **[PASS]** Navigation links present on 404 page
- **[PASS]** Homepage link present on 404 page

### Favicon & Branding (B — 80/100)

*12 icon(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** favicon.ico present at site root
- **[PASS]** HTML icon links detected
- **[PASS]** Apple touch icon present
- **[PASS]** Multiple icon sizes detected

### Web Manifest (A+ — 100/100)

*PWA-ready*

- **[PASS]** Meets PWA install criteria
- **[PASS]** Name present: DER SPIEGEL
- **[PASS]** 192x192 icon present
- **[PASS]** 512x512 icon present
- **[PASS]** Display mode: standalone

### Dark Mode Support (B — 70/100)

*Dark mode detected*

- **[PASS]** Dark-specific theme-color detected — A theme-color with media='(prefers-color-scheme: dark)' adapts the browser toolbar for dark mode.
- **[PASS]** prefers-color-scheme CSS detected in inline styles
- **[INFO]** Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles — External CSS files may contain prefers-color-scheme rules not visible to this scan.

### Print Stylesheet (D — 40/100)

*No print styles*

- **[INFO]** No print-specific styles detected — When users print this page, they get the screen layout including navigation and non-essential elements. Add @media print rules to hide navigation and optimize layout for paper.

### Navigation UX (F — 15/100)

*No navigation patterns*

- **[PASS]** 8 navigation landmark(s) detected
- **[INFO]** No breadcrumbs, search, or skip link detected — These navigation aids help users orient themselves and find content efficiently, especially on large sites.

---

## SEO

### Canonical URL (A+ — 100/100)

*Properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Canonical tag present
- **[PASS]** Canonical is self-referencing
- **[PASS]** Canonical matches final URL after redirects
- **[PASS]** Canonical target returns 200

### Meta Tags (A+ — 100/100)

*Title optimized*

- **[PASS]** Page title is set
- **[PASS]** Title length (32 chars) is optimal

### Content Depth (A — 85/100)

*5813 words, Difficult*

- **[PASS]** Page has 5813 words — good depth for search engines
- **[INFO]** Text-to-HTML ratio is 2% — Very low ratio suggests heavy framework overhead or boilerplate.
- **[INFO]** Reading level: Difficult (grade 16)

### Internal Links (A+ — 95/100)

*789 internal, 127 external*

- **[PASS]** 789 internal links (86%)
- **[PASS]** 100% of links use descriptive anchor text
- **[INFO]** Page has 916 links — consider reducing
- **[INFO]** 789 internal / 127 external links

### Image SEO (A+ — 95/100)

*353 images, 351 descriptive filenames*

- **[INFO]** 2 image(s) have hash/generic filenames
- **[INFO]** 2 image(s) missing alt text — see Accessibility tab

### Hreflang

*0 hreflang tags*


---

## Sustainability

### CO2 Per Page Load (A — 85/100)

*0.34g CO2 per view*

- **[PASS]** 0.34g CO2 per page view — This page transfers 1.4 MB, producing an estimated 0.34g of CO2 per visit using the Sustainable Web Design model (v4). Breakdown: data center 0.01g, network 0.07g, end-user device 0.26g.
- **[INFO]** At 10,000 monthly views: 40.9 kg CO2/year — With 10,000 page views per month, this page would generate approximately 40.9 kg of CO2 annually — equivalent to charging 5110 smartphones.
- **[PASS]** Green hosting reduces data center emissions

### Green Hosting (B — 80/100)

*Green (hosting)*

- **[PASS]** Google Cloud uses renewable energy
- **[INFO]** Google Cloud: Verified by the Green Web Foundation
- **[INFO]** Google Cloud CDN: Inherits Google Cloud regional renewable mix
- **[INFO]** Green hosting status based on known provider commitments — Green hosting detection uses a curated database of provider renewable energy commitments. This is not a real-time verification. For authoritative checks, visit thegreenwebfoundation.org.

### Repeat Visit Weight (A+ — 100/100)

*84% cached*

- **[PASS]** 84% reduction on repeat visits — Returning visitors download only 234 KB (vs 1473 KB first visit). 71 of 73 resources are served from browser cache, saving 0.29g CO2 per repeat visit.
- **[INFO]** Repeat visit: 0.05g CO2 (first visit: 0.34g)

### Carbon Budget (A — 85/100)

*24th percentile*

- **[PASS]** 0.34g CO2 — below the sustainability target of 0.50g — Cleaner than an estimated 76% of websites analyzed. This page meets the Web Sustainability Guidelines target.
- **[INFO]** Estimated 24th percentile — Compared to: top 10% = 0.20g, target = 0.50g, median = 0.60g per page view.

### Transfer Efficiency (A+ — 100/100)

*91% efficient*

- **[PASS]** Transfer efficiency: 91% — Only 129 KB of potential savings identified. Your page is well-optimized for size.

---

---

*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/a90ea7d8-0906-3cc5-b076-7316d53a50be*