# BeaverCheck Audit Report — https://cochrane.org

**Date:** April 22, 2026  
**URL:** https://cochrane.org  
**Overall Grade:** C (74/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/acae6da0-69b9-4f91-9f58-cf77ab85f7a2

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers
2. **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Security > Security Headers
3. **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — Security > Content Security Policy
4. **[CRITICAL]** 1 control(s) without accessible label — Accessibility > Form Accessibility
5. **[CRITICAL]** 4 link(s) with no accessible text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality

---

## Lighthouse Scores

| Category | Score |
|----------|-------|
| Performance | 52 |
| Accessibility | 87 |
| Best Practices | 100 |
| SEO | 92 |

---

## Security

### Security Headers (F — 5/100)

*1 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Strict-Transport-Security forces browsers to use HTTPS, preventing downgrade attacks. Add the header with a max-age of at least 1 year.
- **[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.
- **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — CSP is the most important header for preventing XSS attacks. See the CSP section for detailed analysis.
- **[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
- **[WARNING]** Server header reveals version information — The Server header discloses the software version, aiding attackers in targeting known vulnerabilities. Remove the version number.

### Content Security Policy (F — 0/100)

*No enforcing CSP policy found*

- **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — CSP is the most effective defense against XSS attacks. Add a Content-Security-Policy header to restrict resource loading.

### TLS & Certificates (A+ — 100/100)

*TLS 1.2, 7 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** TLS 1.2 is used
- **[INFO]** TLS 1.3 is not negotiated — TLS 1.3 offers improved performance and security. Consider enabling it.
- **[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 75 days)
- **[PASS]** Certificate chain has 3 certificates
- **[PASS]** Certificate uses modern signature algorithm
- **[PASS]** Certificate covers 2 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 1 external resources have SRI*

- **[WARNING]** External script from cdn.matomo.cloud 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 (A — 85/100)

*DMARC: quarantine*

- **[PASS]** DMARC policy is quarantine — good protection

### 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 (F — 25/100)

*3.1 MB transferred, 62 requests*

- **[WARNING]** Page weighs 6.7 MB (3.1 MB transferred)
- **[WARNING]** JavaScript is 1.8 MB — consider code splitting or lazy loading — Large JavaScript bundles delay interactivity. Split code by route or defer non-critical scripts.
- **[WARNING]** Images are 1.0 MB — compress or use modern formats — Convert images to WebP/AVIF and resize to display dimensions to reduce transfer size.
- **[INFO]** 62 HTTP requests
- **[INFO]** Estimated 0.64 g CO2 per page load

### Third-Party Impact (D — 50/100)

*100% third-party, 0 ms blocking*

- **[WARNING]** Third-party code accounts for 100% of page weight (3.1 MiB of 3.1 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 (C — 65/100)

*20 images, 0 KB saveable*

- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/themes/custom/cochrane_hs... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.
- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/themes/custom/cochrane_hs... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.

### JS Execution Cost (C — 60/100)

*1963ms total JS execution*

- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/: 512ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/libraries/fontawesome/js/...: 324ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Unattributable: 310ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/libraries/fontawesome/js/...: 290ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://cdn.matomo.cloud/cochrane-org.matomo.cloud...: 266ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Third-party scripts: 1963ms (100% of total)

### Font Loading (A+ — 100/100)

*6 fonts (80 KB)*

- **[INFO]** 6 font(s) use font-display: swap (FOUT risk but functional)

### JS Bundles (A — 90/100)

*24 scripts, 30 KB unused*

- **[WARNING]** https://cdn.matomo.cloud/cochrane-org.matomo.cloud...: 30 KB unused (53%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[WARNING]** https://www.cochrane.org/core/misc/drupal.js?v=10....: unminified — 5 KB could be saved
- **[INFO]** Total unused JavaScript: 30 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)

*No optimization needed*

- **[PASS]** No resource hint issues

### Page Weight Inventory (D — 45/100)

*62 resources · 3.1 MB · 30 KB savings available*

- **[WARNING]** Page weight 2.1 MB over 1MB target
- **[WARNING]** 61 third-party resources (100% of weight)
- **[INFO]** 4 resources over 200KB

### 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 (B — 86/100)

*107 links checked, 103 healthy, 2 broken*

- **[WARNING]** 103 of 107 links are healthy
- **[INFO]** Long redirect chain: https://cochrane.org/cochranelogin (3 hops)
- **[CRITICAL]** Broken link: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/ — Found in <a href>. Returns HTTP 412.
- **[CRITICAL]** Broken link: https://www.cochranelibrary.com — Found in <a href>. Returns HTTP 412.
- **[INFO]** Long redirect chain: https://links.cochrane.org/youtube (3 hops)

### Mixed Content (A+ — 100/100)

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

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

### Open Graph (F — 55/100)

*Open Graph tags need attention — social sharing previews may be incomplete.*

- **[WARNING]** Missing og:title — The og:title tag controls the title shown in social sharing previews.
- **[WARNING]** Missing og:description — The og:description tag controls the description in social sharing previews.
- **[INFO]** Missing og:url — The og:url tag specifies the canonical URL for the shared content.
- **[INFO]** Missing og:type — The og:type tag helps social platforms categorize the content.
- **[INFO]** Missing og:site_name — The og:site_name tag displays the website name in social previews.

### Structured Data (C — 40/100)

*No structured data (JSON-LD) found.*

- **[INFO]** No structured data (JSON-LD) found — Adding structured data helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results.

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (A+ — 95/100)

*1 A records, 27 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
- **[INFO]** Single A record — no DNS redundancy — Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records
- **[PASS]** 4 nameserver(s) configured
- **[PASS]** 1 mail exchanger(s) configured
- **[INFO]** CAA records not checked — CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
- **[PASS]** SPF record present in TXT
- **[PASS]** DNS resolution time: 27 ms

### Redirect Chain (A — 90/100)

*1 redirect(s), 252 ms total*

- **[PASS]** Single redirect
- **[INFO]** WWW normalization redirect

### 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+ — 95/100)

*robots.txt present, sitemap with 36 URLs*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is valid XML
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml contains 36 entries
- **[PASS]** Sitemap index with 36 child sitemaps
- **[INFO]** robots.txt does not reference a sitemap — Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

### URL Variants (B — 75/100)

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

- **[CRITICAL]** Both www and non-www versions serve content
- **[PASS]** HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

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

*cochrane.org — via Tucows Domains Inc., 29 years, 8 months old, hosted on AWS*

- **[PASS]** Domain registered until Jan 21, 2028 (1 years, 9 months remaining)
- **[INFO]** DNSSEC is not enabled — DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
- **[PASS]** Registrar: Tucows Domains Inc.
- **[WARNING]** Registrar lock is NOT enabled — The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
- **[PASS]** Hosting: AWS

---

## 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 (C — 55/100)

*4 trackers detected*

- **[INFO]** 4 third-party trackers detected — Found 4 analytics, 0 advertising, 0 marketing, 0 tag manager trackers.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no cookie policy found — This page loads 4 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.

### Cookie & Tracker Inventory (A+ — 100/100)

*0 cookies · 4 trackers · 0 pre-consent*

- **[INFO]** 4 third-party tracker(s) detected on page

---

## Legal

### Legal Page Ecosystem (D — 50/100)

*2 of 7 expected legal pages detected*

- **[PASS]** Privacy Policy detected — Found at /privacy-policy#disclaimer, linked from footer.
- **[WARNING]** Terms of Service not detected — No link matching common Terms of Service URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Terms of Service, especially those collecting user data.
- **[PASS]** Cookie Policy detected — Found at /privacy-policy#cookies-policy, linked from footer.
- **[INFO]** Accessibility Statement not detected — No link matching common Accessibility Statement URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Accessibility Statement, especially those collecting user data.
- **[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 (A+ — 100/100)

*© 2026 The Cochrane Collaboration Website Terms & Conditi*

- **[PASS]** Copyright notice is up to date — Copyright notice is up to date: © 2026 The Cochrane Collaboration Website Terms & Conditi
- **[PASS]** Copyright holder: The Cochrane Collaboration Website Terms & Conditi

### Regulatory Indicators

*1 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 (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting GDPR may be relevant: Privacy policy page found. EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs collection and processing of personal data of EU residents.

### 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 (B — 70/100)

*1 compliance badge(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** TRUSTe / TrustArc badge detected — Found via body text: 'truste'. Note: the presence of a badge does not verify the certification is current or valid.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (A+ — 100/100)

*Varnish (HIT)*

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

### HTTP Caching (F — 30/100)

*No cache headers*

- **[WARNING]** No Cache-Control header found — Browsers will use heuristic caching, which can be unpredictable. Set explicit cache headers.

### Transport Security (B — 75/100)

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

- **[INFO]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) not advertised — HTTP/3 eliminates head-of-line blocking. If your CDN supports it, consider enabling it.
- **[WARNING]** Missing Strict-Transport-Security header — HSTS tells browsers to only use HTTPS, preventing SSL stripping attacks.

---

## Accessibility

### Landmark Structure (A — 85/100)

*3 landmarks*

- **[PASS]** <main> landmark present
- **[WARNING]** No <nav> landmark found
- **[INFO]** No contentinfo (footer) landmark
- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link present

### Heading Hierarchy (C — 55/100)

*16 headings, 3 skip(s)*

- **[PASS]** Single H1 present
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H1 → H3 (missing H2) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H2 → H6 (missing H3) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H2 → H5 (missing H3) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.

### Alt Text Quality (A+ — 100/100)

*All 14 images OK*

- **[PASS]** 4 decorative image(s) correctly marked
- **[PASS]** 10 image(s) with good alt text

### Form Accessibility (A — 85/100)

*1 of 8 controls have issues*

- **[CRITICAL]** 1 control(s) without accessible label — Form controls need a <label>, aria-label, or aria-labelledby for screen readers.
- **[PASS]** 7 control(s) properly labeled

### Link & Button Quality (C — 58/100)

*4 issue(s) across 75 links and 6 buttons*

- **[CRITICAL]** 4 link(s) with no accessible text — Links without text are announced as raw URLs by screen readers.
- **[WARNING]** 11 link(s) open in new tab without warning — Add '(opens in new tab)' to link text or aria-label.
- **[PASS]** 60 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 (F — 15/100)

*1 icon(s) detected*

- **[WARNING]** No favicon.ico at site root — Some older browsers, bookmark tools, and RSS readers look for /favicon.ico. Add one as a fallback.
- **[PASS]** HTML icon links detected
- **[INFO]** No apple-touch-icon detected — iOS devices use this when users add your site to their home screen. Add <link rel='apple-touch-icon' sizes='180x180' href='/apple-touch-icon.png'>.

### Web Manifest (D — 40/100)

*Not found*

- **[INFO]** No web manifest found — No manifest at standard paths (/manifest.json, /site.webmanifest). A manifest is optional but enables PWA features like home screen installation and standalone display.

### Dark Mode Support (D — 40/100)

*No dark mode signals*

- **[INFO]** No dark mode signals detected — Consider adding CSS with @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) and <meta name='color-scheme' content='light dark'>.
- **[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 (A+ — 100/100)

*Print styles detected*

- **[PASS]** External print stylesheet detected

### Navigation UX (F — 15/100)

*1 navigation pattern(s)*

- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link detected

---

## SEO

### Canonical URL (A+ — 95/100)

*Properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Canonical tag present
- **[PASS]** Canonical is self-referencing
- **[PASS]** Canonical matches final URL after redirects
- **[PASS]** Canonical target returns 200
- **[INFO]** Canonical points to a different domain

### Meta Tags (A+ — 100/100)

*Title optimized*

- **[PASS]** Page title is set
- **[PASS]** Title length (37 chars) is optimal
- **[PASS]** Title and H1 are well-aligned

### Content Depth (B — 80/100)

*852 words, Difficult*

- **[PASS]** Page has 852 words of content
- **[INFO]** Reading level: Difficult (grade 12)

### Internal Links (A+ — 100/100)

*63 internal, 12 external*

- **[PASS]** 63 internal links (84%)
- **[PASS]** 95% of links use descriptive anchor text
- **[INFO]** 63 internal / 12 external links

### Image SEO (A+ — 100/100)

*14 images, 13 descriptive filenames*

- **[INFO]** 1 image(s) have hash/generic filenames

### Hreflang

*0 hreflang tags*


---

## Sustainability

### CO2 Per Page Load (D — 50/100)

*0.87g CO2 per view*

- **[INFO]** 0.87g CO2 per page view — This page transfers 3.1 MB, producing an estimated 0.87g of CO2 per visit using the Sustainable Web Design model (v4). Breakdown: data center 0.16g, network 0.15g, end-user device 0.56g.
- **[INFO]** At 10,000 monthly views: 104.0 kg CO2/year — With 10,000 page views per month, this page would generate approximately 104.0 kg of CO2 annually — equivalent to charging 13003 smartphones.

### Green Hosting (D — 40/100)

*Not green*

- **[INFO]** No confirmed renewable energy commitment detected — Consider providers like Cloudflare, Google Cloud, or Vercel that match 100% of their energy use with renewables.
- **[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)

*100% cached*

- **[PASS]** 100% reduction on repeat visits — Returning visitors download only 12 KB (vs 3134 KB first visit). 61 of 62 resources are served from browser cache, saving 0.86g CO2 per repeat visit.
- **[INFO]** Repeat visit: 0.00g CO2 (first visit: 0.87g)

### Carbon Budget (D — 50/100)

*57th percentile*

- **[WARNING]** 0.87g CO2 — above the median website (0.60g) — Heavier than an estimated 43% of websites. Reducing page weight, optimizing images, and removing unused JavaScript would lower the carbon footprint. See the Performance tab.
- **[INFO]** Estimated 57th percentile — Compared to: top 10% = 0.20g, target = 0.50g, median = 0.60g per page view.

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

*99% efficient*

- **[PASS]** Transfer efficiency: 99% — Only 30 KB of potential savings identified. Your page is well-optimized for size.

---

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*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/acae6da0-69b9-4f91-9f58-cf77ab85f7a2*
