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Audit Complete

Results for https://blog.gov.uk

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GB · GBP (£) · Estimated Applicable regulations: UK GDPR · PECR · Equality Act 2010 Dev cost: £75/hr How jurisdiction is detected
Spain Spain · Madrid Completed: Apr 22, 2026 20:34 UTC
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Mobile 375 × 812

Screenshot of the audited page (Mobile 375×812)

Desktop 1440 × 900

Screenshot of the audited page (Desktop 1440×900)
C79

Site Health

Score: 79 / 100

Based on 8 categories, 0 sections

Decent speed, but optimizing further could improve engagement.

Good foundation, but a few gaps could be exploited.

Mostly accessible, but some users still face barriers.

Well-optimized for search — your content is discoverable.

Good server performance with room for optimization.

Mostly compliant — a few items need attention.

Good content signals with minor gaps.

Reasonable footprint with room for optimization.

How is this calculated?

The overall score is a weighted average of individual category scores. Categories with more impact on user experience and security carry more weight.

Performance 25%Security 25%Accessibility 15%SEO 10%Infrastructure 10%Compliance 8%Content 5%Sustainability 2%

Weights reflect general web best practices. Individual needs may differ.

How the composite score is calculated

How you compare

WordPress · 575 peers
You 79
·
Avg 74
At average
0 50 100
Better than 87% of WordPress sites See full WordPress benchmark →
Cookie Control · 78 peers
You 79
·
Avg 74
At average
0 50 100
Better than 92% of Cookie Control sites See full Cookie Control benchmark →

Top Priorities (5)

1

'unsafe-eval' found in script source

Security gaps expose your site and users to attacks, eroding trust.

Security › Content Security Policy
2

'unsafe-inline' found in script source

Security gaps expose your site and users to attacks, eroding trust.

Security › Content Security Policy
3

25 third-party resources (100% of weight)

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Performance › Page Weight Inventory
4

Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing

Security gaps expose your site and users to attacks, eroding trust.

Security › Security Headers
5

Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header is missing

Security gaps expose your site and users to attacks, eroding trust.

Security › Security Headers
View fix priority matrix

Fix Priority Matrix

5 findings

Quick Wins

4

High impact, low effort — start here.

Strategic

1

High impact, requires investment.

Easy Improvements

0

Small gains, minimal effort.

Nothing in this quadrant — good news.

Deprioritize

0

Low impact, high effort — do last.

Nothing in this quadrant — good news.

← Low effort High effort →
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What fixing these means

Your site performs reasonably well, but a few targeted fixes could meaningfully improve results. Your LCP of 11.4s exceeds Google's 2.5s 'Good' threshold and the 1 performance issue below directly contributes to it. Addressing the critical issues below would have the most immediate impact on your user trust.

4 security gaps detected — browsers may warn visitors about your site.
Your LCP is 11.4s — fixing the 1 performance critical could bring it under Google's 2.5s 'Good' threshold.
B
Could reach Estimate based on resolving critical issues

Conversion Barriers

1 critical 4 warning

5 barrier(s) likely increasing bounce by ~23%.

Speed (2)

Page takes 11.4s to load

+12% bounce

Users abandon at ~3s — you're 8.9s over the 2.5s threshold

Fix: Optimize render-blocking resources, preload the hero image, and compress images

High main-thread blocking time

+2% bounce

Page is non-interactive for 262ms after first paint

Fix: Defer third-party scripts and split large bundles

Trust (1)

No Content-Security-Policy header

+1% bounce

Higher XSS blast radius — one compromised script can exfiltrate the checkout form

Fix: Ship a reporting-only CSP first, then enforce once violations are clean

Content (2)

No structured data

+2% bounce

No rich-result eligibility in Google — lower SERP CTR vs competitors with stars and prices

Fix: Add JSON-LD for your page type (Product, Article, FAQPage, LocalBusiness, …)

Content is hard to read

+2% bounce

Graduate-level reading difficulty — limits the addressable audience for product or blog pages

Fix: Shorten sentences; replace jargon with plain language; target Flesch ease ≥60

Preliminary CRO audit — each barrier links to the tab with detailed analysis.

Return on Investment

£300 investment → £1,711/month returns + GBP 17,550,000 risk avoided

Payback period: < 1 month First-year ROI: +6745%

Investment

£300

4h · 5 findings

Monthly returns

£1,711 /mo

~£20,535 / year

  • Conversions recovered £1,711
  • Bandwidth savings £0.35

Regulatory risk avoided

GBP 17,550,000

if kept compliant

  • UK GDPR GBP 17,500,000
  • Equality Act 2010 GBP 50,000

Payback period

0 12mo 24mo

£150 — in quick wins — start here for the fastest payback

Figures combine localized regulatory fine ceilings, search/conversion value priced against local CPC, and bandwidth waste estimates. Results depend on implementation quality and audience composition. Not legal or financial advice.

Full methodology & sources

Estimated Remediation Cost

£300

4.0 developer hours at £75/hr

Based on United Kingdom rates (£75/hr)

Quick wins
£150 4 fixes in ~120 minutes

Start here for the best return on investment

Cost by category

Cost by effort level

Adjust assumptions
£ /hr

Rates reflect fully-loaded developer cost including overhead

How developer rates are sourced

What Inaction Is Costing You

£1,462,500 / month at risk

~£17,550,004 / year if left unfixed

Compliance Risk

£17,550,000

UK GDPREquality Act 2010
  • No privacy policy link detected
    UK GDPR: GBP 10,000 – GBP 17,500,000
  • Privacy Policy not detected
    UK GDPR: GBP 10,000 – GBP 17,500,000
  • No <nav> landmark found
    Equality Act 2010: GBP 500 – GBP 50,000

Bandwidth Waste

£0.35 /mo

5489.8 MB/mo × 0.063 GBP/GB

  • Optimize transfer: save ~549 KB per page load
    Saves £0.35/mo

Compliance figures represent the statutory maximum fine for the most severe triggered category, capped per regulation — not the sum of per-finding penalties. Based on published regulatory fine ranges. This is not legal advice.

Compliance methodology · SEO assumptions · Bandwidth model

Your performance is already good — improvements may show diminishing returns

Unique monthly visitors from your analytics

Purchases, signups, or key actions

Optional — for revenue estimation

additional conversions/month

more engaged visitors from reduced bounce

potential monthly revenue
Current bounce (est.)
After fixes (est.)
Estimated bounce reduction

Fix 2 critical issues to capture this value

How this is calculated

Based on Google/Deloitte research ("Milliseconds Make Millions") showing a ~7% bounce rate increase per additional second of LCP above the 2.5s "Good" threshold.

Your site's LCP: → estimated after fixes.

These are estimates based on industry research — actual results vary

Bounce-rate model & assumptions

Your data stays in your browser — nothing is sent to our servers

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Lighthouse Scores

Industry-standard audits powered by Google Lighthouse.

59
Performance Overall performance score (0–100) based on Core Web Vitals and other metrics. 90+ is good.
97
Accessibility Measures how accessible the page is for users with disabilities. Checks color contrast, ARIA labels, and semantic HTML.
100
Best Practices Checks for modern web development best practices including HTTPS, no console errors, and secure JavaScript.
83
SEO Measures basic SEO optimizations: meta tags, crawlability, link text, and mobile friendliness.

Core Web Vitals

Key metrics that affect user experience.

First Contentful Paint First Contentful Paint — how long until the browser renders the first piece of content. Under 1.8s is good.

4.38 s

Largest Contentful Paint Largest Contentful Paint — how long until the largest visible element loads. Under 2.5s is good.

11.42 s

Total Blocking Time Total Blocking Time — total time the main thread was blocked, preventing user input. Under 200ms is good.

262 ms

Cumulative Layout Shift Cumulative Layout Shift — measures visual stability. How much the page layout shifts during loading. Under 0.1 is good.

0.000

Speed Index Speed Index — how quickly content is visually displayed during load. Under 3.4s is good.

4.38 s

Time to Interactive Time to Interactive — how long until the page is fully interactive and responds to user input. Under 3.8s is good.

11.42 s

Detailed Report

Audit breakdown by category with detailed findings.

59

Performance

Insights

Remove large, duplicate JavaScript modules from bundles to reduce unnecessary bytes consumed by network activity.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Polyfills and transforms enable older browsers to use new JavaScript features. However, many aren't necessary for modern browsers. Consider modifying your JavaScript build process to not transpile Baseline features, unless you know you must support older browsers. Learn why most sites can deploy ES6+ code without transpiling

Why this matters

Shipping ES5 transpiled code to modern browsers wastes bytes — every user with an evergreen browser pays for compatibility you don't need.

Learn more

Most users today run browsers that natively support ES6+, async/await, optional chaining, and the rest of modern JavaScript. Transpiling to ES5 'just in case' adds 20-40% to your bundle for no benefit. Configure your build to target a modern browserslist, or ship a differential bundle pair (modern + legacy) with the module/nomodule pattern.

Source: Google web.dev / Lighthouse

3rd party code can significantly impact load performance. Reduce and defer loading of 3rd party code to prioritize your page's content.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

A long cache lifetime can speed up repeat visits to your page. Learn more about caching.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

RequestCache TTLTransfer Size
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...604800.0 s1.2 MiB
/wp-content/plugins/aurora-heatmap/js/aurora-heatmap.min....86400.0 s38.9 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/fonts/lig...86400.0 s32.9 KiB
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg604800.0 s126.1 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/fonts/bol...86400.0 s31.0 KiB
cc.cdn.civiccomputing.com/9/cookieControl-9.x.min.js?ver=6.9.4604800.0 s123.3 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.min.js?ver=3.7.186400.0 s30.4 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/main-5548fee29e9bd3451...86400.0 s26.7 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/css/dist/block-library/style.min.css?ver=6.9.486400.0 s16.0 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/images/go...86400.0 s14.7 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-links-to/dist/new-tab.js?ver=3.4.186400.0 s13.3 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-frontend.min.js86400.0 s11.4 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs-root/build/main.min.js?ver=6.9.486400.0 s11.0 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js?ver=3.4.186400.0 s5.2 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/main-1a574665cb89c6954...86400.0 s5.0 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/aurora-heatmap/style.css?ver=1.7.186400.0 s2.6 KiB
/wp-content/plugins/gds-cookies-and-analytics/assets/cook...86400.0 s1.7 KiB
/wp-content/plugins/dxw-digest/assets/css/dxw-digest.css?...86400.0 s1.3 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/dxw-digest/assets/js/dxw-digest.js?ver=6.9.486400.0 s649 B
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-frontend-load.js...86400.0 s473 B

Your first network request is the most important. Reduce its latency by avoiding redirects, ensuring a fast server response, and enabling text compression.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Consider setting font-display to swap or optional to ensure text is consistently visible. swap can be further optimized to mitigate layout shifts with font metric overrides.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Reducing the download time of images can improve the perceived load time of the page and LCP. Learn more about optimizing image size

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

URLResource SizeEst Savings
Childminder and child working at a desk section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...1.2 MiB1.2 MiB
Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg125.8 KiB102.0 KiB

Optimize LCP by making the LCP image discoverable from the HTML immediately, and avoiding lazy-loading

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

lhId: page-1-IMG
nodeLabel: Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping
path: 1,HTML,1,BODY,4,DIV,1,MAIN,0,DIV,0,DIV,0,SECTION,0,FIGURE,0,A,0,IMG
selector: section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
snippet: <img src="https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/Smoki…" alt="Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping">

Avoid chaining critical requests by reducing the length of chains, reducing the download size of resources, or deferring the download of unnecessary resources to improve page load.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

description: [preconnect](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/performance/uses-rel-preconnect/) hints help the browser establish a connection earlier in the page load, saving time when the first request for that origin is made. The following are the origins that the page preconnected to.
title: Preconnected origins
value: no origins were preconnected
description: Add [preconnect](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/performance/uses-rel-preconnect/) hints to your most important origins, but try to use no more than 4.
title: Preconnect candidates
value: No additional origins are good candidates for preconnecting

These insights are also available in the Chrome DevTools Performance Panel - record a trace to view more detailed information.

Redirects introduce additional delays before the page can be loaded. Learn how to avoid page redirects.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Estimated savings: 1.1 s
URLTime Spent
blog.gov.uk/1.1 s
www.blog.gov.uk/0.0 ms

Time to Interactive is the amount of time it takes for the page to become fully interactive. Learn more about the Time to Interactive metric.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

TTI

The maximum potential First Input Delay that your users could experience is the duration of the longest task. Learn more about the Maximum Potential First Input Delay metric.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Diagnostics

Reduce unused rules from stylesheets and defer CSS not used for above-the-fold content to decrease bytes consumed by network activity. Learn how to reduce unused CSS.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Estimated savings: 170 ms 39.3 KiB

Reduce unused JavaScript and defer loading scripts until they are required to decrease bytes consumed by network activity. Learn how to reduce unused JavaScript.

Why this matters

Multi-megabyte JavaScript bundles delay every interactive feature on the page.

Learn more

This is the Lighthouse audit fired when too much JS is shipped relative to what executes. The fix isn't a config flag — it requires bundle analysis (webpack-bundle-analyzer, rollup-plugin-visualizer), splitting routes into chunks, lazy-loading off-screen components, and removing unused dependencies. Fundamentally different from minification: minifying reduces byte count, this reduces what's downloaded at all.

Source: Google web.dev / Lighthouse

Estimated savings: 340 ms 57.4 KiB
URLTransfer SizeEst Savings
cc.cdn.civiccomputing.com/9/cookieControl-9.x.min.js?ver=6.9.4122.9 KiB57.4 KiB

Set an explicit width and height on image elements to reduce layout shifts and improve CLS. Learn how to set image dimensions

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

URL
Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg
Childminder and child working at a desk section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...

More information about the performance of your application. These numbers don't directly affect the Performance score.

Layout shift culprits
Optimize DOM size
Forced reflow
LCP breakdown
Modern HTTP
Optimize viewport for mobile
Minify CSS
Minify JavaScript
Avoids enormous network payloads Total size was 1,787 KiB
JavaScript execution time 0.5 s
Minimizes main-thread work 1.2 s
Avoid long main-thread tasks 3 long tasks found
Page didn't prevent back/forward cache restoration
Network Requests
Network Round Trip Times 30 ms
Server Backend Latencies 310 ms
Tasks
Diagnostics
Metrics
Screenshot Thumbnails
Final Screenshot
Script Treemap Data
Resources Summary
Initial server response time was short Root document took 40 ms
INP breakdown
User Timing marks and measures
Avoid non-composited animations
Avoid large layout shifts
97

Accessibility

These checks highlight opportunities to improve the accessibility of your web app. Automatic detection can only detect a subset of issues and does not guarantee the accessibility of your web app, so manual testing is also encouraged.

Best practices

Touch targets with sufficient size and spacing help users who may have difficulty targeting small controls to activate the targets. Learn more about touch targets.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Failing Elements
The Education Hub div.featured-posts > section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > div.meta > a
MHCLG Digital ul.govuk-list > li > div.meta > a
Earth Day: The Power of Earth Observation ul.govuk-list > li > h4.govuk-heading-s > a
UK Space Agency blog ul.govuk-list > li > div.meta > a

These items highlight common accessibility best practices.

Interactive controls are keyboard focusable
Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state
The page has a logical tab order
Visual order on the page follows DOM order
User focus is not accidentally trapped in a region
The user's focus is directed to new content added to the page
HTML5 landmark elements are used to improve navigation
Offscreen content is hidden from assistive technology
Custom controls have associated labels
Custom controls have ARIA roles
`[aria-*]` attributes match their roles
`[aria-hidden="true"]` is not present on the document `<body>`
`[role]`s have all required `[aria-*]` attributes
`[role]` values are valid
`[aria-*]` attributes have valid values
`[aria-*]` attributes are valid and not misspelled
Buttons have an accessible name
Image elements have `[alt]` attributes
Form elements have associated labels
`[user-scalable="no"]` is not used in the `<meta name="viewport">` element and the `[maximum-scale]` attribute is not less than 5.
Select elements have associated label elements.
ARIA attributes are used as specified for the element's role
Elements with `role="dialog"` or `role="alertdialog"` have accessible names.
`[aria-hidden="true"]` elements do not contain focusable descendents
Elements use only permitted ARIA attributes
Background and foreground colors have a sufficient contrast ratio
Document has a `<title>` element
`<html>` element has a `[lang]` attribute
`<html>` element has a valid value for its `[lang]` attribute
Links are distinguishable without relying on color.
Links have a discernible name
Lists contain only `<li>` elements and script supporting elements (`<script>` and `<template>`).
List items (`<li>`) are contained within `<ul>`, `<ol>` or `<menu>` parent elements
No element has a `[tabindex]` value greater than 0
Heading elements appear in a sequentially-descending order
Document has a main landmark.
Deprecated ARIA roles were not used
`[accesskey]` values are unique
`button`, `link`, and `menuitem` elements have accessible names
ARIA input fields have accessible names
ARIA `meter` elements have accessible names
ARIA `progressbar` elements have accessible names
Elements with an ARIA `[role]` that require children to contain a specific `[role]` have all required children.
`[role]`s are contained by their required parent element
Elements with the `role=text` attribute do not have focusable descendents.
ARIA toggle fields have accessible names
ARIA `tooltip` elements have accessible names
ARIA `treeitem` elements have accessible names
The page contains a heading, skip link, or landmark region
`<dl>`'s contain only properly-ordered `<dt>` and `<dd>` groups, `<script>`, `<template>` or `<div>` elements.
Definition list items are wrapped in `<dl>` elements
ARIA IDs are unique
No form fields have multiple labels
`<frame>` or `<iframe>` elements have a title
`<html>` element has an `[xml:lang]` attribute with the same base language as the `[lang]` attribute.
Input buttons have discernible text.
`<input type="image">` elements have `[alt]` text
The document does not use `<meta http-equiv="refresh">`
`<object>` elements have alternate text
Skip links are focusable.
Cells in a `<table>` element that use the `[headers]` attribute refer to table cells within the same table.
`<th>` elements and elements with `[role="columnheader"/"rowheader"]` have data cells they describe.
`[lang]` attributes have a valid value
`<video>` elements contain a `<track>` element with `[kind="captions"]`
Tables have different content in the summary attribute and `<caption>`.
All heading elements contain content.
Uses ARIA roles only on compatible elements
Image elements do not have `[alt]` attributes that are redundant text.
Identical links have the same purpose.
Elements with visible text labels have matching accessible names.
Tables use `<caption>` instead of cells with the `[colspan]` attribute to indicate a caption.
`<td>` elements in a large `<table>` have one or more table headers.
100

Best Practices

Uses HTTPS
Avoids deprecated APIs
Avoids third-party cookies
Allows users to paste into input fields
Avoids requesting the geolocation permission on page load
Avoids requesting the notification permission on page load
Displays images with correct aspect ratio
Serves images with appropriate resolution
Page has the HTML doctype
Properly defines charset
No browser errors logged to the console
No issues in the `Issues` panel in Chrome Devtools
Ensure CSP is effective against XSS attacks
Ensure proper origin isolation with COOP
Mitigate clickjacking with XFO or CSP
Mitigate DOM-based XSS with Trusted Types
Detected JavaScript libraries
Page has valid source maps
Redirects HTTP traffic to HTTPS
Use a strong HSTS policy
83

SEO

These checks ensure that your page is following basic search engine optimization advice. There are many additional factors Lighthouse does not score here that may affect your search ranking, including performance on Core Web Vitals. Learn more about Google Search Essentials.

Content Best Practices

Meta descriptions may be included in search results to concisely summarize page content. Learn more about the meta description.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Format your HTML in a way that enables crawlers to better understand your app’s content.

Crawling and Indexing

If your robots.txt file is malformed, crawlers may not be able to understand how you want your website to be crawled or indexed. Learn more about robots.txt.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Line #ContentError
14plugins/Syntax not understood

To appear in search results, crawlers need access to your app.

Structured data is valid
Page isn’t blocked from indexing
Document has a `<title>` element
Page has successful HTTP status code
Links have descriptive text
Links are crawlable
Image elements have `[alt]` attributes
Document has a valid `hreflang`
Document has a valid `rel=canonical`

Lighthouse Scores

Industry-standard audits powered by Google Lighthouse. — Desktop

81
Performance Overall performance score (0–100) based on Core Web Vitals and other metrics. 90+ is good.
97
Accessibility Measures how accessible the page is for users with disabilities. Checks color contrast, ARIA labels, and semantic HTML.
100
Best Practices Checks for modern web development best practices including HTTPS, no console errors, and secure JavaScript.
83
SEO Measures basic SEO optimizations: meta tags, crawlability, link text, and mobile friendliness.

Core Web Vitals

Key metrics that affect user experience. — Desktop

First Contentful Paint First Contentful Paint — how long until the browser renders the first piece of content. Under 1.8s is good.

1.39 s

Largest Contentful Paint Largest Contentful Paint — how long until the largest visible element loads. Under 2.5s is good.

2.50 s

Total Blocking Time Total Blocking Time — total time the main thread was blocked, preventing user input. Under 200ms is good.

9 ms

Cumulative Layout Shift Cumulative Layout Shift — measures visual stability. How much the page layout shifts during loading. Under 0.1 is good.

0.029

Speed Index Speed Index — how quickly content is visually displayed during load. Under 3.4s is good.

1.39 s

Time to Interactive Time to Interactive — how long until the page is fully interactive and responds to user input. Under 3.8s is good.

2.50 s

Detailed Report

Audit breakdown by category with detailed findings.

81

Performance

Insights

Remove large, duplicate JavaScript modules from bundles to reduce unnecessary bytes consumed by network activity.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Polyfills and transforms enable older browsers to use new JavaScript features. However, many aren't necessary for modern browsers. Consider modifying your JavaScript build process to not transpile Baseline features, unless you know you must support older browsers. Learn why most sites can deploy ES6+ code without transpiling

Why this matters

Shipping ES5 transpiled code to modern browsers wastes bytes — every user with an evergreen browser pays for compatibility you don't need.

Learn more

Most users today run browsers that natively support ES6+, async/await, optional chaining, and the rest of modern JavaScript. Transpiling to ES5 'just in case' adds 20-40% to your bundle for no benefit. Configure your build to target a modern browserslist, or ship a differential bundle pair (modern + legacy) with the module/nomodule pattern.

Source: Google web.dev / Lighthouse

3rd party code can significantly impact load performance. Reduce and defer loading of 3rd party code to prioritize your page's content.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

A long cache lifetime can speed up repeat visits to your page. Learn more about caching.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

RequestCache TTLTransfer Size
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...604800.0 s1.2 MiB
/wp-content/plugins/aurora-heatmap/js/aurora-heatmap.min....86400.0 s38.7 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/fonts/lig...86400.0 s32.9 KiB
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg604800.0 s126.1 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/fonts/bol...86400.0 s31.0 KiB
cc.cdn.civiccomputing.com/9/cookieControl-9.x.min.js?ver=6.9.4604800.0 s123.2 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.min.js?ver=3.7.186400.0 s30.3 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/main-5548fee29e9bd3451...86400.0 s26.6 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/css/dist/block-library/style.min.css?ver=6.9.486400.0 s15.9 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-assets/images/go...86400.0 s14.7 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-links-to/dist/new-tab.js?ver=3.4.186400.0 s13.3 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/govuk-frontend.min.js86400.0 s11.4 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs-root/build/main.min.js?ver=6.9.486400.0 s10.9 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js?ver=3.4.186400.0 s5.1 KiB
/wp-content/themes/gds-blogs/build/main-1a574665cb89c6954...86400.0 s4.9 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/aurora-heatmap/style.css?ver=1.7.186400.0 s2.5 KiB
/wp-content/plugins/gds-cookies-and-analytics/assets/cook...86400.0 s1.6 KiB
/wp-content/plugins/dxw-digest/assets/css/dxw-digest.css?...86400.0 s1.2 KiB
www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/dxw-digest/assets/js/dxw-digest.js?ver=6.9.486400.0 s530 B
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Your first network request is the most important. Reduce its latency by avoiding redirects, ensuring a fast server response, and enabling text compression.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Consider setting font-display to swap or optional to ensure text is consistently visible. swap can be further optimized to mitigate layout shifts with font metric overrides.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Reducing the download time of images can improve the perceived load time of the page and LCP. Learn more about optimizing image size

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

URLResource SizeEst Savings
Childminder and child working at a desk section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...1.2 MiB1.2 MiB
Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg125.8 KiB121.0 KiB

Optimize LCP by making the LCP image discoverable from the HTML immediately, and avoiding lazy-loading

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

lhId: page-1-IMG
nodeLabel: Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping
path: 1,HTML,1,BODY,4,DIV,1,MAIN,0,DIV,0,DIV,0,SECTION,0,FIGURE,0,A,0,IMG
selector: section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
snippet: <img src="https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/Smoki…" alt="Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping">

Avoid chaining critical requests by reducing the length of chains, reducing the download size of resources, or deferring the download of unnecessary resources to improve page load.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

description: [preconnect](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/performance/uses-rel-preconnect/) hints help the browser establish a connection earlier in the page load, saving time when the first request for that origin is made. The following are the origins that the page preconnected to.
title: Preconnected origins
value: no origins were preconnected
description: Add [preconnect](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/performance/uses-rel-preconnect/) hints to your most important origins, but try to use no more than 4.
title: Preconnect candidates
value: No additional origins are good candidates for preconnecting

These insights are also available in the Chrome DevTools Performance Panel - record a trace to view more detailed information.

Redirects introduce additional delays before the page can be loaded. Learn how to avoid page redirects.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Estimated savings: 410 ms
URLTime Spent
blog.gov.uk/410 ms
www.blog.gov.uk/0.0 ms

Time to Interactive is the amount of time it takes for the page to become fully interactive. Learn more about the Time to Interactive metric.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

TTI

Diagnostics

Reduce unused rules from stylesheets and defer CSS not used for above-the-fold content to decrease bytes consumed by network activity. Learn how to reduce unused CSS.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Estimated savings: 60 ms 39.0 KiB

Reduce unused JavaScript and defer loading scripts until they are required to decrease bytes consumed by network activity. Learn how to reduce unused JavaScript.

Why this matters

Multi-megabyte JavaScript bundles delay every interactive feature on the page.

Learn more

This is the Lighthouse audit fired when too much JS is shipped relative to what executes. The fix isn't a config flag — it requires bundle analysis (webpack-bundle-analyzer, rollup-plugin-visualizer), splitting routes into chunks, lazy-loading off-screen components, and removing unused dependencies. Fundamentally different from minification: minifying reduces byte count, this reduces what's downloaded at all.

Source: Google web.dev / Lighthouse

Estimated savings: 60 ms 57.4 KiB
URLTransfer SizeEst Savings
cc.cdn.civiccomputing.com/9/cookieControl-9.x.min.js?ver=6.9.4122.8 KiB57.4 KiB

Set an explicit width and height on image elements to reduce layout shifts and improve CLS. Learn how to set image dimensions

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

URL
Text graphic: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/169/2023/10/SmokingVaping.jpg
Childminder and child working at a desk section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > figure > a > img
/wp-content/uploads/sites/185/2024/04/Childminder_Hubhead...

More information about the performance of your application. These numbers don't directly affect the Performance score.

Layout shift culprits
Optimize DOM size
Forced reflow
LCP breakdown
Modern HTTP
Optimize viewport for mobile
Max Potential First Input Delay 60 ms
Minify CSS
Minify JavaScript
Avoids enormous network payloads Total size was 1,785 KiB
JavaScript execution time 0.1 s
Minimizes main-thread work 0.3 s
Avoid long main-thread tasks 1 long task found
Page didn't prevent back/forward cache restoration
Network Requests
Network Round Trip Times 20 ms
Server Backend Latencies 210 ms
Tasks
Diagnostics
Metrics
Screenshot Thumbnails
Final Screenshot
Script Treemap Data
Resources Summary
Initial server response time was short Root document took 30 ms
Avoid large layout shifts 1 layout shift found
INP breakdown
User Timing marks and measures
Avoid non-composited animations
97

Accessibility

These checks highlight opportunities to improve the accessibility of your web app. Automatic detection can only detect a subset of issues and does not guarantee the accessibility of your web app, so manual testing is also encouraged.

Best practices

Touch targets with sufficient size and spacing help users who may have difficulty targeting small controls to activate the targets. Learn more about touch targets.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Failing Elements
The Education Hub div.featured-posts > section.govuk-grid-column-one-third > div.meta > a
MHCLG Digital ul.govuk-list > li > div.meta > a
The Ofqual blog ul.govuk-list > li > div.meta > a

These items highlight common accessibility best practices.

Interactive controls are keyboard focusable
Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state
The page has a logical tab order
Visual order on the page follows DOM order
User focus is not accidentally trapped in a region
The user's focus is directed to new content added to the page
HTML5 landmark elements are used to improve navigation
Offscreen content is hidden from assistive technology
Custom controls have associated labels
Custom controls have ARIA roles
`[aria-*]` attributes match their roles
`[aria-hidden="true"]` is not present on the document `<body>`
`[role]`s have all required `[aria-*]` attributes
`[role]` values are valid
`[aria-*]` attributes have valid values
`[aria-*]` attributes are valid and not misspelled
Buttons have an accessible name
Image elements have `[alt]` attributes
Form elements have associated labels
`[user-scalable="no"]` is not used in the `<meta name="viewport">` element and the `[maximum-scale]` attribute is not less than 5.
Select elements have associated label elements.
ARIA attributes are used as specified for the element's role
Elements with `role="dialog"` or `role="alertdialog"` have accessible names.
`[aria-hidden="true"]` elements do not contain focusable descendents
Elements use only permitted ARIA attributes
Background and foreground colors have a sufficient contrast ratio
Document has a `<title>` element
`<html>` element has a `[lang]` attribute
`<html>` element has a valid value for its `[lang]` attribute
Links are distinguishable without relying on color.
Links have a discernible name
Lists contain only `<li>` elements and script supporting elements (`<script>` and `<template>`).
List items (`<li>`) are contained within `<ul>`, `<ol>` or `<menu>` parent elements
No element has a `[tabindex]` value greater than 0
Heading elements appear in a sequentially-descending order
Document has a main landmark.
Deprecated ARIA roles were not used
`[accesskey]` values are unique
`button`, `link`, and `menuitem` elements have accessible names
ARIA input fields have accessible names
ARIA `meter` elements have accessible names
ARIA `progressbar` elements have accessible names
Elements with an ARIA `[role]` that require children to contain a specific `[role]` have all required children.
`[role]`s are contained by their required parent element
Elements with the `role=text` attribute do not have focusable descendents.
ARIA toggle fields have accessible names
ARIA `tooltip` elements have accessible names
ARIA `treeitem` elements have accessible names
The page contains a heading, skip link, or landmark region
`<dl>`'s contain only properly-ordered `<dt>` and `<dd>` groups, `<script>`, `<template>` or `<div>` elements.
Definition list items are wrapped in `<dl>` elements
ARIA IDs are unique
No form fields have multiple labels
`<frame>` or `<iframe>` elements have a title
`<html>` element has an `[xml:lang]` attribute with the same base language as the `[lang]` attribute.
Input buttons have discernible text.
`<input type="image">` elements have `[alt]` text
The document does not use `<meta http-equiv="refresh">`
`<object>` elements have alternate text
Skip links are focusable.
Cells in a `<table>` element that use the `[headers]` attribute refer to table cells within the same table.
`<th>` elements and elements with `[role="columnheader"/"rowheader"]` have data cells they describe.
`[lang]` attributes have a valid value
`<video>` elements contain a `<track>` element with `[kind="captions"]`
Tables have different content in the summary attribute and `<caption>`.
All heading elements contain content.
Uses ARIA roles only on compatible elements
Image elements do not have `[alt]` attributes that are redundant text.
Identical links have the same purpose.
Elements with visible text labels have matching accessible names.
Tables use `<caption>` instead of cells with the `[colspan]` attribute to indicate a caption.
`<td>` elements in a large `<table>` have one or more table headers.
100

Best Practices

Uses HTTPS
Avoids deprecated APIs
Avoids third-party cookies
Allows users to paste into input fields
Avoids requesting the geolocation permission on page load
Avoids requesting the notification permission on page load
Displays images with correct aspect ratio
Serves images with appropriate resolution
Page has the HTML doctype
Properly defines charset
No browser errors logged to the console
No issues in the `Issues` panel in Chrome Devtools
Ensure CSP is effective against XSS attacks
Ensure proper origin isolation with COOP
Mitigate clickjacking with XFO or CSP
Mitigate DOM-based XSS with Trusted Types
Detected JavaScript libraries
Page has valid source maps
Redirects HTTP traffic to HTTPS
Use a strong HSTS policy
83

SEO

These checks ensure that your page is following basic search engine optimization advice. There are many additional factors Lighthouse does not score here that may affect your search ranking, including performance on Core Web Vitals. Learn more about Google Search Essentials.

Content Best Practices

Meta descriptions may be included in search results to concisely summarize page content. Learn more about the meta description.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Format your HTML in a way that enables crawlers to better understand your app’s content.

Crawling and Indexing

If your robots.txt file is malformed, crawlers may not be able to understand how you want your website to be crawled or indexed. Learn more about robots.txt.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Line #ContentError
14plugins/Syntax not understood

To appear in search results, crawlers need access to your app.

Structured data is valid
Page isn’t blocked from indexing
Document has a `<title>` element
Page has successful HTTP status code
Links have descriptive text
Links are crawlable
Image elements have `[alt]` attributes
Document has a valid `hreflang`
Document has a valid `rel=canonical`

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