Public Audit Report

www.theguardian.com

https://www.theguardian.com/us/sport
Scanned on May 2, 2026
56
Overall
D
63
SEO
62/99 passed
43
AEO
22/51 passed
53
GEO
31/58 passed
115
Passed
93
Failed
208
Total Checks
Poor
Rating

Quick Wins — Top 5 Issues to Fix

SEO — 63/100 (37 issues)

Failed Checks (37)

  • Title length: 77 characters (too long, keep under 60)meta
  • Description length: 119 chars (too short)meta
  • 2 title tags found — should be exactly 1meta
  • No H1 tag foundcontent
  • Readability: 0 (difficult — simplify language)content
  • 60% long sentences (>20 words) — break up for readabilitycontent
  • 1 of 35 images missing ALT text (97% have it)content
  • 34 images missing width/height — causes layout shift (CLS)content
  • 34 of 35 images use legacy formats (JPG/PNG/GIF) — convert to WebP/AVIF for 25-50% smaller filescontent
  • 1 non-descriptive link text(s) found ("here"...) — use descriptive anchor text for SEOcontent
  • Missing og:title — poor social sharingsocial
  • Missing og:descriptionsocial
  • Missing og:image — social shares will lack visualssocial
  • Missing og:url — social platforms may use wrong URLsocial
  • Missing og:type — defaults to "website"social
  • Missing og:site_name — helps brand recognition in sharessocial
  • Missing twitter:card meta tagsocial
  • Missing twitter:titlesocial
  • Missing twitter:descriptionsocial
  • Missing twitter:imagesocial
  • No hreflang tags — add if targeting multiple languagestechnical
  • Text-to-HTML ratio: 1.4% — too code-heavy, add more contenttechnical
  • Inline CSS: 346.7 KB — too much, move to external stylesheetperformance
  • Inline JS: 20.9 KB — too much, use external scriptsperformance
  • No JSON-LD structured data foundschema
  • No /sitemap.xml found — create one for better crawlingtechnical
  • 5 of 5 internal links are brokencontent
  • URL lacks title keywords — use a descriptive URL slugtechnical
  • 94 ad elements — excessive ads (ranking penalty risk)content
  • 1 paragraph(s) exceed 150 words — break up for readabilitycontent
  • 228 links on page — exceeds 100 limit, may dilute link equitycontent
  • DOM size: ~1915 elements — exceeds 1500, may slow renderingperformance
  • 2 render-blocking script(s) in head — add defer or asyncperformance
  • 2 duplicate ID(s) found: "gu-search" (2x), "/p/x5vjn7" (2x) — must be unique per HTML specaccessibility
  • 1 iframe(s) without sandbox attribute — security risksecurity
  • No IndexNow integration — add for instant Bing/Yandex indexing on content changestechnical
  • 1 of 7 H2 sections have < 50 words — add more content or merge thin sectionscontent

Passed Checks (62)

  • Title tag found: "Sports news, scores, analysis and opinion from the Guardian ..."meta
  • Meta description found (119 chars)meta
  • Viewport meta tag found (mobile-friendly)meta
  • UTF-8 charset declaredmeta
  • Language attribute set on HTML tagmeta
  • Theme color set: #052962meta
  • No meta refresh redirect (good)meta
  • Robots: "max-image-preview:large"meta
  • 7 H2 tags foundcontent
  • Heading hierarchy is correctcontent
  • 1510 words on page (good content depth)content
  • JS-based lazy loading detectedcontent
  • 180 internal links foundcontent
  • 31 external links foundcontent
  • No empty href attributes foundcontent
  • HTTPS enabledtechnical
  • Canonical tag foundtechnical
  • Canonical tag is self-referencing (correct)technical
  • Favicon foundtechnical
  • Apple touch icon foundtechnical
  • Compression: gziptechnical
  • URL length: 36 chars (good)technical
  • URL uses hyphens or no separators (good)technical
  • URL is lowercase (good)technical
  • No deprecated HTML tags foundtechnical
  • All 4 external scripts use defer/asyncperformance
  • Font preload/preconnect found — faster font loadingperformance
  • Cache-Control: max-age=60, stale-while-revalidate=6, stale-if-error=864000,performance
  • HSTS header present — enforces HTTPSsecurity
  • X-Content-Type-Options: nosniffsecurity
  • Content-Security-Policy header presentsecurity
  • About page link found — builds trust and E-E-A-Ttrust
  • Contact page/email link foundtrust
  • Privacy Policy link foundtrust
  • Terms of Service link foundtrust
  • Author byline foundtrust
  • <!DOCTYPE html> declaredtechnical
  • No mixed content — all resources use HTTPStechnical
  • font-display: swap detected — prevents invisible textperformance
  • Viewport includes width=device-width (responsive)meta
  • robots.txt found and allows crawlingtechnical
  • robots.txt includes Sitemap referencetechnical
  • No AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt — AI search and training can access contenttechnical
  • X-Robots-Tag: "bingbot: noarchive"technical
  • 0% nofollow links (0/211) — good link equity flowcontent
  • All 1 target="_blank" links have rel="noopener"security
  • Web App Manifest found (PWA-ready)technical
  • 14 resource hint(s) (dns-prefetch/preconnect) — faster loadingperformance
  • 17 first-person pronouns — strong personal experiencecontent
  • 86% responsive images (srcset/picture)content
  • Title uses "|" separator — Google may rewrite it; consider using "—" insteadmeta
  • max-image-preview:large — eligible for Google Discover large imagesmeta
  • Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgradesecurity
  • Permissions-Policy header presentsecurity
  • Title and meta description are different (good)meta
  • Viewport allows zoom (good for accessibility)accessibility
  • No snippet blocking detected (good — content is fully accessible)technical
  • Trailing slash consistent between URL and canonicaltechnical
  • 1 third-party script domain(s) (acceptable)performance
  • ARIA landmarks present: main, nav, skip-linkaccessibility
  • All 2 form input(s) have labels or aria-labelsaccessibility
  • 1 feed(s) discovered (RSS) — aids content discoverytechnical
AEO — 43/100 (29 issues)

Failed Checks (29)

  • No structured data — AI systems struggle to categorize your pagediscoverability
  • Missing meta description or og:description — unclear topic for AIdiscoverability
  • No definition lists (<dl>) — great for term/value pairsdiscoverability
  • No code blocks — add <code>/<pre> for technical contentdiscoverability
  • No FAQ section found — add Q&A content for AI citationstructure
  • No data tables — tables help AI compare and cite datastructure
  • No concise answer paragraphs detected — add short summaries after headingsstructure
  • 40% short sentences — shorten sentences for better AI parsingstructure
  • 75% concise paragraphs — break up long paragraphsstructure
  • Few key-value patterns — use "**Label:** value" format for AIstructure
  • No Organization schema — AI may not recognize your brandcitation
  • No source citations — reference studies and data for authoritycitation
  • Only 0 concise answer paragraph(s) after headings — add 2+ short summaries (40-200 chars) right after H2/H3 tagscitation
  • No Speakable schema — add for voice assistant optimizationvoice
  • First paragraph too short for AI snippetsvoice
  • No SearchAction schema — add for enhanced search presencevoice
  • Avg 102 words/sentence — simplify for AI and voicevoice
  • 27% passive voice — use more active voice for AI clarityvoice
  • Pronoun density: 0.1% — add more "you/your" for engagementvoice
  • No summary section — add Key Takeaways for AI extractionvoice
  • Few Q&A blocks — add question headings followed by answer paragraphsvoice
  • No Last-Modified header or dateModified — AI prefers content with freshness signalscitation
  • No /llms.txt found — add one to guide AI crawlers (emerging standard)discoverability
  • No sameAs links in schema — add social profiles for brand recognitioncitation
  • Brand name inconsistent — align site name across title, og:site_name, Organization schemacitation
  • Content not updated in 90+ days — stale content loses AI visibilitycitation
  • No video content — multimedia increases AI engagement and citation ratediscoverability
  • Statistics lack source references — attribute data to boost AI trustcitation
  • No <details>/<summary> elements — use for expandable Q&A contentstructure

Passed Checks (22)

  • 1510 words in HTML — good content for AI parsingdiscoverability
  • Clean URL structurediscoverability
  • 6 semantic HTML5 elements founddiscoverability
  • 16 content sections — well-structured for AIdiscoverability
  • 97 named entities found — helps AI understand contextdiscoverability
  • 180 internal links — good topic cluster signaldiscoverability
  • Question-style headings found — ideal for AI snippetsstructure
  • 43 lists found — structured content for AIstructure
  • Step-by-step content detected — AI loves procedural answersstructure
  • Avg 203 words/section — sufficient depthstructure
  • Author information found — builds E-E-A-Tcitation
  • Publication/modification date foundcitation
  • Statistics and data found in content — highly citablecitation
  • 3/5 E-E-A-T signals presentcitation
  • 31 external links — references authoritative sourcescitation
  • Content references 2026/2025 — fresh contentcitation
  • Topic focus: 100% — title keywords found in contentcitation
  • 14 conversational words — good for AI summariesvoice
  • 54 H2/H3 headings — good content structure for AIvoice
  • No AI-blocking robots directives — AI crawlers can access contentdiscoverability
  • AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt (2/4 explicitly listed)discoverability
  • Table of Contents detected — helps AI navigate long contentstructure
GEO — 53/100 (27 issues)

Failed Checks (27)

  • Few question headings — add Q&A headings for AI Overviewoverview
  • Title and H1 don't align — confusing for AI topic matchingoverview
  • 25% optimal paragraphs — aim for 20-80 words per paragraphoverview
  • No author schema — add for AI trust signalsauthority
  • No source citations — reference studies and data for authorityauthority
  • Incomplete brand identity — add og:site_name + Organization schemaauthority
  • No original data signals — "our research shows..." boosts AI citationauthority
  • No examples or case studies — add real-world examplesauthority
  • Few industry terms — use relevant jargon for topical authorityauthority
  • No FAQ Schema — add for Google rich results + AI Overviewformat
  • No HowTo Schema — add for step-by-step rich resultsformat
  • No comparison content — add vs. sections for AI recommendationsformat
  • No summary section — add Key Takeaways or TL;DR for AIformat
  • 1 images missing ALT textformat
  • No BreadcrumbList schema — add for better AI contextformat
  • Only 2/6 formatting types — use bold, lists, tables, quotes, codeformat
  • Single-perspective content — add "on the other hand..." for balanceformat
  • No entity Schema types — add Person, Product, or Organization schemasemantic
  • Few data points with units — add specific numbers (e.g., "300+ users")semantic
  • Page size: 638 KB — very large, may slow AI crawlingtechnical
  • Incomplete Open Graph tags — AI uses these for contexttechnical
  • Only 0 Schema type(s) — add more for AI contexttechnical
  • First 200 words lack topic keywords — AI may skip your content for extractionoverview
  • Only 0 data points — add 5+ statistics for +30-40% AI visibility (Princeton study)authority
  • Author lacks credentials — anonymous content is a GEO penaltyauthority
  • No <figure>/<figcaption> — wrap images with descriptive captions for AIformat
  • No authoritative sameAs links — add Wikipedia/Wikidata/LinkedIn URIs to schema for Knowledge Graph alignmentauthority

Passed Checks (31)

  • Definition-style content found — featured snippet candidateoverview
  • Content freshness signals detectedoverview
  • Comprehensive content (1510 words, 7 sections)overview
  • Step-by-step content detected — AI Overview friendlyoverview
  • 3-level heading hierarchy — deep content structureoverview
  • 2/5 trust signals foundauthority
  • Expert quotes or testimonials found — authority signalauthority
  • 2 links to authoritative sources — boosts credibilityauthority
  • 20 unique external domains — diverse sourcesauthority
  • Data visualization elements found (tables/charts)format
  • Both ordered and unordered lists used — content varietyformat
  • Actionable advice found — AI prefers practical contentformat
  • Conclusion/recommendation found — helps AI provide answersformat
  • 7/14 semantic HTML5 elements — deep semantic structuresemantic
  • <time> element found — machine-readable datessemantic
  • 100% title keywords in first 200 words — good prominencesemantic
  • 127 contextual links — good cross-referencingsemantic
  • Content categorization found — clear topic classificationsemantic
  • 7 sections have subtopics (H3) — deep coveragesemantic
  • Mobile-friendly (viewport set)technical
  • HTTPS secure — trusted by AI systemstechnical
  • Canonical URL set — prevents AI from citing duplicatestechnical
  • Page allows AI indexing (no noindex/nosnippet)technical
  • HTML lang="en" set (add og:locale for completeness)technical
  • 3 ARIA landmarks found — good accessibility for AItechnical
  • All image ALT texts are descriptive (>5 chars)format
  • 1510 words — sufficient depth for AI analysisoverview
  • Definition + list combo — strong featured snippet candidateoverview
  • max-image-preview:large — optimal AI rich result displaytechnical
  • 4/6 question types (5W1H) in headings — comprehensiveoverview
  • Link anchor texts are descriptive — good AI context signalsemantic

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