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Agent Readiness

Independent

independent.co.uk · News & Publishing

61
Readiness /100
16
Checks passed
1
Checks failed
68
Checks run

Discoverability

Can agents find your site and its capabilities?

passKey pages discoveredKey pages crawl

Crawled 12 of 12 discovered pages beyond the homepage.

infoLighthouse Agentic Browsing runLighthouse Agentic

Lighthouse Agentic Browsing audits ran.

infoWebsite platformplatform

Could not identify a known website platform (custom stack or unrecognised).

Understanding

Can agents understand your content?

warnMarkdown content negotiationOpen agent protocols

Homepage ignored Accept: text/markdown and returned HTML.

Fix: Serve a markdown version of high-value pages when the client asks for text/markdown. AI summarisers, chatbots and IDE agents prefer markdown — fewer tokens, no DOM noise.

warnDOM size is reasonableStructured data & HTML

Homepage contains ~2046 elements — heavy.

Fix: Aim for under 1500 elements on the homepage. Heavier DOMs slow first paint and overflow some AI crawlers' parse buffers.

warnImages have alt textStructured data & HTML

66 of 82 images have alt attributes (80%).

Fix: Add alt text to the remaining images. Empty alt="" is fine for purely-decorative graphics.

warnImages have explicit dimensionsStructured data & HTML

Only 9/82 images have width+height — large CLS risk.

Fix: Set width and height on every <img> so the browser reserves space before the image loads. A layout that shifts while loading makes an AI agent mis-click the element it targeted.

warnSemantic landmark elementsStructured data & HTML

Missing landmark elements: main.

warnSingle H1 on homepageStructured data & HTML

Found 14 <h1> tags. Most AI summarisers expect exactly one.

Fix: Demote the secondary H1s to H2 — keep H1 reserved for the page title.

passHomepage content is server-renderedCrawlability (Google)

Homepage server response contains 2963 words of visible text — content is reachable without executing JavaScript.

passHeading hierarchy is intactStructured data & HTML

129 headings, no level skips.

pass<html lang> attributeStructured data & HTML

Language declared as "en".

passInternal links on homepageStructured data & HTML

314 internal links found.

passKey pages have <title> and <h1>Key pages crawl

All 12 reachable key pages have both a <title> and <h1>.

passKey pages are server-renderedKey pages crawl

All 12 pages return ≥80 words of visible text without JavaScript.

Operability

Can agents actually operate the page?

failAccessibility tree is agent-navigableAccessibility

3 of 13 agent-critical accessibility audits failed (Buttons do not have an accessible name, Links do not have a discernible name, `<frame>` or `<iframe>` elements do not have a title) — an agent may be unable to identify or operate the affected elements.

Fix: Fix the failing agent-accessibility audits listed below (accessible names on controls, valid ARIA roles/relationships, nothing interactive hidden from the tree).

failButtons do not have an accessible nameAccessibility

Lighthouse flagged this audit — agents may be unable to perceive or operate the affected elements.

Fix: Give every <button> discernible text or an aria-label so agents can identify it.

fail`<frame>` or `<iframe>` elements do not have a titleAccessibility

Lighthouse flagged this audit — agents may be unable to perceive or operate the affected elements.

Fix: Add a title to every <iframe> so agents can identify embedded content.

failLinks do not have a discernible nameAccessibility

Lighthouse flagged this audit — agents may be unable to perceive or operate the affected elements.

Fix: Give every link discernible text (avoid bare icons / "click here") so agents know where it goes.

failAccessibility tree is not well-formedLighthouse Agentic

A well-formed [accessibility tree](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/agentic-browsing/accessibility-for-agents) helps AI agents to navigate and interact with the page.

warnOverall accessibility scoreAccessibility

Lighthouse accessibility score: 83/100. Agents read the page through its accessibility tree, so this is a proxy for how navigable your site is to an AI agent.

Fix: Resolve the failing accessibility audits below — each one removes an element or relationship an agent would otherwise be blind to.

warnForms use autocomplete attributesStructured data & HTML

No autocomplete attributes on any data-collecting form field.

Fix: Add autocomplete hints (email, tel, name, etc.) so form-filling agents and browsers can populate fields without guessing.

warnForm fields publish validation hintsStructured data & HTML

No HTML5 validation hints (pattern / minlength / maxlength / min / max) on any data-collecting form input.

Fix: Publish input constraints via HTML attributes so agents and browsers can validate client-side.

warnCumulative Layout ShiftLighthouse Agentic

0.168

pass`[aria-*]` attributes match their rolesAccessibility

`[aria-*]` attributes match their roles passed.

pass`button`, `link`, and `menuitem` elements have accessible namesAccessibility

`button`, `link`, and `menuitem` elements have accessible names passed.

pass`[aria-hidden="true"]` is not present on the document `<body>`Accessibility

`[aria-hidden="true"]` is not present on the document `<body>` passed.

pass`[aria-hidden="true"]` elements do not contain focusable descendentsAccessibility

`[aria-hidden="true"]` elements do not contain focusable descendents passed.

pass`[role]`s have all required `[aria-*]` attributesAccessibility

`[role]`s have all required `[aria-*]` attributes passed.

pass`[role]` values are validAccessibility

`[role]` values are valid passed.

pass`[aria-*]` attributes are valid and not misspelledAccessibility

`[aria-*]` attributes are valid and not misspelled passed.

pass`[aria-*]` attributes have valid valuesAccessibility

`[aria-*]` attributes have valid values passed.

passDocument has a `<title>` elementAccessibility

Document has a `<title>` element passed.

passARIA IDs are uniqueAccessibility

ARIA IDs are unique passed.

passForm errors are accessibleStructured data & HTML

All 1 data-collecting forms reference errors via aria-describedby / aria-invalid.

passForm fields have labelsStructured data & HTML

2 of 2 visible interactive form fields have labels.

passForms mark required fieldsStructured data & HTML

1/1 data-collecting forms mark required fields.

passCumulative Layout ShiftPerformance

0.010 (field data from CrUX, for this page). Good.

passTime to First BytePerformance

233ms (field data from CrUX, for this page). Good.

infoWebMCP form coverageLighthouse Agentic

1 form missing annotations

infoWebMCP tools registeredLighthouse Agentic

Lists the [WebMCP tools](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/webmcp) registered at the time of analysis.

infoTool catalog signpost publishedWebMCP tools

No tool catalog was found at /.well-known/webmcp.json (or /.well-known/webmcp). The catalog is a community convention, not part of the WebMCP standard, so this does not affect WebMCP presence.

Fix: Consider also publishing a tool catalog at /.well-known/webmcp.json: a JSON document with a "spec" of "webmcp/0.1" and a "tools" array, where each tool declares a name and a clear description. It is a community convention (optional, not part of the WebMCP standard) that lets crawlers and agents discover your tools without executing JavaScript.

Trust & Security

Can agents safely transact?

warnOAuth authorization server metadataOpen agent protocols

/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server returned 404.

Fix: Publish /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server so AI agents discovering your OAuth setup can negotiate flows automatically. Required if your site offers an authenticated API.

warnOAuth protected-resource metadataOpen agent protocols

/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource returned 404.

Fix: Publish /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource so AI agents discovering your OAuth setup can negotiate flows automatically. Required if your site offers an authenticated API.

warnWeb Bot Auth signature headerOpen agent protocols

No Web Bot Auth signature headers — sites can't verify agent identity.

Fix: Web Bot Auth (IETF HTTP Message Signatures over Signature / Signature-Input) lets you cryptographically verify which agent is hitting you. Several CDNs offer turn-key support; otherwise skip until vendor support matures.

warnHTTP Strict-Transport-Security headerSecurity & trust

HSTS configured (max-age=63072000) but missing includeSubDomains.

Fix: Add `includeSubDomains` so subdomains inherit the policy.

passCDN detectedSecurity & trust

x-served-by: cache-lhr-egwu1540061-LHR, cache-lhr-egw (Fastly / Varnish)

passContent-Security-Policy headerSecurity & trust

CSP header present.

passSite is served over HTTPSSecurity & trust

Homepage scheme is https:.

passhttp:// redirects to https://Security & trust

http://independent.co.uk → https://www.independent.co.uk/ (2 hops).

passHomepage shows no error outputSecurity & trust

No stack-trace markers in the first 5KB.

passNo mixed-content referencesSecurity & trust

Homepage HTML references no http:// resources.

passReferrer-Policy headerSecurity & trust

Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade.

passTLS certificate is not near expirySecurity & trust

Valid for 199 more days (Mar 22 20:00:18 2027 GMT, issuer: GlobalSign Atlas R3 DV TLS CA 2026 Q1).

passNo tech-stack disclosure in headersSecurity & trust

Server / X-Powered-By headers don't leak product version.

passMIME-sniff protectionSecurity & trust

X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff.

passClick-jacking protectionSecurity & trust

X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN.