stfc.ac.uk

We performed a comprehensive analysis of stfc.ac.uk on 2026-06-29. The website returned an HTTP 200 status code with a server response time of 11349ms. The page is served over HTTP/2 protocol with Gzip compression enabled, achieving approximately 60.0% size reduction. The total page weight is 84 KB. The website uses a secure HTTPS connection with a valid SSL certificate issued by Let's Encrypt (DV type). The connection is encrypted using TLS 1.3 with the TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 cipher suite and sha256WithRSAEncryption signature algorithm. The certificate covers 2 domain(s) (Subject Alternative Names) and expires on 2026-08-31, which is 63 days from now. The security headers analysis reveals a score of 50/100 (moderate). The following security headers are properly configured: Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options. However, the site is missing Content-Security-Policy, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy, which could expose the site and its users to cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and other web-based attacks. Our technology detection scan identified 3 technologies across 3 categories powering stfc.ac.uk. The detected stack includes WordPress, Google Analytics 4, and Google Tag Manager. Based on our comprehensive analysis of domain age, SSL configuration, email authentication, security headers, and blacklist status, stfc.ac.uk receives an overall trust score of 75/100, classified as "Likely Safe".

After conducting a thorough safety and legitimacy analysis, stfc.ac.uk receives a trust score of 75/100, which places it in the "Likely Safe" category. This score is calculated by evaluating multiple factors including SSL certificate validity, domain registration history, email authentication protocols, security header configuration, and blacklist status across major threat intelligence databases. The analysis identified several positive trust signals: a valid HTTPS connection protecting data in transit, HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) enforcement preventing protocol downgrade attacks, a valid SSL certificate issued by Let's Encrypt with 63 days until expiration, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) email authentication preventing email spoofing, and DMARC email authentication with a quarantine policy. Areas of concern include: the absence of a Content-Security-Policy header, which leaves the site more vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, missing Referrer-Policy, potentially leaking URL information to third parties, the domain's WHOIS information is hidden behind a privacy service, making it harder to verify the owner's identity, and DNSSEC is not enabled, leaving DNS queries vulnerable to spoofing attacks. While these issues don't necessarily indicate malicious intent, they represent areas where the website's security posture could be improved. We checked stfc.ac.uk against 8 major blacklist databases including Google Safe Browsing, Phishtank, Urlhaus, Openphish, Dnsfilter, Spamhaus Dbl, Surbl, and Virustotal. The domain passed all 8 checks with a clean status, meaning it has not been flagged for phishing, malware distribution, spam, or other malicious activities by any of the tested threat intelligence providers.

Our technology detection engine scanned stfc.ac.uk and identified 3 distinct technologies across 3 categories. This analysis is performed by examining HTTP response headers, HTML source code patterns, JavaScript library fingerprints, CSS framework signatures, and DNS records. CMS: WordPress — manages the content and page structure for stfc.ac.uk. Analytics: Google Analytics 4 — tracks visitor behavior and provides traffic insights for stfc.ac.uk. Tag Manager: Google Tag Manager — manages marketing and analytics tags without code changes for stfc.ac.uk. We also extracted the following tracking identifiers: Google Tag Manager container GTM-W522DW8. These IDs can be used to identify other websites operated by the same organization.

stfc.ac.uk delivers its homepage in 11349ms (server response time), which is considered slow by industry standards. The total page weight is 84 KB, and we detected 158 resource requests loading assets from 9 third-party domains. A high number of third-party domains can significantly impact page load time due to additional DNS lookups and TLS handshakes required for each domain. The website uses Gzip compression for text-based assets, achieving an estimated 60.0% reduction in transfer size. This reduces bandwidth usage and improves page load times, especially for visitors on slower connections. Asset minification status: 4 out of 5 CSS files and 2 out of 2 JavaScript files are minified. Minifying the remaining 1 unminified file(s) could further reduce page weight by 10-30% for those assets. Minification is a best practice that reduces download sizes without affecting functionality. From an environmental perspective, each page view of stfc.ac.uk produces approximately 0.04g of CO₂, earning a carbon rating of A. This places the website among the cleanest on the web, demonstrating efficient use of server resources and optimized content delivery. For reference, the average web page produces about 0.5g of CO₂ per page view. The page weight of 84 KB is the primary factor in this calculation. Core Web Vitals data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is not available for stfc.ac.uk. This typically means the site doesn't have enough real-world Chrome user traffic to generate statistically significant field data, or the domain is not included in the CrUX dataset. Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) are important Google ranking factors that measure real user experience.

stfc.ac.uk resolves to the IPv4 address 149.155.59.247, but does not support IPv6. IPv6 adoption is increasingly important as IPv4 address space becomes exhausted, and some ISPs and regions are transitioning to IPv6-only connectivity. The domain has 1 A record(s) configured. The domain name system is managed by 4 name servers: edns1.stfc.ac.uk, edns2.stfc.ac.uk, edns3.stfc.ac.uk, and edns4.stfc.ac.uk. Having 4 name servers provides good redundancy — if one fails, the others can continue serving DNS queries. The choice of name servers often indicates the DNS hosting provider or CDN service being used. Email for stfc.ac.uk is handled by Microsoft 365 with 1 MX records configured: stfc-ac-uk.mail.protection.outlook.com. Multiple MX records provide failover redundancy — if the primary mail server is unavailable, email will be routed to the next available server. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is configured, which specifies which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of this domain. This helps prevent email spoofing and improves email deliverability. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is configured with a quarantine policy — a moderate setting, directing unauthorized emails to spam/junk folders. DKIM was not detected. Without DKIM, recipients cannot cryptographically verify that emails claiming to be from this domain are authentic. DNSSEC is not enabled for stfc.ac.uk. While not critical for most websites, DNSSEC adds an important security layer by ensuring DNS responses haven't been tampered with during transit. Enabling DNSSEC is recommended for domains handling sensitive data or financial transactions.

The homepage of stfc.ac.uk contains 758 words of visible text content. This is a moderate amount of content. The page is structured with 14 H2 headings, 2 H3 headings, 0 H4 headings. The page includes 10 images. 9 images (90%) are missing alt text attributes, which is a significant concern for both accessibility and SEO. Screen readers rely on alt text to describe images to visually impaired users, and search engines use alt text to understand image content. Only 10% of images have proper alt text — we recommend adding descriptive alt attributes to all images. The link structure consists of 116 internal links pointing to other pages on the same domain and 12 external links pointing to third-party websites. The high number of internal links suggests a well-interconnected site structure, which helps search engines discover and crawl all pages efficiently. There are 2 external JavaScript files, 5 CSS stylesheets, and 0 iframes on the page. Notable missing features: XML Sitemap, robots.txt, and Schema.org structured data. Adding these could improve search engine discoverability and rich result eligibility. We detected the following payment methods accepted on stfc.ac.uk: Discover. Offering multiple payment options including credit cards and digital wallets improves customer trust and can increase conversion rates. The website has social media presence across 4 platforms: Facebook (@ScienceAndTechnologyFacilitiesCouncil), Instagram (@bigscience_stfc), Linkedin (@stfc), and Youtube (@ScienceandTechnologyFacilitiesCouncil). An active social media presence is a positive trust indicator and helps build brand awareness and customer engagement.

The title tag for stfc.ac.uk is well-optimized at 55 characters: "Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) – UKRI". The length falls within the ideal range for Google search results, ensuring the full title is displayed without truncation. The meta description is 116 characters (well-optimized): "STFC supports research in astronomy, physics, space science and operates world-class research facilities for the UK.". Google typically displays up to 155-160 characters of the meta description in search results. A compelling meta description with a clear call-to-action can significantly improve click-through rates from search results. The canonical url is correctly set to https://www.ukri.org/councils/stfc/, preventing duplicate content issues, the page language is declared as en-gb, the meta robots directive is set to max-image-preview:large, and a favicon is configured. Open Graph meta tags are configured with 3/4 recommended fields: OG title ("Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)..."), OG description, OG image (social sharing thumbnail), These tags control how the page appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms that support the Open Graph protocol. A Twitter Card of type summary_large_image is configured, which controls how links appear when shared on Twitter/X. The "summary_large_image" type displays a large image preview, which typically generates higher engagement rates than the basic card type.