usability.gov

We performed a comprehensive analysis of usability.gov on 2026-06-30. The website returned an HTTP 200 status code with a server response time of 24988ms. The page is served over HTTP/2 protocol, however no compression (Gzip or Brotli) is enabled, which means the page is transferred at its full uncompressed size. The total page weight is 87 KB, and the site is served behind a CDN (Content Delivery Network). 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_128_GCM_SHA256 cipher suite and sha256WithRSAEncryption signature algorithm. The certificate covers 1 domain(s) (Subject Alternative Names) and expires on 2026-08-05, which is 36 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 usability.gov. The detected stack includes Drupal, Google Tag Manager, and Mailchimp. Based on our comprehensive analysis of domain age, SSL configuration, email authentication, security headers, and blacklist status, usability.gov receives an overall trust score of 77/100, classified as "Likely Safe".

After conducting a thorough safety and legitimacy analysis, usability.gov receives a trust score of 77/100, 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 36 days until expiration, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) email authentication preventing email spoofing, and DMARC email authentication with a reject policy — the strongest available setting. 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 usability.gov 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 usability.gov 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: Drupal — manages the content and page structure for usability.gov. Tag Manager: Google Tag Manager — manages marketing and analytics tags without code changes for usability.gov. Email Marketing: Mailchimp — manages email campaigns and subscriber lists for usability.gov. We also extracted the following tracking identifiers: Google Tag Manager container GTM-MZCKZPQ. These IDs can be used to identify other websites operated by the same organization.

usability.gov delivers its homepage in 24988ms (server response time), which is considered slow by industry standards. The total page weight is 87 KB, and we detected 199 resource requests loading assets from 12 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. No compression is currently enabled on usability.gov. Enabling Brotli or Gzip compression could reduce page size by 60-80% for text-based assets (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), significantly improving load times and reducing bandwidth costs. This is one of the simplest and most impactful performance optimizations available. Asset minification status: 0 out of 2 CSS files and 0 out of 4 JavaScript files are minified. Minifying the remaining 6 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. The site is served through a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which caches static assets at edge servers around the world. This means visitors from different geographic regions receive content from the nearest edge server, significantly reducing latency. CDN usage is particularly important for websites with a global audience, as it can reduce page load times by 40-60% for distant visitors. From an environmental perspective, each page view of usability.gov 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 87 KB is the primary factor in this calculation. Core Web Vitals data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is not available for usability.gov. 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.

usability.gov resolves to the IPv4 address 18.165.140.118 and also supports IPv6 (2600:9000:25f7:a00:6:d1ab:b540:93a1), demonstrating modern network infrastructure readiness. The domain has 4 A record(s) configured. The domain name system is managed by 4 name servers: ns-1144.awsdns-15.org, ns-134.awsdns-16.com, ns-1783.awsdns-30.co.uk, and ns-552.awsdns-05.net. 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. 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 reject policy — the strongest setting, instructing receiving servers to reject unauthorized emails entirely. 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 usability.gov. 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 usability.gov contains 2,078 words of visible text content. This is a substantial amount of content that provides good opportunities for search engine indexing. The page is structured with 18 H2 headings, 38 H3 headings, 4 H4 headings. The page includes 58 images. 46 images (79%) 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 21% of images have proper alt text — we recommend adding descriptive alt attributes to all images. The link structure consists of 88 internal links pointing to other pages on the same domain and 29 external links pointing to third-party websites. There are 4 external JavaScript files, 2 CSS stylesheets, and 1 iframes on the page. The site implements the following web standards and features: Progressive Web App (PWA) manifest (enabling app-like installation). 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 usability.gov: Discover and JCB. 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 2 platforms: Facebook (@digitalgov) and Github (@Frances-Carden.png). An active social media presence is a positive trust indicator and helps build brand awareness and customer engagement.

The title tag for usability.gov is good at 23 characters: "Usability | Digital.gov". The length is acceptable, though it may be slightly truncated in some search result displays. The meta description is 498 characters (slightly long): "Usability refers to the measurement of how easily a user can accomplish their goals when using a service. This is usuall...". 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://digital.gov/topics/usability, preventing duplicate content issues, the page language is declared as en, the meta robots directive is set to index, follow, and a favicon is configured. Open Graph meta tags are configured with 4/4 recommended fields: OG title ("Usability..."), OG description, OG image (social sharing thumbnail), OG type (website). 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.