This website audit report analyzes https://mdsp.maryland.gov/ across 12 critical dimensions with actionable recommendations.
https://mdsp.maryland.gov/
63Needs Workout of 100
Website Audit Report
Maryland Department of State Police
July 22, 2026 · 12:55 (America/New_York) 449ms response HTTPS Secure
Executive Summary
https://mdsp.maryland.gov/ scores 63/100 (D). Strong areas include Accessibility. Priority improvements needed in SEO, Security, AI Readiness. The site has 758 words, 10 images, and 0 schema blocks. Data confidence: 85%. Sustainability score: 100/100. Focus on the top recommendations below to improve your score.
449ms
Response Time
758
Word Count
10
Images
122
Links
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Score Breakdown — 12 Dimensions
Top Issues to Fix
1[SEO] Title tag is short (35 chars)
2[SEO] 37 external links missing rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" — potential link equity leakage
3[SEO] Title and description are identical to Open Graph tags — missed optimization opportunity
4[SEO] High dofollow external link count (37) — excessive link equity leakage
5[SEO] Primary keyword "maryland department state" not found in H1
6[SEO] Primary keyword missing from first paragraph
7[SEO] Low readability score (3 Flesch) — content is hard to read
8[SEO] Missing og:locale tag — social platforms may guess language/region
9[SEO] Very high internal link density (109.5/1k words) — may appear spammy
10[SEO] Primary keyword "maryland department state" not found in body content
Top Recommendations
1[Impact: High | Effort: Low] Expand your title to 50–60 characters — Google now favors this range for optimal SERP display (2025-2026)
2[Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium] Add rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" and target="_blank" to all external links to prevent equity leakage and improve security
3[Impact: High | Effort: Low] Customize og:title and og:description separately from page title/meta description for better social sharing CTR
4[Impact: Medium | Effort: Low] Reduce dofollow external links to 2–5 per page. Add rel="nofollow" to low-value or affiliate links to preserve PageRank
5[Impact: High | Effort: Low] Include your primary keyword in the H1 heading for strongest on-page SEO signal
6[Impact: High | Effort: Low] Include your primary keyword naturally in the first paragraph to establish topical relevance early
7[Impact: High | Effort: Low] Include your primary keyword in the URL slug for improved crawlability and click-through rates
8[Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium] Significantly simplify your content — aim for 60+ Flesch Reading Ease with shorter sentences and simpler vocabulary
9[Impact: Medium | Effort: Low] Add <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"> (or your locale) for precise language targeting in social shares
10[Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium] Convert your OG image to WebP format for faster social media loading (1200×630px recommended)
11[Impact: Medium | Effort: Low] Add <meta property="article:published_time"> for content freshness signals in social shares
12[Impact: Medium | Effort: Medium] Add <meta property="article:modified_time"> to signal content freshness
Detailed Category Analysis
Key Findings
1Meta description is 150 characters — within optimal 140–160 range (2025-2026)
2Single H1 tag present: "Maryland Department of State Police"
3Clean heading hierarchy with no skipped levels
4Canonical URL is set and matches the page URL
5Complete Open Graph tags (title, description, image, url, type)
6Complete Twitter Card tags present
7HTML lang attribute set to "en"
8Favicon present
983 internal links help establish site architecture
1036 external links provide reference signals
11Content length of 758 words is adequate
12122 total links — within recommended range
13URL length (26 chars) is within optimal range
14No redirect chain — direct URL resolution
15Healthy internal link ratio: 68% of links are internal
16Good anchor text diversity: 98% unique anchor texts
17Primary keyword not in URL — acceptable for homepage/root URLs
18Moderate E-E-A-T signals (4 indicators)
19Low passive voice ratio (8%) — clear, active writing style
20Zero-click optimized: 0 TL;DR/summary block(s) + 2 definition-style lead paragraph(s)
21Moderate entity presence: Maryland Department, Maryland State Police, Translate Official
Issues Found
1Title tag is short (35 chars)
237 external links missing rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" — potential link equity leakage
3Title and description are identical to Open Graph tags — missed optimization opportunity
4High dofollow external link count (37) — excessive link equity leakage
5Primary keyword "maryland department state" not found in H1
6Primary keyword missing from first paragraph
7Low readability score (3 Flesch) — content is hard to read
8Missing og:locale tag — social platforms may guess language/region
9Very high internal link density (109.5/1k words) — may appear spammy
10Primary keyword "maryland department state" not found in body content
11No social sharing buttons/widgets detected
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Expand your title to 50–60 characters — Google now favors this range for optimal SERP display (2025-2026)
2Add rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" and target="_blank" to all external links to prevent equity leakage and improve security
3Customize og:title and og:description separately from page title/meta description for better social sharing CTR
4Reduce dofollow external links to 2–5 per page. Add rel="nofollow" to low-value or affiliate links to preserve PageRank
5Include your primary keyword in the H1 heading for strongest on-page SEO signal
6Include your primary keyword naturally in the first paragraph to establish topical relevance early
7Include your primary keyword in the URL slug for improved crawlability and click-through rates
8Significantly simplify your content — aim for 60+ Flesch Reading Ease with shorter sentences and simpler vocabulary
9Add <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"> (or your locale) for precise language targeting in social shares
10Convert your OG image to WebP format for faster social media loading (1200×630px recommended)
11Add <meta property="article:published_time"> for content freshness signals in social shares
12Add <meta property="article:modified_time"> to signal content freshness
13Upgrade Twitter card to "summary_large_image" for larger, more engaging previews
14Reduce internal link density — excessive linking dilutes individual link value
15Include your primary keyword naturally throughout the content body — aim for 0.5–2.5% density
16Add social share buttons (Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, WhatsApp) to encourage content distribution and earn social signals
17OG sharing completeness at 83% — add missing tags for better social previews
Key Findings
1Excellent server response time: 449ms
2HTML size is 102KB — acceptable
34/10 images use lazy loading
4Modern image formats (WebP/AVIF) detected
5Responsive images with srcset detected
60 async and 1 deferred scripts
7Cache-Control header with max-age is set
8Lean CSS payload (~120KB)
9JavaScript payload (~253KB) is acceptable
10CDN detected: Cloudflare — reduces latency for global users
11Gzip compression enabled
122 third-party script(s) — manageable count
13Estimated LCP: ~1389ms — within Google's "good" threshold (<2.5s)
14Estimated INP: ~90ms — within Google's "good" threshold (<200ms)
15Server-Timing header present — enables performance debugging
16Good analytics setup: GA4 + GTM
Issues Found
13 render-blocking scripts slow down initial paint
2No font-display property found
3HTTP/1.1 detected — no multiplexing
4No resource hints found
53 render-blocking CSS file(s)
6Moderate estimated CLS: 0.25 — above 0.1 "good" threshold
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Convert all non-critical scripts to async/defer to eliminate render-blocking resources
2Add <link rel="preconnect"> for critical third-party domains to reduce DNS lookup time
3Preload critical resources (fonts, hero images) with <link rel="preload">
4Add font-display: swap to web font declarations to show fallback text while fonts load
5Upgrade to HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 for faster parallel resource loading and header compression
6Add preconnect, prefetch, and preload hints for critical third-party resources and fonts
7Consider inlining critical CSS and deferring non-essential stylesheets
8Reduce CLS: set image dimensions, preload web fonts, reserve space for ads and dynamic content
Key Findings
1Viewport meta tag present: width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0
2HTML5 doctype declared
3Character encoding declared
4Responsive images via srcset serve appropriate sizes per device
54 images with lazy loading benefit mobile data users
Issues Found
1No theme-color meta tag
2No web app manifest found
3Missing Apple touch icon
4Only 1 manifest icon size(s) — recommend at least 4 (192, 384, 512, maskable)
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Add <meta name="theme-color"> for browser chrome styling on mobile
2Create a manifest.json for PWA capabilities and add-to-homescreen support
3Add <link rel="apple-touch-icon"> for iOS homescreen icons
4Consider implementing a service worker for offline support and faster repeat visits
5Add multiple icon sizes (192x192, 384x384, 512x512, plus maskable) to your manifest for cross-device support
6Add env(safe-area-inset-*) CSS for proper display on notched/island devices
7Add :active / touch-action CSS for tactile feedback on mobile interactions
Key Findings
1HTTPS enabled — encrypted connection
2HSTS header present — enforces HTTPS
3X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff is set
4X-Frame-Options header prevents clickjacking
5Permissions-Policy header restricts browser features
6Server via CDN proxy (cloudflare) — header added by infrastructure, not application
7HSTS with preload and adequate max-age — eligible for browser preload list
8No cookie security issues detected
9Privacy policy link detected
10Subresource Integrity (SRI) on 1 resource(s) — prevents CDN tampering
11Permissions-Policy restricts 21 browser features (accelerometer, autoplay, camera, cross-origin-isolated)
12Rate limiting recommended for form endpoints
13No stack traces or sensitive error details exposed in responses
14No raw email addresses exposed in page source
Issues Found
1Missing Content-Security-Policy header
2Missing Referrer-Policy header
337 external links missing rel="noopener noreferrer" — security risk
4No cookie consent banner detected
5Server technology disclosed via response headers/markup: x-generator: Drupal 11 (https://www.drupal.org); x-drupal-cache: HIT
6security.txt file is missing — no standardized channel for reporting vulnerabilities
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Implement a Content Security Policy to prevent XSS and injection attacks
2Add Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin to control referrer leakage
3Add Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy: same-origin-allow-popups
4Add Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy: cross-origin
5Add rel="noopener noreferrer" to all external links with target="_blank" to prevent tabnabbing attacks
6Implement a cookie consent banner for GDPR/ePrivacy compliance
7Implement rate limiting on form endpoints to prevent brute-force attacks and spam submissions
8Remove or obfuscate technology-revealing headers (Server, X-Powered-By, X-AspNet-Version) and the generator meta tag to reduce your attack surface
9Add an RFC 9116 security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt with Contact and Expires fields so researchers can responsibly report security issues [Impact: Low | Effort: Low]
Key Findings
1Language declared: en
2Skip navigation link present
3All key landmarks present (main, nav, footer)
4All 10 images have alt attributes
5All 2 forms have proper labels
6All iframes have title attributes
7All 9 buttons have accessible labels
8Rich ARIA implementation: 31 elements with ARIA attributes
Issues Found
1No focus styles detected
25 minor HTML validity issue(s)
31 duplicate ID(s) — breaks ARIA references and label associations
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Add :focus-visible styles to all interactive elements for keyboard navigation visibility
2Review and fix HTML structure issues for better accessibility and cross-browser compatibility
3Ensure all element IDs are unique — duplicate IDs break form labels, ARIA relationships, and fragment navigation
Key Findings
1Strong semantic markup: header, section, nav, main, figure, article, time, footer
2Complete social metadata (OG + Twitter Card)
3FAQ/Q&A content patterns detected — highly valuable for AI citation
4Social presence signals: instagram, youtube, facebook, linkedin
55 call-to-action elements detected
6No AI crawlers blocked via meta tags — content accessible to AI search engines
7robots.txt file found
8llms.txt detected (score: 68/100, quality: detailed)
9llms.txt has 11 well-organized sections
10llms.txt references 6 URLs for AI navigation
11llms.txt includes service/product catalog
12llms.txt uses proper Markdown formatting for machine readability
13llms.txt uses canonical domain in URLs
14llms.txt provides content usage guidelines for AI
15llms.txt includes version/date for freshness tracking
16High RAG-friendliness (100/100): 13 headings with IDs, 13 section anchors
17Content provenance signals detected (citations with sources, attributed claims)
18Content freshness signals present (dateModified/datePublished/time elements)
Issues Found
1No structured data (Schema.org) found
2No breadcrumb navigation
3No sitemap reference found
4robots.txt has no Sitemap directive
5llms.txt missing blockquote description
6No llms-full.txt companion file found
7llms.txt is not referenced in HTML
8Very low HTML-to-text ratio (8%) — mostly markup, little visible content
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Implement JSON-LD structured data — start with Organization, BreadcrumbList, and page-specific types
2Add hreflang tags if your site serves multiple languages or regions
3Add breadcrumb navigation with BreadcrumbList schema for better site hierarchy signals
4Create and reference an XML sitemap for AI crawler discoverability
5Add a Sitemap: directive to your robots.txt pointing to your XML sitemap for AI and search crawler discoverability
6Enhance llms.txt: add citation guidelines, version date, content usage policy, and expand URL list to cover all major pages
7Add a > blockquote summary on line 2-3 describing your business in 1-2 sentences
8Create /llms-full.txt with detailed documentation — services, pricing, case studies, technical specs — for AI models that want depth
9Add <link rel="alternate" type="text/plain" href="/llms.txt"> in your <head> for discoverability
10Increase text-to-HTML ratio by adding more substantive content and reducing excessive markup/scripts
Key Findings
1Moderate content depth (758 words)
21 FAQ/Q&A elements detected
35 emphasized entities
4Good semantic-to-div ratio: 24 semantic elements
5Structured content: 15 lists, 0 tables — easily parsed by AI
633 external citations — strong reference density for AI model training
7Strong CRO: 3 clear call-to-action elements detected
8Above-the-fold CTA detected — captures immediate visitor attention
9Good form usability score: 90/100
10Trust signals present: HTTPS Security, Privacy Policy
11Clear value proposition detected in heading elements
Issues Found
1Weak E-E-A-T schema signals
2Paragraphs are too long for optimal AI consumption
3No author or expertise signals
4No social proof elements
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Expand FAQ section with more questions to increase AI training coverage
2Add Person, Article, and Review schemas to demonstrate expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness
3Break long paragraphs into shorter ones (under 30 words) for better AI comprehension and snippet extraction
4Add Speakable schema markup to help voice assistants identify the most important content
5Include specific statistics, percentages, and data points that AI models can extract and cite in responses
6Include expert quotes in <blockquote> elements to boost E-E-A-T and citation potential
7Add visible author bylines with bios and link to author pages — AI models evaluate content credibility through authorship signals
8Add social proof: testimonials, client counts ("500+ businesses served"), case studies, or review snippets near CTAs
Key Findings
115 lists provide scannable, AI-friendly content
2How-to instructional patterns detected — valued by AI answer engines
3Content is fresh (updated within 30 days) — strong recency signal
Issues Found
1No direct Q&A patterns for generative AI extraction
2No data tables for AI comparison extraction
3Insufficient structured data for generative engine context
4paragraphs may be too long for featured snippets
5No hreflang tags — generative engines cannot determine language/region targeting
6No statistics or data points in substantial content
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Structure content with clear questions as headings (H2/H3) followed by concise, definitive answers in the first paragraph
2Add comparison tables with structured data — generative AI engines frequently cite tabular content
3Consider using <dl>/<dt>/<dd> definition lists for key terms and concepts
4Include unique statistics, expert quotes, and original insights that generative AI would want to cite
5Add multiple schema types (Article, FAQ, HowTo) to help generative engines contextualize your content
6Add bidirectional hreflang tags with x-default to help AI engines serve the correct language variant
7Include specific statistics, percentages, and numerical data — generative engines prefer content with verifiable data points
8Include first-hand insights using phrases like "our research found" or "based on our analysis" to demonstrate original expertise
Key Findings
115 lists provide scannable answers for People Also Ask
29 concise answer-length paragraphs (10–50 words) — ideal for snippet extraction
Issues Found
1FAQ content exists but lacks FAQPage schema
2How-to content exists but lacks HowTo schema
3Content not optimized for featured snippets
4No Speakable schema for voice search
5Paragraphs too long for answer engine extraction
6No breadcrumb navigation
7No direct answer patterns ("X is defined as...", "X refers to...")
8Paragraphs too long for voice assistant extraction
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Add FAQPage schema markup to your FAQ section for rich snippet eligibility in search results
2Add HowTo schema to your instructional content for rich result eligibility
3Use question-based H2/H3 headings followed by a direct 40–60 word answer paragraph for featured snippet targeting
4Add Speakable schema to mark sections suitable for text-to-speech by voice assistants
5Keep answer paragraphs under 30 words — voice assistants and answer engines prefer concise, direct responses
6Add breadcrumb navigation with BreadcrumbList schema for better content hierarchy signals
7Consider adding video content with VideoObject schema for multimedia search results
8Include direct definitional statements like "X is..." or "X refers to..." — answer engines extract these as zero-click results
9Keep paragraphs under 30 words for voice search — voice assistants read concise, conversational content
Key Findings
1NAP information detected: phone: 2026072
2Phone number(s) visible: 2026072, 8690983028
Issues Found
1No LocalBusiness structured data
2No Google Maps embed
3No address microdata
4No geo meta tags
5No review/rating schema
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Consider displaying a business email for direct contact signals
2Add LocalBusiness (or specific subtype like ProfessionalService) JSON-LD schema with name, address, phone, hours, and geo coordinates
3Add an embedded Google Map to your contact or about page for local search signals
4Add PostalAddress schema or itemprop="address" microdata to your address elements
5Add geo.region, geo.placename, and geo.position meta tags for geographic targeting
6Add AggregateRating schema to display star ratings in search results — reviews significantly impact local click-through rates
Issues Found
1No Schema.org structured data found
2Missing high-impact schema types: Organization, WebSite, FAQPage, HowTo
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Implement JSON-LD structured data immediately — start with Organization, WebSite, and BreadcrumbList
2Priority schema types to add: Organization, WebSite, FAQPage, HowTo — these have the highest SEO impact for your page type
Key Findings
1Relative units (rem/em/clamp) detected — supports text resizing
2Good semantic element usage (24 semantic elements)
3Page language declared — aids assistive technology
4All ARIA roles are valid
5Focus not obscured by sticky/fixed elements (WCAG 2.4.11)
6Accessible authentication detected (autocomplete, no CAPTCHA barriers) — WCAG 3.3.8
Issues Found
1No prefers-reduced-motion support
2No high contrast mode support
3Links may not be distinguishable from surrounding text
4No error suggestion mechanisms detected in forms
5No focus styles detected
6No form error identification detected
Recommendations to Reach 100%
1Add @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) to disable animations for users who are sensitive to motion
2Add @media (prefers-contrast: high) or (forced-colors: active) styles for users with low vision
3Ensure links have visible underlines or other non-color visual indicators (WCAG 1.4.1)
4Add aria-invalid, aria-errormessage, and visible error messages for form validation (WCAG 3.3.3)
5Add :focus-visible CSS styles to all interactive elements (WCAG 2.4.7)
6Add aria-invalid, aria-errormessage, and inline error messages to form fields (WCAG 3.3.1/3.3.3)
7Add aria-live regions (role="status" or role="alert") for form feedback, notifications, and dynamic content updates (WCAG 4.1.3)
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