Website Audit (April 23, 2026)

Website Audit (April 23, 2026)

Snapshot

• Platform: Jekyll static site using Hyde/Poole-era templates.
• Primary risks: legacy dependencies, mixed/insecure HTTP resources, outdated analytics, and stale content.
• Opportunity: modernize in small phases without a full redesign.

Findings

1) Platform and dependency risk (High)

• _config.yml still references legacy settings (redcarpet, pygments) that are deprecated in modern Jekyll ecosystems. This can break local builds and future maintenance.
• Theme/layout structure appears to be a customized historical Hyde template without current dependency management.

Why it matters: Build reproducibility and portability are fragile; onboarding and updates become difficult.

2) Security and transport issues (High)

• Multiple external resources are loaded over http:// or protocol-relative URLs (//...), including social/profile links, jQuery CDN, and other assets.
• Home page and templates include legacy third-party endpoints that may redirect, fail, or be blocked under stricter browser policies.

Why it matters: HTTPS-only best practices are now standard; mixed content can reduce trust and cause intermittent loading issues.

3) Analytics/telemetry is obsolete (High)

• UA-... Google Analytics snippet indicates Universal Analytics-era tracking, which is no longer current.

Why it matters: Current analytics may be nonfunctional or incomplete.

4) Accessibility gaps (Medium)

• Icon-only social links in index.html lack accessible labels.
• target="_blank" links are used without rel="noopener noreferrer".
• Potential heading/semantic structure improvements are available across home sections.

Why it matters: Accessibility and security/compliance expectations have increased since the site was last maintained.

5) SEO and metadata gaps (Medium)

• Global head includes basic title and RSS, but no modern Open Graph/Twitter metadata strategy.
• Canonical URL and richer page-specific meta descriptions are limited.

Why it matters: Share previews and discoverability are weaker than current standards.

6) Content freshness and credibility (Medium)

• Resume file appears dated (resume15.pdf).
• Several timeline entries, tool mentions, and phrasing are from mid-2010s context.
• A few spelling/wording issues are present (e.g., “Bachalor”, “breifcase”).

Why it matters: First impressions and professional positioning are mostly content-driven on personal sites.

7) Front-end modernization opportunities (Low-Medium)

• JavaScript depends on older jQuery patterns for simple scroll behavior.
• CSS and structure are workable but could benefit from incremental responsive/accessibility cleanup.

Why it matters: Smaller JS/CSS footprint and semantic cleanup improves long-term maintainability.

Prioritized improvement plan

Phase 1 (1-2 sessions): Safety + trust

1. Force HTTPS links site-wide (internal and external) and remove protocol-relative URLs.
2. Replace/modernize analytics (or remove if no longer needed).
3. Add rel="noopener noreferrer" for external target="_blank" links.
4. Add accessibility labels to icon links.

Phase 2 (1-2 sessions): Build reliability

1. Update Jekyll configuration to supported markdown/highlighter settings.
2. Add/refresh a minimal README runbook (local build, deploy flow).
3. Add a light CI check (build + broken link smoke test).

Phase 3 (ongoing): Content + presentation

1. Refresh About, timeline, and contact sections for current role/focus.
2. Replace resume artifact with current version.
3. Add modern social/share metadata and a concise homepage value proposition.
4. Optional: simplify JS interactions to vanilla JS where practical.

Suggested first concrete task

If you want, next I can implement a “safe modernization pass” in one PR that only:

• upgrades links to HTTPS,
• adds link security/accessibility attributes,
• and removes clearly obsolete analytics code, without changing your visual design.