Website review, no card needed
slashgear.com website review
Visit site (opens in a new tab)Reviewed 11 October 202634 issues · 85 checks
This review found 34 issues worth fixing on slashgear.com, 13 of them high impact, across 85 checks. The most urgent: use efficient cache lifetimes. Your full playbook turns these into prioritised fixes alongside reviews, competitors and channels.
- Homepage
- Phone render
- Links and pages
- Google PageSpeed
Google PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab), mobile
Site score
76CClosest competitors among reviewed websites
Compare side by sideShow as table
| Date | Real-visitor load time (LCP) |
|---|---|
| Apr 18, 2026 | 900 ms |
| Apr 25, 2026 | 922 ms |
| May 2, 2026 | 929 ms |
| May 9, 2026 | 931 ms |
| May 16, 2026 | 944 ms |
| May 23, 2026 | 935 ms |
| May 30, 2026 | 940 ms |
| Jun 6, 2026 | 939 ms |
| Jun 13, 2026 | 933 ms |
| Jun 20, 2026 | 930 ms |
| Jun 27, 2026 | 923 ms |
| Jul 4, 2026 | 917 ms |
| Jul 11, 2026 | 945 ms |
| Jul 18, 2026 | 944 ms |
| Jul 25, 2026 | 972 ms |
| Aug 1, 2026 | 971 ms |
| Aug 8, 2026 | 957 ms |
| Aug 15, 2026 | 960 ms |
| Aug 22, 2026 | 928 ms |
| Aug 29, 2026 | 935 ms |
| Sep 5, 2026 | 945 ms |
| Sep 12, 2026 | 950 ms |
| Sep 19, 2026 | 956 ms |
| Sep 26, 2026 | 952 ms |
| Oct 3, 2026 | 954 ms |
Show as table
| Date | Real-visitor tap response (INP) |
|---|---|
| Apr 18, 2026 | 126 ms |
| Apr 25, 2026 | 124 ms |
| May 2, 2026 | 122 ms |
| May 9, 2026 | 120 ms |
| May 16, 2026 | 119 ms |
| May 23, 2026 | 120 ms |
| May 30, 2026 | 122 ms |
| Jun 6, 2026 | 120 ms |
| Jun 13, 2026 | 121 ms |
| Jun 20, 2026 | 119 ms |
| Jun 27, 2026 | 116 ms |
| Jul 4, 2026 | 118 ms |
| Jul 11, 2026 | 118 ms |
| Jul 18, 2026 | 117 ms |
| Jul 25, 2026 | 119 ms |
| Aug 1, 2026 | 118 ms |
| Aug 8, 2026 | 117 ms |
| Aug 15, 2026 | 117 ms |
| Aug 22, 2026 | 114 ms |
| Aug 29, 2026 | 115 ms |
| Sep 5, 2026 | 116 ms |
| Sep 12, 2026 | 118 ms |
| Sep 19, 2026 | 119 ms |
| Sep 26, 2026 | 122 ms |
| Oct 3, 2026 | 123 ms |
Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab): real Chrome visitors over rolling 28-day periods.
One score from every part of this review. How it works
How it loaded on a phone
0.4 s
0.8 s
1.1 s
1.5 s
1.9 s
2.3 s
2.6 s
3.0 s
Speed
Use efficient cache lifetimes
5.2 s · 758 KiB16 files are served with short cache lifetimes, so returning visitors download them again (758 KiB).
Reduce unused JavaScript
4.3 s · 868 KiBAbout 868 KiB of JavaScript is downloaded but never used on this page. Google estimates it would make the page about 4.3 s faster on a phone.
Mobile performance score: 38
38/100Your mobile performance score is 38 (desktop: 69). Under 50 is Google's “poor” band: many phone visitors leave before the page is usable.
8 third-party services on the page
8 third-party services load with your homepage (adthrive.com, confiant-integrations.net and Google Tag Manager and others), adding 1.8 MB and 1.2 s of main-thread time.
Improve image delivery
813 KiB26 images could be 813 KiB smaller with modern formats (WebP or AVIF) and sizes that fit a phone screen.
adthrive.com adds 344 ms
344 msadthrive.com costs a phone 344 ms of main-thread work and 737 KiB of downloads while your page loads. Loading it after the page is usable, or only on the pages that need it, takes that off the critical path.
Main-thread work: 3.9 s
A phone's processor spends 3.9 s on main-thread work while loading, 1.6 s of it running JavaScript. Above 2 s, taps and scrolls feel sluggish.
11 long tasks on the main thread
11 long tasks block the main thread while loading, the longest for 365 ms. During a long task the page ignores taps.
confiant-integrations.net adds 312 ms
312 msconfiant-integrations.net costs a phone 312 ms of main-thread work and 220 KiB of downloads while your page loads. Loading it after the page is usable, or only on the pages that need it, takes that off the critical path.
Google Tag Manager adds 253 ms
253 msGoogle Tag Manager costs a phone 253 ms of main-thread work and 313 KiB of downloads while your page loads. Loading it after the page is usable, or only on the pages that need it, takes that off the critical path.
Legacy JavaScript
250 ms · 13 KiBPolyfills for old browsers add 13 KiB JavaScript that modern phones do not need. Google estimates it would make the page about 250 ms faster on a phone.
Reduce unused CSS
14 KiBAbout 14 KiB of CSS is downloaded but never applied on this page.
Phones get a much slower page than desktops
Desktop scores 69 but mobile only 38. A gap that wide usually means heavy scripts and images that hit phones hardest.
Chained critical requests
Critical files load one after another instead of in parallel (3 chains). Preconnecting to key origins and preloading the hero image shortens the chain.
Forced reflow
Scripts make the browser recalculate the layout repeatedly while the page loads, which wastes processor time on phones.
1 checks passed
Server response: 3 ms
3 msYour server sent the HTML in 3 ms, well inside Google's 600 ms guideline.
Core Web Vitals
Largest Contentful Paint: 20.0 s
20.0 sYour largest element takes 20.0 s to render on a phone. Google's threshold for “good” is 2.5 s. The largest element is the image “A person using a Ryobi charging adapter in a tent.”.
Time to Interactive: 20.8 s
20.8 sThe page becomes fully interactive after 20.8 s. Good is under 3.8 s.
First Contentful Paint: 5.8 s
5.8 sThe first text or image appears after 5.8 s on a phone. Good is under 1.8 s.
Speed Index: 7.2 s
7.2 sVisually, the page fills in at 7.2 s (Speed Index). Good is under 3.4 s.
Total Blocking Time: 880 ms
880 msScripts block taps and scrolling for 880 ms in total while the page loads. Good is under 200 ms.
Tap response (INP) held steady for real visitors
-2%Over the last 25 four-week periods to 2026-10-03, real Chrome visitors' tap response (inp) went from 126 ms to 123 ms at the 75th percentile (Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab) history).
Largest content (LCP) held steady for real visitors
+5%Over the last 25 four-week periods to 2026-10-03, real Chrome visitors' largest content (lcp) went from 0.9 s to 1.0 s at the 75th percentile (Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab) history).
7 checks passed
Passes Core Web Vitals for real visitors
Real Chrome users on phones pass Google's Core Web Vitals on this page (28-day field data from the Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab)).
Real-user LCP: 1.0 s
1.0 sReal visitors wait 1.0 s for the largest content to appear (75th percentile). Good is under 2.5 s.
Real-user INP: 93 ms
93 msReal visitors wait 93 ms for the page to respond to a tap (75th percentile). Good is under 200 ms.
Real-user CLS: 0.00
0.00For real visitors the layout shifts by 0.00 (75th percentile). Good is under 0.1.
Real-user FCP: 0.8 s
0.8 sReal visitors see the first content after 0.8 s (75th percentile). Good is under 1.8 s.
Real-user TTFB: 341 ms
341 msReal visitors wait 341 ms for your server to start answering (75th percentile). Good is under 800 ms.
Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
0The layout barely moves while loading (CLS 0, good is under 0.1).
Images and page weight
Page weight: 3.1 MB in 175 requests
3.1 MBYour homepage downloads 3.1 MB in 175 requests on a phone: scripts 1.8 MB (24), images 1,020 KiB (37) and other files 111 KiB (102). Under 2 MB keeps phones on slow connections fast.
19 images below the first screen load straight away
19 images further down the page (696 KiB) download before anyone scrolls to them. Adding loading="lazy" lets the first screen load first.
3 images far larger than shown
138 KiB3 images are downloaded at several times the size a phone draws them, for example it-qn0vo4-1674504661.jpg at 500 px wide, shown at 90 px. Resized copies would save about 138 KiB.
5 images in older formats
5 images (249 KiB) are JPEG, PNG or GIF. The same pictures as WebP or AVIF are usually much smaller at the same quality, and every current browser shows them.
About 0.9 g of CO₂ per visit
0.87 gBy the Sustainable Web Design model, a visit to your homepage emits about 0.87 g of CO₂e: 104.5 kg a year at 10,000 visits a month. It scales with page weight, so every byte cut lowers it.
Accessibility
94 text elements with low contrast
94 text elements don't have enough contrast against the background to read easily, especially outdoors on a phone.
31 tap targets too small
31 tap targets are too small or too close together to hit reliably with a finger.
1 link without text
1 visible link has no text or label, so screen readers cannot say where it goes.
Headings skip levels
Headings skip levels (h1 → h3), which makes the page harder to scan with a screen reader.
2 checks passed
Every image has alt text
All 44 images in the HTML carry an alt attribute.
41 automated accessibility rules passed
axe-core 4.13.0, the open-source engine behind most accessibility testing tools, ran 45 WCAG 2.2 A/AA and best-practice rules on the phone render: 41 passed and 4 failed. 3 mores need a person to judge. Automated rules catch about a third of accessibility problems; the rest need manual testing.
SEO
31 links with vague text
31 links use generic text like “click here” or “learn more”, which tells Google nothing about the page behind them.
2 H1 headlines
There are 2 <h1> headlines (“” and “3 New Ryobi Tools Coming Out Soon (As Of October …”). One clear main headline is easier for people and search engines.
240 internal links, 20 external
The homepage links to 240 pages on slashgear.com and 20 external pages.
7 checks passed
Meta description: 110 characters
Your meta description is 110 characters: “The latest news and reviews in the world of tech, automotive, gaming, science, and entertainment - since 2005.”.
Title: 50 characters
Your title is a healthy 50 characters: “SlashGear | Tech, Cars, Gaming, Science, & Reviews”.
Canonical URL set
The canonical URL is https://www.slashgear.com/.
Structured data in place
Structured data found: Organization.
Open Graph tags complete
Open Graph tags are complete, so shared links show a title, description and image.
robots.txt in place
robots.txt is in place and points crawlers to your sitemap.
XML sitemap found
Your XML sitemap is reachable at https://www.slashgear.com/sitemap_index.xml.
AI search readiness
No llms.txt
There is no /llms.txt, a short Markdown guide to your key pages for AI tools (llmstxt.org). It is optional and few AI tools read it yet, so treat it as a cheap extra.
3 checks passed
AI answer engines may read the site
Your robots.txt lets the crawlers behind ChatGPT search, Claude and Perplexity read the site and cite it in answers.
Organization data: 6 of 6 facts
Your Organization JSON-LD gives name, url, logo, sameAs (social profiles), description and contact details.
Text is in the HTML
Your server sends the page's text in the HTML (1,798 words), so crawlers that don't run JavaScript still read it.
Other pages
1 page without a meta description
/latest has no meta description, so Google writes the search snippet from whatever text it finds.
15 internal pages checked
We fetched 15 pages linked from your homepage (of 98 found) and read each the way a search engine does.
6 checks passed
Linked pages load
All 15 pages we checked loaded without an error.
Canonical URLs point to themselves
No page we checked hands its ranking to a different URL.
Titles are unique
Every page we checked has its own title.
Every page has an H1
Each page we checked has a main headline.
No linked page is hidden from search
None of the pages we checked carries a noindex tag.
Every page has a title
All 15 pages that loaded have a <title>.
Best practices
1 broken image
1 image failed to load on a phone, for example https://pixel.rubiconproject.com/token?pid=49096&us_privacy=1YNY.
55 small tap targets
55 of 102 tappable elements near the top of the page are smaller than 24 px, hard to hit with a thumb.
2 third-party cookies
2 third-party cookies are set on load; browsers are restricting these, so whatever relies on them breaks.
3 JavaScript errors while loading
3 errors were logged to the browser console while the page loaded, for example “Cannot read properties of null (reading 'addEventListener') https://www.slashgear.com/:1047:8”.
Browser-reported issues
Chrome logged issues while loading the page (“Cookie”).
1 checks passed
Mobile viewport set
The page declares a mobile viewport.
Content and conversion
No call to action on the first screen
On a phone, there is no call to action on the first screen: visitors have to scroll to find out what to do next.
No calls to action
We found no call-to-action buttons or links (such as “Book a demo” or “Get a quote”) anywhere on the homepage.
Local business without LocalBusiness data
Your homepage shows a street address but no LocalBusiness JSON-LD, so Google and AI assistants have to guess your address, hours and phone from the page text.
No phone number on the homepage
A local customer looking to call finds no phone number on the homepage. Add one, ideally as a tap-to-call link.
No direct contact details
No phone number or email link on the homepage, so ready-to-buy visitors have one fewer way to reach you.
No opening hours
The homepage shows no opening hours. If customers visit or call, show when.
No form on the homepage
There is no form on the homepage, so every lead has to click through to another page first.
No map or directions link
There is no link to Google or Apple Maps. A directions link is one tap for a phone visitor.
No risk reducer
No guarantee or risk reducer (money-back, free trial, no credit card) is mentioned, which is often what tips a hesitant visitor.
About 930 words of copy
The homepage carries about 930 words of visible text.
2 checks passed
Social proof on the page
Social proof on the homepage: 6 testimonial or review blocks and 1 trust badge.
Analytics in place
Analytics detected: Google Tag Manager.
Privacy and tracking
8 trackers load before any consent
8Before a visitor clicks anything, the page loads Amazon Ads, Comscore, Criteo, Google Ads and Google Analytics and 3 mores (measured from a US location before any click). No consent tool was detected. Visitors from the EU, UK and several US states must be asked first.
20 cookies set on arrival
20Opening the homepage sets 20 cookies, 2 of them by other companies (measured from a US location before any click).
No consent tool detected
No known cookie consent tool loads with the page. Some sites build their own banner, and some only show one to visitors from the EU.
79 other companies contacted
Loading the homepage contacts 79 hosts run by other companies (fonts, scripts, analytics, ads), each of which sees the visitor's IP address.
Security, domain, email and software versions
The security, domain and email checks, software and plugin versions, and any app with a known security problem are visible only to people at slashgear.com, because details like these could help someone attack a site. Every review keeps them private, whatever they found.
Upkeep, stack and company
Stack
- CMS
- WordPress
- Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
Upkeep, stack, hiring and company data from programmable.info
Go beyond the website
What your $25 Growth Playbook adds
This review found 34 issues on slashgear.com, including 15 speed issues, 2 SEO issues and 5 conversion gaps. That is the website alone. The full Growth Playbook pairs these findings with what your customers say in public reviews and communities and what your closest competitors do better, then turns everything into at least 20 prioritised ideas, each with the evidence behind it, a step-by-step playbook, a metric and an owner.
- 28 research agents read your site, reviews, competitors, communities and public filings
- Customer review mining (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and more) and voice-of-pain analysis in your buyers’ own words
- Competitor intelligence with battlecards for your closest rivals
- Ideal customer profile, buyer segments and buying-stage funnel
- Ranked channels, outreach sequences and content angles
- Live Reddit threads where buyers ask for what you sell, with draft replies
- Earned media and PR openings
- At least 20 ideas with evidence, a step-by-step playbook, metric, owner, effort and impact, grouped into this week, this quarter, big bets and wildcards, plus a 30/60/90-day roadmap
- PDF, Markdown, CSV, Notion and Linear exports, and a shareable page your team can track progress on
- Refresh the playbook later to see what changed
14-day money-back guarantee: not happy for any reason, email us within 14 days and we refund in full.