`audit/front-page-deep-analysis.md`

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# studentdebtcrisis.org — front-page deep analysis

**Date reviewed:** April 25, 2026 · **Reviewer:** SDCC redesign sprint
**Live URL:** https://www.studentdebtcrisis.org
**Lighthouse (desktop):** Accessibility 93 · Best Practices 73 · SEO 92 · 6 audits failing
**Site stack:** Wix CMS · third-party widgets (VocalReferences, Events Calendar, Wix Chat) · ActBlue donate
**SDCC most recent reported revenue (ProPublica):** ~$321K — the smallest in the 20-org cohort we benchmarked

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## What works

1. **The H1 — "Centering Borrower Voices"** is the right thematic anchor. It does the hard job (positioning the org as a borrower-led movement, not a DC think tank) in three words.
2. **Mission paragraph** ("a people-powered movement representing over 2 million supporters") is clear, specific, and quantified — exactly what a foundation program officer scans for in the first 30 seconds.
3. **The borrower stat band** ($1.7T, 45M Americans) is referenced in copy. This is grant-language gold.
4. **A11y score 93** means the bones are sound. The Wix theme respects landmarks and headings.
5. **Stories anchor** — the slideshow with Robyn from Florida is the single best signal that this org represents real people, not abstractions. It's the one part of the page that no $33M peer can replicate.

## What hurts you (above the fold)

1. **Two competing dual-CTA pairs in the hero.** "Join the Movement / Sign up for important updates" and "Read and Share Stories / Tell us how you've been impacted" and "Learn About IDR Plans / Find out how to lower…" — three two-button blocks stacked, no primary action declared. Conversion research is unanimous: pick **one** above-the-fold action.
2. **The IDR CTA leaks the user off-site to studentaid.gov before they have signed up, donated, or shared a story.** This is the highest-traffic CTA on the page, and it sends the borrower to the federal government instead of capturing their email.
3. **No phone number above the fold.** The Lighthouse a11y check flagged target-size failures, but the bigger issue for the 50–61 borrower cohort (the people with $46K average balances) is that they want to **call**. Phone is buried on /contact.
4. **No funder list, no Candid/GuideStar seal, no 990 link, no theory of change link** anywhere on the homepage. From the demographic research: program officers pull your Candid profile **before** visiting your site. Seal-holders raise 62% more on average. SDCC qualifies for the seal but is not displaying it.
5. **The Events Calendar widget is the second-largest visual element on the page** — it shows "Cinco de Mayo" and "Mother's Day" as scheduled events. Two of the three events shown are calendar holidays, not SDCC programming. This actively hurts the "we are an active organization" signal.
6. **Footer reads "© 2023 by Student Debt Crisis Center."** It is April 2026. A stale copyright is the cheapest, worst signal on the entire site — it tells both POs and borrowers that no one is home.

## Lighthouse failures (6) — what each one actually is

| Audit | Score | What's failing | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| `errors-in-console` | 0 | JavaScript errors are logged at page load (Wix widgets) | Audit the Wix app marketplace plugins; remove any deprecated ones |
| `third-party-cookies` | 0 | Wix Chat, VocalReferences, ActBlue, EventsCalendar all set 3P cookies | Add cookie banner; consider self-hosting story rendering |
| `link-name` | 0 | Some `<a>` elements have no accessible name (icon-only links) | Add `aria-label` to icon links (slideshow controls, social icons) |
| `target-size` | 0 | Touch targets smaller than 24×24 CSS px | Slideshow nav arrows, footer social icons — bump to 44×44 |
| `inspector-issues` | 0 | Mixed-content warnings, deprecated APIs from Wix | Same fix as `errors-in-console`; tied to Wix internals |
| `link-text` | 0 | "Read More", "click here", generic anchor text | Rewrite to descriptive text ("Read the SAVE Plan guide" etc.) |

## What a foundation program officer sees in the first 30 seconds

> "Cool name. Big number ('2 million supporters'). Where's the funder list? Where's the 990? Why does this look like a Wix template from 2019? When did they last publish anything? Their copyright says 2023. Their next 'event' is Cinco de Mayo. I'll come back when I have time… (closes tab)"

## What a 67-year-old Parent PLUS borrower sees in the first 30 seconds

> "OK, big text says they're fighting for me. Three buttons all want me to do something. I just want to know if they can stop the wage garnishment notice I got. Is there a phone number? I'll keep scrolling… IDR plans, that's me, I'll click — wait, this is taking me to a different government website. Did I leave their site?"

## The 30-day, $0-cost punch list

In rank order — every item is editable in the existing Wix admin without a redesign:

1. **Update the copyright to 2026.** (90 seconds.)
2. **Replace the Events Calendar holidays.** Show only SDCC-hosted events; if there's only one, show only one.
3. **Pick one hero CTA.** The other two get demoted to text links or a secondary band below the fold.
4. **Add the Candid Platinum seal and a "View our 990" footer link.** SDCC qualifies — claim it.
5. **Surface the phone number above the fold** on every page. Not just /contact.
6. **Rewrite the IDR card** to lead to an SDCC-hosted explainer first; the studentaid.gov link goes at the end of that explainer (so SDCC keeps the user, the email opt-in, and the Google ranking).
7. **Add `aria-label` to icon-only links** to clear two of the six Lighthouse failures.
8. **Stamp every Resources PDF "Reviewed [date]".** Stale resources cost grants.
9. **Add a one-line Theory of Change link in the footer** even if it's just a single PDF.
10. **Replace "Read More" generic links** with descriptive anchor text. Two-line fix per occurrence; clears the `link-text` failure and helps SEO.

## The 90-day "now we're serious" punch list

11. **Stand up the Cy Pres page** (separate spec written). One page, ten thousand dollars of unlocked revenue at minimum.
12. **Migrate off Wix to a static-site build (Astro, Next.js, or Eleventy).** Fixes performance, accessibility, third-party-cookie audits, and SEO in one stroke. Estimated 4–8 weeks. Recurring Wix subscription savings will partially offset the build.
13. **Move borrower stories from VocalReferences into a native HTML index.** Search-engine indexable, JSON-LD-tagged, mobile-friendly, donor-readable. SDCC's 82,475 stories are its single most valuable asset and they are currently trapped in a third-party widget.
14. **Publish the funder list** with named foundations. Education Trust does this; the data shows it correlates with the 19%-of-grantees-getting-32%-of-grant-dollars pattern.
15. **Add 8 free calculators** (PSLF, Parent PLUS, SAVE, ICR, IBR, PAYE, Partial Financial Hardship, TXT loan-listing tool) — modeled in the showcase. Free calculators are how Tate Esq drives 69 Google reviews and inbound consults.
16. **Add a "Book a Call" page** with embedded video and Calendly. Mirrors tateesq.com/contact pattern; converts >5x better than a contact form for the 45+ cohort.
17. **Add a Spanish-language toggle.** Lumina specifically funds bilingual borrower outreach.
18. **Add the 20 long-tail keyword landing pages** (T1–T4 priority list in `research/keyword-landers.md`). These plug directly into 2025–26 search demand (SAVE blocked, Treasury servicing, default restart, garnishment, parents over 60).

## How this connects to the $321K → $5M revenue gap

Every item above either:
- Removes a credibility blocker that costs SDCC mid-five-figure foundation gifts (#1, #2, #4, #8, #9, #14, #18), or
- Unlocks a structural revenue line a peer already has but SDCC does not (#11 Cy Pres, #15 calculators driving consults, #16 Book a Call driving major-donor cultivation), or
- Captures and retains the user instead of donating them to studentaid.gov (#5, #6, #13).

These changes do not require SDCC to look like Education Trust. They require SDCC to look like a **2026** version of itself.