01

Method

For each sampled response we recorded Cache-Control and CF-Cache-Status exactly as returned. Missing headers are shown as missing rather than interpreted as a particular CDN policy.

HTML and discovery files have different freshness needs, so the audit evaluates them separately. Health and API endpoints are excluded because operational responses must remain no-store.

Measurement recordHostinger VPS in Europe; one cold request per URLCollector version 1.0.0Raw JSON ↗
02

Observed evidence

SignalObservedWhy it matters
Sampled HTML pagesNo Cache-Control observedFreshness policy was not explicit in the response.
robots.txtpublic, max-age=0, must-revalidateRevalidation was required immediately.
sitemap.xmlpublic, max-age=0, must-revalidateRevalidation was required immediately.
ads.txtpublic, max-age=0, must-revalidate · CF HITThe file was served from cache during this observation.
03

Findings

  • Public HTML lacked an explicit cache policy in the sample.
  • Discovery files used immediate revalidation.
  • Only ads.txt returned a visible Cloudflare cache-status signal.
04

Decision and resulting changes

Set a short browser cache and five-minute shared cache for public editorial HTML, while keeping health, metrics, and publishing endpoints no-store.

  • Added path-aware response cache headers in the worker.
  • Preserved no-store semantics for APIs and health checks.
  • Documented the pre-change values for later comparison.
05

Limits and reproduction

Re-run automation/evidence_collector.py against the public origin and compare the resulting JSON fields. A difference is evidence of a changed response, not automatically an improvement.

  • CF-Cache-Status can vary by request and edge location.
  • A cache header does not prove that every intermediary cached the response.

Primary references

Release record

— Baseline captured from the public site, limitations documented, and remediation decision published.

Prepared by SiteSignal Hub Field Lab. Evidence collection and structural checks are automated; no personal use, customer result, or human test is claimed.