Current site audit · sharonpa.com

The current site is holding Sharon back. Here is the evidence.

We loaded the live SharonPA.com in a real browser and inspected it the way Google and a screen reader do. Every finding below is captured from the site itself and mapped to a requirement in your own RFP.

35

Performance

3.5s load · 194 images · 112 scripts

30

Accessibility

121 images missing alt · zoom disabled

45

SEO

27-char title · two H1s · thin metadata

28

Reliability

31 console errors · broken map · popup

Scores are EVM's directional read from live inspection on July 2, 2026, not a certified Lighthouse export. The underlying evidence is shown below.

The short version. SharonPA.com runs on WordPress with the Divi page builder and a stack of directory and job-search plugins. It works, but it opens with a pop-up that covers the homepage, its downtown map is throwing a JavaScript error, more than half its images have no alt text, and it loads insecure assets on a secure page. For a site whose whole job is to be the welcoming front door to Sharon, the first impression is a modal asking for an email address.

Screenshot of the current SharonPA.com homepage on desktop, showing a full-screen newsletter signup pop-up covering the page content on load.

Captured live · sharonpa.com · desktop 1440px · July 2, 2026

What the visitor meets first

  • 1
    A pop-up owns the homepage.A newsletter modal covers the hero the moment the page loads, on desktop and mobile, before anyone sees downtown Sharon.
  • 2
    The event content is buried.The Spring Fling promotion sits behind the modal, so the thing the site most wants to promote is hidden at the worst moment.
  • 3
    The brand is quiet.Generic Divi layout, small logo, no clear "start here" path for residents, visitors, or businesses.

On a phone it is worse

  • 4
    The modal fills the entire screen.On a 390px phone the signup form covers everything, with the close control tucked at the top corner.
  • 5
    Pinch-to-zoom is switched off.The page sets maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0, which blocks zoom and fails WCAG 2.1 AA, the exact standard your RFP requires.
  • 6
    Most of a visit happens on mobile.For a tourism and downtown site, the phone experience is the main experience, and right now it opens with a wall.
Screenshot of the current SharonPA.com homepage on a mobile phone, where the newsletter signup pop-up fills the entire screen.

Captured live · mobile 390px

The findings

What is weak, what is broken, and why it matters

Ordered by severity. Each is tied to the RFP requirement it puts at risk.

Critical

The downtown map is broken

The interactive downtown map, a headline feature of the current site, throws a fatal JavaScript error on load and does not initialize. A core "find your way around downtown" tool is not working for visitors.

Uncaught TypeError: google.maps.Map is not a constructor jQuery.Deferred exception: google.maps.Map is not a constructor
RFP §4 · Interactive mapping
Critical

Accessibility fails the standard the RFP names

121 of 194 images have no alt text, so screen-reader users cannot understand most of the page. Pinch-to-zoom is disabled at the page level. Both are direct WCAG 2.1 AA failures, and Section 5 of your RFP requires WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

images total: 194 · images missing alt: 121 (62%) viewport: width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0
RFP §5 · WCAG 2.1 AA
High

Insecure content on a secure page

The page loads over HTTPS but pulls images and the city logo over plain HTTP, and requests break across the www and non-www versions of the domain because of a cross-origin (CORS) mismatch. This triggers browser security warnings and blocks icon fonts and some AJAX calls.

Mixed Content: HTTPS page requested insecure element http://sharonpa.com/wp-content/uploads/.../CityofSharonLogo.png CORS blocked: https://sharonpa.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php (no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header)
RFP §5 · Technical Privacy & security
High

The pop-up blocks the front door

A newsletter modal covers the homepage on load, desktop and mobile. It is the first thing every visitor meets, ahead of events, downtown, and the directory. It hurts engagement, bounce rate, and the welcoming impression a community site depends on.

RFP §2 · Community engagement
High

Heavy, plugin-stacked, and slow

The homepage loads 112 scripts and 39 stylesheets, built on Divi plus a chain of third-party directory and job-search plugins. Full load is about 3.5 seconds before caching. The directory and events features are assembled from separate plugins that do not share a design or a data model, which is fragile and hard for staff to maintain.

scripts: 112 · stylesheets: 39 · iframes: 5 DOM content loaded: 2.8s · full load: 3.5s stack: WordPress · Divi 4.27 · wp-jobsearch · simple-business-directory-pro
RFP §5 · Performance RFP §2 · Easy to maintain
Medium

SEO is leaving discovery on the table

The homepage title is just "City of Sharon Pennsylvania" (27 characters) with none of the terms people actually search, like downtown, visit, shop local, or events. The page also uses two H1 headings, which muddies the structure search engines read. For a site meant to attract visitors and investors, this is unclaimed reach.

title: "City of Sharon Pennsylvania" (27 chars) h1 count: 2 (should be 1) · thin meta description
RFP §5 · SEO & sitemap
Medium

The social feed shows an error to visitors

The embedded Facebook feed renders the message "This content isn't available right now" directly on the homepage, so a section meant to show community life instead shows a broken embed.

RFP §3 · Social integration

The upside

What is missing, and what Sharon could have

The current site is not far off in ambition, it has a directory and an events idea. The gap is execution and reliability. Here is what a rebuild unlocks.

✦ One unified directory

A single, fast, searchable directory and events engine instead of three mismatched plugins, already proven in EVM's production platform.

✦ A front door, not a pop-up

A hero that puts downtown, events, and search first, with newsletter signup offered politely rather than blocking the page.

✦ Accessible by design

WCAG 2.1 AA built in: real alt text, keyboard navigation, zoom enabled, and proper heading structure, tested before launch.

✦ Found on Google

Keyword-rich titles, clean structure, XML sitemaps, and Search Console, so visitors and investors can actually discover Sharon.

✦ Fast and secure

A lean build with no mixed content, no console errors, and a working map, on modern hosting.

✦ Up to $120K/yr in free ads

If SCDC is a 501(c)(3), the Google Ad Grant can drive visitors to the new site at zero media cost, managed by EVM.

Today

SharonPA.com now

  • Pop-up covers the homepage on load
  • Downtown map broken (JS error)
  • 62% of images have no alt text
  • Zoom disabled, WCAG 2.1 AA failing
  • Mixed content and CORS errors
  • 112 scripts, ~3.5s load
  • Weak, keyword-free page titles

Next step

Every issue here is fixable, and EVM has already built the fix.

See the full proposal and a preview of what SharonPA.com becomes.

Read the proposal View the redesign preview