> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Ghost audit profile, Vortex IQ

> What the Vortex IQ Ghost health audit checks: Ghost: Public-Site Performance, Core Web Vitals & Lighthouse Quality

**[Nerve Centre KPIs](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/ghost) · [Audit Profile](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/ghost/audit) · [Sentiment Settings](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/ghost/sentiment)**

A Ghost publication only earns members and subscribers if the public site is fast and well-built. This audit answers: (1) is the publication URL reachable and returning a clean PageSpeed/CrUX read, (2) is the site passing Core Web Vitals on mobile where readers actually are, (3) are Lighthouse quality scores (Performance / SEO / Accessibility / Best Practices) holding or has a theme / injected-script change regressed them, and (4) is the public site so slow that the analytics sibling shows readers bouncing before the subscribe CTA.

## What this audit checks

### Authentication & access

* Site URL reachable and returns a successful PageSpeed run (runPagespeed 200)
* PageSpeed API key present and under daily quota (no 429 on probe)
* CrUX origin record available for the publication (field data exists, not 'origin not found')

### Core Web Vitals (CrUX field, mobile)

* Mobile LCP p75 > 4000ms (poor - readers perceive a slow page)
* Mobile INP p75 > 500ms (poor interaction responsiveness)
* Mobile CLS p75 > 0.25 (poor layout stability)
* Mobile TTFB p75 > 1800ms (slow server / origin response)
* Mobile CWV pass rate \< 50% (failing Google's ranking-relevant threshold)

### Lighthouse lab quality

* Mobile Performance score \< 50 (poor lab performance)
* Performance gap between mobile and desktop > 30 points (mobile-specific regression)
* SEO score \< 70 (crawlability / meta gaps on a publication that lives on search)
* Accessibility score \< 70 (excludes readers and risks compliance)
* Best Practices score \< 70 (console errors, insecure requests, deprecated APIs)

### Page weight & resource hygiene

* Total page weight > 3MB (bloat from third-party scripts / unoptimised media)
* Total Blocking Time > 600ms (main-thread work blocking interaction)
* Speed Index > 5800ms (slow visual completion)
* Render-blocking resources with > 500ms potential savings (defer / inline critical CSS/JS)

### Cross-channel: performance-to-readers (the killer area)

* Origin CWV pass rate \< 50% AND analytics sibling shows bounce/exit trending up on the publication (slow pages losing readers)
* Render-blocking / page-weight regression coincides with a drop in analytics sessions-to-subscribe on the same origin
* High-traffic landing path (analytics sibling) has poor mobile LCP - prioritise that template for fixes

## Severity thresholds

| Signal                 | Warn    | Critical |
| ---------------------- | ------- | -------- |
| `gho_lcp_mobile`       | 2500    | 4000     |
| `gho_inp_mobile`       | 200     | 500      |
| `gho_cls_mobile`       | 0.1     | 0.25     |
| `gho_crux_mobile_pass` | 75      | 50       |
| `gho_lighthouse_perf`  | 90      | 50       |
| `gho_psi_total_weight` | 1572864 | 3145728  |

## Data sources

* `GET https://pagespeedonline.googleapis.com/pagespeedonline/v5/runPagespeed` - Lab Lighthouse scores + page-weight audits + embedded CrUX origin block per (URL, strategy)
* `GET https://chromeuxreport.googleapis.com/v1/records:queryRecord` - CrUX field data - origin-level p75 LCP/INP/CLS/TTFB and CWV pass rate