Complete audit of stratumcollective.co covering information architecture, content quality, messaging alignment, design system, accessibility, and conversion flow across 21 pages.
Overall assessment across eight dimensions. Scores reflect current state, not potential.
/why-stratum and /how-it-works share 3 identical sections. /sprint and /sprints have overlapping content with confusing URL similarity.
Two pages with near-identical URLs and overlapping content. /sprint is the engagement detail page; /sprints is the pricing page. The nav links to /sprints but hero CTAs on multiple pages link to /sprint. A prospect clicking "See Sprint Details" on behavioral-health.html goes to a different page than clicking "Sprints" in the nav. These should be consolidated.
Sections 02-04 on how-it-works (AI comparison, billers comparison, core distinction) are copy-identical to sections 01-03 on why-stratum. A prospect visiting both pages gets the same content twice. One should focus on "how" (mechanically) and the other on "why us" (differentiation), or why-stratum should be merged into how-it-works.
Behavioral Health, Precedent Objects, Tools, and FAQ are only linked from the footer. These are substantive pages that address key buyer questions — especially Behavioral Health (the vertical page) and Precedent Objects (the core concept). At minimum, Behavioral Health should be in the main nav.
Not linked from the main nav, footer, or about.html. It's unreachable through normal site navigation. The page itself is also very thin — one founder bio paragraph with no specific credentials or company names.
sprint.html links to /platform for the SCAI Network but the file is intelligence-platform.html — routing depends on _redirects. Multiple pages reference /sprint vs /sprints inconsistently.
| Canonical Term | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Precedent-based denial intelligence | Rare | Only appears in faq.html meta description. Most pages use variants: "precedent intelligence," "precedent-based decision infrastructure" |
| Behavior-aware decision infrastructure | Rare | Only appears on why-stratum.html. Absent from all other pages. |
| Denial pattern corpus | Missing | Does not appear on any page on the site. |
| Behavioral health in hero | Missing | Homepage hero doesn't mention behavioral health. The vertical isn't named until below the fold. A scanning visitor might not know this is BH-specific. |
The homepage follows a strong persuasion arc: problem statement → evidence → solution → credibility → conversion. The copy is specific and avoids generic claims. Key issues:
The hero sidebar and the evidence strip both show "80.7%" and "11.5%" — the same data points appear twice within a short scroll distance. One instance should be replaced with different data.
The form calls e.preventDefault(), shows a success message, but never sends data. No fetch(), no form action, no email service integration. Users see "Subscribed. Watch your inbox." but nothing actually happens.
No testimonials, client logos, case studies, or credibility signals. For a $50-200K engagement, prospects expect some form of validation beyond the company's own claims.
Research cards link to individual articles, but there's no bridging prompt leading into the final assessment CTA section.
| Page | Content | Key Issue |
|---|---|---|
| /about | Strong | No hero CTA — visitors scroll 5 sections before hitting one |
| /why-stratum | Strong | 60% duplicate with /how-it-works; inline styles break on mobile |
| /how-it-works | Strong | 60% duplicate with /why-stratum |
| /behavioral-health | Strong | Hidden in footer nav; should be primary nav |
| /intelligence | Strong | 540 lines of inline CSS; sidebar email form is dead |
| /intelligence-platform | Good | 800 lines of inline CSS; worst offender for tech debt |
| /precedent-objects | Excellent | No cross-link to SCAI Network (natural next step) |
| /sprint | Strong | Deliverables section is identical to /sprints section 02 |
| /sprints | Needs work | Pricing page with no prices on tier cards — only in sidebar |
| /team | Thin | One generic paragraph, no credentials, no assessment CTA, orphaned from nav |
| /faq | Good | No FAQ schema markup; answers are terse for a complex B2B sale |
These are not generic calculators. They're among the best lead-gen tools in B2B healthcare SaaS — deeply domain-specific, argumentatively structured, and escalating in complexity. The progression from KPI (30 sec, 1 input) to ROI (90 sec, 12 inputs) to Unit Economics (counter-intuitive thesis) to Vendor Scorecard (qualitative) creates a natural engagement ladder.
The most intellectually differentiated tool. It reframes the prospect's understanding: AI automation removes easy denials, making blended cost-per-recovered-dollar worse because complex denials dominate. This is a structured argument, not a number generator.
Strategically clever — the six dimensions are exactly Stratum's capabilities. Every "full score" answer describes Stratum's architecture. It educates while evaluating. CTAs are segmented by score tier.
href="#")href="#")Dark editorial theme with warm tones — cross between a redlined architectural document and a dark-mode newspaper. Background #2a2a2d (warm dark gray, not pure black). Paper grain texture overlay via SVG noise. Typography is deliberate: DM Serif Display (headings), IBM Plex Mono (labels), DM Sans (body).
| Token | Hex | Role |
|---|---|---|
--paper | #2a2a2d | Primary background |
--ink | #e8e6e1 | Primary text |
--ink-muted | #7d7b76 | Labels/tertiary (fails WCAG AA) |
--accent | #5a9ae0 | Primary blue |
--signal | #c49a6c | Copper/gold (section labels) |
--danger | #d45555 | Negative indicators |
The brand reference specifies DM Mono, Instrument Serif, and Syne as the font stack — none of which match the CSS (DM Serif Display, IBM Plex Mono, DM Sans). Background colors also differ (#0a0b0d brand vs #2a2a2d CSS). Accent blues differ (#4A9AFF brand vs #5a9ae0 CSS). Either the brand guide or the CSS is stale.
These pages redeclare the entire design system (nav, footer, buttons, sections, responsive rules) inline instead of using styles.css. This is the single biggest source of technical debt — any change to the base design system requires updating three places.
#3d3d44, #343438, #3a3438, #34393d, #f2f0ec, #e86565 are used as raw values instead of custom properties. Creates maintenance risk.
The only difference is .btn-primary-light adds color to its hover transition. One should be removed.
Only newsletter inputs have :focus styles. Buttons, links, FAQ toggles, modal close buttons, and nav items have no visible focus indication. Keyboard users cannot navigate the site.
--ink-muted (#7d7b76) on --paper (#2a2a2d) is ~3.5:1 — fails WCAG AA (requires 4.5:1). Used extensively for labels, sources, timestamps, and footer text. Several font sizes are below 12px (stat sources at 8px, section numbers at 9.6px).
The ticker animation, scroll reveal animations, and hover transforms all run without checking prefers-reduced-motion. Users who've opted out of motion get animations anyway.
Standard accessibility requirement missing across all pages.
Tab key can escape to background elements while the modal is open. Escape key and backdrop click work correctly.
Every page drives toward /assessment — good funnel discipline. But the actual conversion mechanisms are broken or missing:
The primary conversion endpoint for the entire site sends prospects to mailto:assessments@stratumcollective.co. No form, no tracking, no confirmation, no follow-up automation. For a page this polished, this creates friction and loses attribution.
Homepage, KPI calculator, and intelligence page all have newsletter signup forms that show success messages but never send data anywhere. Users are being lied to.
"Email My Full Report" (ROI calculator) and secondary CTAs on the Vendor Scorecard results all link to #. These are high-intent moments where a prospect has already engaged deeply with the tools.
Creates a dead end in the conversion funnel. Every other page drives to assessment.
Assessment page uses assessments@stratumcollective.co (.co). Privacy and terms pages reference hello@stratumcollective.com (.com). Verify both domains are valid.
| # | Issue | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newsletter forms submit to nothing | Users see "Subscribed" but nothing happens — trust violation |
| 2 | Assessment CTA is a raw mailto link | No tracking, no automation, high friction for $50K+ engagement |
| 3 | Dead links on calculator results CTAs | Loses high-intent prospects at peak engagement |
| 4 | openNewsletter() undefined on multiple pages | JS error when clicking Newsletter link in footer |
| 5 | sprint vs sprints URL confusion | Prospects land on wrong page depending on which link they click |
| 6 | No catch-all 404 in _redirects | Mistyped URLs show Cloudflare's generic 404, not your branded one |
| 7 | Custom domain DNS not connected | stratumcollective.co is currently down (CNAME cross-user error) |
href="#" links on ROI calculator and Vendor Scorecard results/* /404.html 404 as the last line in _redirectsopenNewsletter() on all pages with the newsletter footer link--ink-muted (increase to at least 4.5:1)prefers-reduced-motion media query