Which headers matter
- Strict-Transport-Security — forbids the browser to use HTTP for the site.
- Content-Security-Policy — lists where scripts and styles may load from: the main XSS defence.
- X-Frame-Options / frame-ancestors — stop other sites from framing yours.
- X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy — simple headers that close whole classes of attacks and leaks.
How to add them
nginx: add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always; and the same for the others. Apache: Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff". Cloudflare: Rules → Transform Rules → Modify Response Header.
Certificate and DNS
Certificate validity and chain are in the SSL check, domain records and CAA in the DNS lookup.