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https://towardsdatascience.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
93
GRADE
A
FIX
0
REVIEW
2
PASS
7
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
200 OK
Checks
9
7 PASS 2 REVIEW
C
IPv6 Readiness
Action
No IPv6 support
REVIEW
No IPv6 support
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records found
IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.
No IPv6 Support
About 40% of internet users have IPv6. Consider adding AAAA records.

IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

Why this matters

No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.

Source: Google IPv6 stats

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
61 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

61
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Enable HSTS: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
  • Enable DNSSEC on your domain for DNS spoofing protection
  • Enable OCSP stapling on your TLS server to remove a CA roundtrip and protect user privacy
A+
DNS Records
2 A records, 39 ms lookup
PASS
2 A records, 39 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 2 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 141.193.213.20, 141.193.213.21
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
2 nameserver(s) configured
Got: dawn.ns.cloudflare.com, syeef.ns.cloudflare.com
Info::
5 mail exchanger(s) configured
Info::
CAA records not checked
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Info::
SPF record present in TXT
Info::
DNS resolution time: 39 ms
Got: 39 ms
A141.193.213.20, 141.193.213.21
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSdawn.ns.cloudflare.com, syeef.ns.cloudflare.com
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
TXT
google-site-verification=itXtD9lkkx85DgNDyiipjB52N_FBSQghFdlnhzqHJK0
google-site-verification=HTDiMjHRQpX_eF537nQ6oXHs43WeGofH__iGR2zKYLE
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:46095657.spf06.hubspotemail.net include:_...
facebook-domain-verification=103lehoy3d3wnc0pmkrkpp3vthp2id
google-site-verification=uOGTRG0t7XJ9Hk_fSOyU8yqreNeLVQ-_sTpZrQvCo4M
wpe-verification=towardsdatasci
google-site-verification=Ynxc45BkYggoDGQRrWbmRlnW-hIMPIMXCGuPUNfDBPI
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 39 ms

CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.

Why this matters

Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.

A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://towardsdatascience.com

https://towardsdatascience.com

168 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://towardsdatascience.com200168 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 28 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 28 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 908 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 28 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 28 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 908 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents GPTbot, CCBot, FacebookBot, YandexBot, meta-externalagent, *, Cohere-ai, Amazonbot, Bytespider, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Seekr, BLEXBot, ImagesiftBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, Applebot Blocking No — crawling allowed
Crawl-delay: 10
# START YOAST BLOCK
# ---------------------------
User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: https://towardsdatascience.com/sitemap_index.xml
# ---------------------------
# END YOAST BLOCK



User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /

User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Cohere-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: Seekr
Disallow: /

User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

User-agent: BLEXBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /

User-agent: YandexBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 28 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: non-www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

301https://www.towardsdatascience.com/
200https://towardsdatascience.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://towardsdatascience.com/ → https://towardsdatascience.com/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
towardsdatascience.com — via GoDaddy.com, LLC, 9 years, 7 months old, hosted on Cloudflare
PASS
towardsdatascience.com — via GoDaddy.com, LLC, 9 years, 7 months old, hosted on Cloudflare
Info::
Domain registered until Oct 22, 2032 (6 years, 7 months remaining)
Info::
DNSSEC is not enabled
DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
Info::
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Warning::
Registrar lock is NOT enabled
The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
Info::
Hosting: Cloudflare
Got: AS209242
Domain expiry

2288 days

October 22, 2032

SSL certificate

61 days

Issued by Google Trust Services

Domain age

9 years, 7 months

Registered October 22, 2016

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Cloudflare

ASN AS209242

141.193.213.20

Registrar

GoDaddy.com, LLC

Unlocked 2 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar GoDaddy.com, LLC
Created October 22, 2016 (9 years, 7 months ago)
Expires October 22, 2032 (6 years, 7 months)
Last Updated January 15, 2025
Name Servers dawn.ns.cloudflare.com, syeef.ns.cloudflare.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 141.193.213.20
ASN AS209242 (CLOUDFLARESPECTRUM Cloudflare, Inc., US)
Provider Cloudflare
Data source: rdap (0.2s)

DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.

Why this matters

Without DNSSEC, an attacker who can poison your DNS can hijack your domain — and SSL certs alone don't stop them.

Learn more ▾

DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to DNS records, preventing forged responses from poisoning resolver caches. Without it, an attacker who controls the network path can redirect your domain to a malicious server before any HTTPS handshake happens. Most modern registrars (Cloudflare, Google Domains, Route 53) enable it with one toggle.

Source: ICANN / RFC 4033

The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.

Why this matters

Without registrar lock, an attacker who phishes your registrar credentials can transfer the domain in minutes — total brand hijack.

Learn more ▾

Registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited) requires extra verification before any transfer/update/delete. Every major registrar offers it free. Combined with 2FA on your registrar account, it's the strongest defense against domain hijacking.

Source: ICANN / domain-security best practice

A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 227 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
39 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
1 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
6 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
210 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
227 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 39 ms TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 6 ms Server Processing 164 ms Content Transfer 17 ms
A
CDN & Delivery
Cloudflare (DYNAMIC)
PASS
Cloudflare (DYNAMIC)
Info::
Site is served via Cloudflare CDN (edge: MAD)
Got: cf-ray: 9effaad44ca3fab8-MAD
Info::
CDN cache status: DYNAMIC
CDN Detected: Cloudflare
Provider Cloudflare Cache Status DYNAMIC Evidence cf-ray: 9effaad44ca3fab8-MAD
All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.

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