Infrastructure
· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.CIPv6 ReadinessActionNo IPv6 supportREVIEW
IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.
No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.
Source: Google IPv6 stats
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations43 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to addressREVIEW
Certificate validity
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 Records3 A records, 36 ms lookupPASS
| A | 104.26.11.220, 104.26.10.220, 172.67.73.103 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | erin.ns.cloudflare.com, todd.ns.cloudflare.com |
| MX | 1 aspmx.l.google.com 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com 10 aspmx5.googlemail.com 10 aspmx2.googlemail.com 10 aspmx3.googlemail.com 10 aspmx4.googlemail.com |
| TXT | SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ip4:66.228.42.0/25 ip4:66.175.211.0/25 ~all brevo-code:29a4a617a8daa2330c595dea92ae0278 firebase=thediplomat stripe-verification=1315ae19f2fbf319b9a743d9897beb2b987718107d366f130634f5e857e0... |
| CAA | Lookup not available with standard resolver |
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.
A+Redirect ChainNo redirects — direct accessPASS
https://thediplomat.com
159 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://thediplomat.com | 200 | 159 ms | HTTP/1.1 | cloudflare |
ACrawlabilityrobots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLsPASS
An empty sitemap provides no value. Add <url> entries for your pages.
An empty sitemap signals 'no content to index' to Google — actively harmful versus having no sitemap at all.
Learn more ▾ ▴
Google compares URLs in the sitemap against URLs it has crawled. An empty sitemap on a site with thousands of pages signals abandonment. Either populate it correctly (most CMSes auto-generate) or delete the file and let Google crawl normally.
Source: Google Search Central / sitemaps.org
# As a condition of accessing this website, you agree to abide by the following
# content signals:
# (a) If a Content-Signal = yes, you may collect content for the corresponding
# use.
# (b) If a Content-Signal = no, you may not collect content for the
# corresponding use.
# (c) If the website operator does not include a Content-Signal for a
# corresponding use, the website operator neither grants nor restricts
# permission via Content-Signal with respect to the corresponding use.
# The content signals and their meanings are:
# search: building a search index and providing search results (e.g., returning
# hyperlinks and short excerpts from your website's contents). Search does not
# include providing AI-generated search summaries.
# ai-input: inputting content into one or more AI models (e.g., retrieval
# augmented generation, grounding, or other real-time taking of content for
# generative AI search answers).
# ai-train: training or fine-tuning AI models.
# ANY RESTRICTIONS EXPRESSED VIA CONTENT SIGNALS ARE EXPRESS RESERVATIONS OF
# RIGHTS UNDER ARTICLE 4 OF THE EUROPEAN UNION DIRECTIVE 2019/790 ON COPYRIGHT
# AND RELATED RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET.
# BEGIN Cloudflare Managed content
User-agent: *
Content-Signal: search=yes,ai-train=no
Allow: /
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: CloudflareBrowserRenderingCrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
# END Cloudflare Managed Content
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-login.php
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://thediplomat.com/wp-sitemap.xml
A+URL Variantswww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSPASS
www / non-www
Preferred variant: non-www
HTTP → HTTPS
Consistent
A+Domain Intelligencethediplomat.com — via Network Solutions, LLC, 28 years, 1 months old, hosted on CloudflarePASS
742 days
July 23, 2028
43 days
Issued by Google Trust Services
28 years, 1 months
Registered July 24, 1998
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
Cloudflare
ASN AS13335
172.67.73.103
Network Solutions, LLC
Expiry timeline
Recommended actions
- Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
- Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
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.
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