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https://theaustralian.com.au

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
90
GRADE
A
FIX
0
REVIEW
3
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
6 PASS 3 REVIEW
C
Crawlability
Action
robots.txt present, sitemap with 7255 URLs
REVIEW
robots.txt present, sitemap with 7255 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 4225 bytes
Critical::
robots.txt blocks all crawlers
Disallow: / for all user-agents prevents search engines from indexing any page. This will remove the site from search results.
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 7255 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 7255 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap

Disallow: / for all user-agents prevents search engines from indexing any page. This will remove the site from search results.

Why this matters

Disallow: / in robots.txt blocks every search crawler — the site becomes invisible in organic search.

Learn more

Common deployment mistake: a staging robots.txt with `User-agent: * / Disallow: /` ships to prod. The site falls out of search results within days. Verify your robots.txt is the production-intended version. If this is intentional (private site), no action needed.

Source: Google Search Central

robots.txt 200 OK
Size 4225 B Sitemaps referenced 2 User-agents uipbot, NetSeer crawler, datadog-synthetics, schema-validator, site24x7, Slack-ImgProxy, smartologybot, Taboolabot, AdsBot-Google-Mobile-Apps, Verity, Googlebot, GoogleOther, Expo9, identrics, AdsBot-Google-Mobile, APIs-Google, Google-amphtml, Google-site-verification, flipboard, thetradedesk, Moatbot, Storebot-Google, GPTBot, AppleNewsBot, proximic, Yahoo Ad monitoring, Google-cloudvertexbot, Google-play-newsstand, AHC, HyScore/1.0, okta, Slurp, IASbot, Google-read-aloud, Googleimageproxy, dlvrit, *, ScreamingFrogSEOSpider, Adbeat, LinkedInBot, WhatsApp, Mediapartners-Google, checkMy, CriteoBot/0.1, parselybot, Weborama-fetcher, MeltwaterNews, admantx-usbatch/3.1, EchoboxBot/1.0, Iframely, photon, proofpoint, SirdataBot, facebookexternalhit, AmazonAdBot, GrapeshotCrawler, siteimprovebot, telegrambot, Googlebot-News, Googlebot-Video, Google-Extended, Adsbot-Google, ChatGPT-User, Chrome-Lighthouse, Slackbot, Slackbot-LinkExpanding, bingpreview, MicrosoftPreview, ias_crawler, Google-Safety, Google-Structured-Data-Testing-Tool, Snap URL Preview Service, SocialFlow, Bingbot, DuckDuckBot, Google-InspectionTool, Applebot, bidswitchbot/1.0, botify, Leikibot, newrelicpinger, peer39_crawler/1.0, snapchat, Outbrain, SemrushBot, redditbot, AHC/2.1, ia_archiver, labne, GoogleOther-Video, ias_wombles, links.streem.com.au, Google-adwords, Twitterbot, AdIdxBot, pingdom, Pinterestbot, statuscake, pubmatic, sentry, Uptimebot, YahooMailProxy, yahoo-linkpreview, Googlebot-Image, yahoo, OAI-SearchBot, Google-Ads-Creatives-Assistant, admantx, GoogleOther-Image Blocking Yes — all crawlers blocked
# NOTICE: Collection of content and other data on www.theaustralian.com.au through automated means is prohibited unless you have express written permission from the publisher of the website and may only be conducted for the limited purpose contained in said permission.

# Website Terms of Use may be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/termsconditions

#Agent Specific Allowed Section
# ==========================
User-agent: ScreamingFrogSEOSpider
User-agent: proximic
User-agent: Moatbot
User-agent: Adbeat
User-agent: Expo9
User-agent: Outbrain
User-agent: uipbot
User-agent: Weborama-fetcher
User-agent: Yahoo Ad monitoring
User-agent: NetSeer crawler
User-agent: SemrushBot
User-agent: facebookexternalhit
User-agent: ias_crawler
User-agent: ias_wombles
User-agent: IASbot
User-agent: identrics
User-agent: MeltwaterNews
User-agent: links.streem.com.au
User-agent: LinkedInBot
User-agent: WhatsApp
User-agent: redditbot
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
User-agent: Adsbot-Google
User-agent: Storebot-Google
User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile
User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile-Apps
User-agent: APIs-Google
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: Google-Ads-Creatives-Assistant
User-agent: Google-adwords
User-agent: Google-amphtml
User-agent: Google-cloudvertexbot
User-agent: Google-play-newsstand
User-agent: Google-read-aloud
User-agent: Google-Safety
User-agent: Google-site-verification
User-agent: Google-Structured-Data-Testing-Tool
User-agent: Googleimageproxy
User-agent: Twitterbot
User-agent: Applebot
User-agent: AppleNewsBot
User-agent: AdIdxBot
User-agent: admantx
User-agent: admantx-usbatch/3.1
User-agent: AHC
User-agent: AHC/2.1
User-agent: AmazonAdBot
User-agent: bidswitchbot/1.0
User-agent: botify
User-agent: checkMy
User-agent: Chrome-Lighthouse
User-agent: CriteoBot/0.1
User-agent: datadog-synthetics
User-agent: dlvrit
User-agent: EchoboxBot/1.0
User-agent: flipboard
User-agent: GrapeshotCrawler
User-agent: Verity
User-agent: HyScore/1.0
User-agent: ia_archiver
User-agent: Iframely
User-agent: labne
User-agent: Leikibot
User-agent: newrelicpinger
User-agent: okta
User-agent: parselybot
User-agent: peer39_crawler/1.0
User-agent: photon
User-agent: pingdom
User-agent: Pinterestbot
User-agent: proofpoint
User-agent: proximic
User-agent: pubmatic
User-agent: schema-validator
User-agent: sentry
User-agent: SirdataBot
User-agent: site24x7
User-agent: siteimprovebot
User-agent: Slack-ImgProxy
User-agent: Slackbot
User-agent: Slackbot-LinkExpanding
User-agent: smartologybot
User-agent: Snap URL Preview Service
User-agent: snapchat
User-agent: SocialFlow
User-agent: statuscake
User-agent: Taboolabot
User-agent: telegrambot
User-agent: thetradedesk
User-agent: Uptimebot
User-agent: YahooMailProxy
User-agent: yahoo-linkpreview
Disallow:

# Web Search Engines
==========================
User-agent: Googlebot
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
User-agent: Googlebot-News
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
User-agent: GoogleOther
User-agent: GoogleOther-Image
User-agent: GoogleOther-Video
User-agent: Bingbot
User-agent: bingpreview
User-agent: MicrosoftPreview
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
User-agent: Slurp
User-agent: yahoo
Disallow:
Disallow: /*?expand_comments=true
Disallow: /*&expand_comments=true
Disallow: /*/comments-*
Disallow: /*SIT*
Disallow: /*.swf
Disallow: /printpage/
Disallow: /archive/
Disallow: /tablet-t3/
Disallow: /enewsletters/
Disallow: /newsnetwork/
Disallow: /news/*/collection/*
Disallow: /myaustralian/
Disallow: /myaus/
Disallow: /app-route/
Disallow: /double-rainbow/
Disallow: /it-test-only/
Disallow: /business/stockhead/news/*/news-story/*
Disallow: /world/the-times/*/news-story/*
Disallow: /akam/
Disallow: /*?gclid=
Disallow: /*?utm_source=
Disallow: /*?utm_medium=
Disallow: /*?arena_mid=
Disallow: /*?matchid=
Disallow: /*?keyevent=
Disallow: /*?from=
Disallow: /*?nk=
Disallow: /*?sv=

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

# All remaining visitors
# ==========================
User-agent: *
Allow: /ads.txt
Allow: /app-ads.txt
Disallow: /


# ==========================
Sitemap: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news-sitemap.xml

sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 7255 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
177 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

177
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
B
CDN & Delivery
Akamai
REVIEW
Akamai
Info::
Site is served via Akamai CDN
Got: server header
CDN Detected: Akamai
Provider Akamai Evidence server header
A+
DNS Records
1 A records, 27 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 27 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 2.17.152.209
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
Has 5 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
Got: 2a02:26f0:e0:4b5::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4b4::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4a3::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4aa::ebe
Info::
6 nameserver(s) configured
Got: a12-67.akam.net, a8-67.akam.net, a5-66.akam.net, a13-64.akam.net, a18-65.akam.net, a1-246.akam.net
Info::
2 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: 27 ms
Got: 27 ms
A2.17.152.209
AAAA2a02:26f0:e0:4b5::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4b4::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4a3::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4aa::ebe
CNAME
NSa12-67.akam.net, a8-67.akam.net, a5-66.akam.net, a13-64.akam.net, a18-65.akam.net, a1-246.akam.net
MX
10 mxa-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com
10 mxb-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com
TXT
google-site-verification=h4loPEpBGeWmjei28LevemFVqr7NW5MDm9KAKM5tsgw
ZOOM_verify_pn8qcbpDQWmzxd4oY2j6dw
ValidationTokenValue=4afa5458-4d24-4792-bdd3-cb10bcdac260
google-site-verification=BS15fHorJvpm0RjwYGUH0v8pD9RnaYqkdkOZDCJHyY4
google-site-verification=BNLDhwmxfhPkLT5zW7goKDOceetpHRyPqi7zTuE9aME
knowbe4-site-verification=0694ce74005828dc4bb8b7299bfb6f61
google-site-verification=P3DX4jbsOovCwY0YWs6i6Qrhqb6dXyQICBnepUVl1c8
canva-site-verification=Y6KcpEOXe99TQxdT-5ettQ
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:spf-00596a01.pphosted.com include:amazons...
google-site-verification=O-EHXe9TbyCNqhVXmQ236ul-w8jG9nuwG8IGgqmitJ4
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 27 ms

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

Why this matters

Single A record means a single point of failure — if that IP goes down, your site is unreachable until DNS TTL expires.

Learn more

Add multiple A records for round-robin failover, or use a managed DNS provider with health-checked failover (Route 53, Cloudflare, NS1). Short TTL (60-300s) lets clients recover faster on outages.

Source: SRE practice / DNS architecture

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
1 redirect(s), 235 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 235 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://theaustralian.com.au → https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://theaustralian.com.au

56 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/

179 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://theaustralian.com.au30156 msHTTP/1.1AkamaiGHost
2https://www.theaustralian.com.au/403179 msHTTP/1.1AkamaiGHost

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
IPv6 Readiness
IPv6 reachable (0 ms)
PASS
IPv6 reachable (0 ms)
Info::
IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2a02:26f0:e0:4b5::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4b4::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4a3::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4aa::ebe
Got: 0 ms connect
IPv6 Ready
AAAA Records 2a02:26f0:e0:4b5::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4b4::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4a3::ebe, 2a02:26f0:e0:4aa::ebe Connection Reachable (0 ms)
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

403https://www.theaustralian.com.au/
200https://theaustralian.com.au/

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://theaustralian.com.au/ https://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
theaustralian.com.au — via Corporation Service Company (Aust) Pty Ltd
PASS
theaustralian.com.au — via Corporation Service Company (Aust) Pty Ltd
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: Corporation Service Company (Aust) Pty Ltd
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.
Domain expiry

Unknown

SSL certificate

177 days

Issued by DigiCert Inc

Domain age

Unknown

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe

Registrar

Corporation Service Company (Aust) Pty Ltd

Unlocked 8 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
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 Corporation Service Company (Aust) Pty Ltd
Last Updated March 15, 2026
Name Servers asia1.akam.net, ns1-24.akam.net, ns1-50.akam.net, usc1.akam.net, usc4.akam.net, usw1.akam.net, usw4.akam.net, usw5.akam.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 2a02:26f0:e0:4ad::ebe
Data source: rdap (0.9s)

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 430 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
28 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
0 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
368 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
431 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
431 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 28 ms TCP Connect 0 ms TLS Handshake 368 ms Server Processing 35 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
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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