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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
74
GRADE
C
FIX
3
REVIEW
3
PASS
3
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
3 PASS 3 REVIEW 3 FIX
F
IPv6 Readiness
Action
IPv6 records exist but unreachable
FIX
IPv6 records exist but unreachable
Warning::
IPv6 DNS records exist but server is not reachable
Having AAAA records but an unreachable server is worse than no AAAA — clients may experience delays before falling back to IPv4.
Got: 2001:49c8:8000:121d::78
Info::
IPv6 connection error
Got: dial tcp6 [2001:49c8:8000:121d::78]:443: i/o timeout
IPv6 Misconfigured
AAAA Records 2001:49c8:8000:121d::78 Connection UNREACHABLE

Having AAAA records but an unreachable server is worse than no AAAA — clients may experience delays before falling back to IPv4.

Why this matters

Advertising IPv6 (AAAA records) without a reachable server means IPv6-preferring clients silently fail every connection.

Learn more ▾

Modern browsers prefer IPv6 if AAAA exists (Happy Eyeballs algorithm). If the IPv6 server isn't reachable, browsers fall back to IPv4 — but with seconds of added latency per request. Either fix IPv6 reachability or remove the AAAA records.

Source: RFC 8305 (Happy Eyeballs)

D
URL Variants
Action
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
FIX
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Critical::
Both www and non-www versions serve content
Got: Both variants return 200 Expected: One variant 301-redirects to the other
Critical::
HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS
Got: HTTP 0 Expected: 301 redirect to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.usgs.gov/
200https://usgs.gov/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

http://usgs.gov/

HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS

D
CDN & Delivery
Action
No CDN detected
FIX
No CDN detected
Warning::
No CDN detected
A CDN can significantly improve load times for users around the world by caching content at edge nodes closer to them.
No CDN detected

Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.

B
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 3431 ms total
REVIEW
1 redirect(s), 3431 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://usgs.gov → https://www.usgs.gov/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Warning::
Redirect overhead: 3431 ms total
Got: 3431 ms

https://usgs.gov

997 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.usgs.gov/

2434 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://usgs.gov301997 msHTTP/1.1
2https://www.usgs.gov/2002434 msHTTP/1.1nginx

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

B
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 914 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
32 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
164 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
167 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
915 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
915 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 32 ms TCP Connect 164 ms TLS Handshake 167 ms Server Processing 552 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
142 days until leaf cert expires — 2 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

142
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Submit your domain to hstspreload.org to be added to the Chrome preload list
  • Enable OCSP stapling on your TLS server to remove a CA roundtrip and protect user privacy
A+
DNS Records
1 A records, 31 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 31 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 137.227.233.178
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
Has 1 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
Got: 2001:49c8:8000:121d::78
Info::
2 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ram.ns.cloudflare.com, chin.ns.cloudflare.com
Info::
1 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: 31 ms
Got: 31 ms
A137.227.233.178
AAAA2001:49c8:8000:121d::78
CNAME—
NSram.ns.cloudflare.com, chin.ns.cloudflare.com
MX
0 usgs-gov.mail.protection.outlook.com
TXT
_hbyfgt08dknxtua1v3f76s538skt43l
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.usgs.gov include:_spf.doi.gov include:spf.protection.outlook...
amazonses:iCXvgYeeCTBsNF5P4aaQq/gAJE3NWJAehnOg3OAoBJY=
docker-verification=0b575962-d656-47f4-8fd5-5175fe2f364b
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 31 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+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 77 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 77 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 1636 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 77 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 77 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 1636 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed
#
# robots.txt
#
# This file is to prevent the crawling and indexing of certain parts
# of your site by web crawlers and spiders run by sites like Yahoo!
# and Google. By telling these "robots" where not to go on your site,
# you save bandwidth and server resources.
#
# This file will be ignored unless it is at the root of your host:
# Used:    http://example.com/robots.txt
# Ignored: http://example.com/site/robots.txt
#
# For more information about the robots.txt standard, see:
# http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html

User-agent: *
# CSS, JS, Images
Allow: /core/*.css$
Allow: /core/*.css?
Allow: /core/*.js$
Allow: /core/*.js?
Allow: /core/*.gif
Allow: /core/*.jpg
Allow: /core/*.jpeg
Allow: /core/*.png
Allow: /core/*.svg
Allow: /profiles/*.css$
Allow: /profiles/*.css?
Allow: /profiles/*.js$
Allow: /profiles/*.js?
Allow: /profiles/*.gif
Allow: /profiles/*.jpg
Allow: /profiles/*.jpeg
Allow: /profiles/*.png
Allow: /profiles/*.svg
# Directories
Disallow: /core/
Disallow: /profiles/
# Files
Disallow: /README.txt
Disallow: /web.config
# Paths (clean URLs)
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /comment/reply/
Disallow: /filter/tips
Disallow: /node/add/
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /user/register/
Disallow: /user/password/
Disallow: /user/login/
Disallow: /user/logout/
# Paths (no clean URLs)
Disallow: /index.php/admin/
Disallow: /index.php/comment/reply/
Disallow: /index.php/filter/tips
Disallow: /index.php/node/add/
Disallow: /index.php/search/
Disallow: /index.php/user/password/
Disallow: /index.php/user/register/
Disallow: /index.php/user/login/
Disallow: /index.php/user/logout/

Sitemap: https://www.usgs.gov/sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 77 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
Domain Intelligence
usgs.gov — via get.gov, 28 years, 11 months old
PASS
usgs.gov — via get.gov, 28 years, 11 months old
Info::
Domain registered until Sep 2, 2026 (4 months remaining)
Info::
DNSSEC is enabled
Info::
Registrar: get.gov
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

50 days

September 2, 2026

SSL certificate

142 days

Issued by DigiCert Inc

Domain age

28 years, 11 months

Registered October 2, 1997

DNSSEC

Enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Unknown

2001:49c8:8000:121d::78

Registrar

get.gov

Unlocked 2 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Renew the domain or enable auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiry
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar get.gov
Created October 2, 1997 (28 years, 11 months ago)
Expires September 2, 2026 (4 months)
Last Updated September 7, 2025
Name Servers chin.ns.cloudflare.com, ram.ns.cloudflare.com
DNSSEC Enabled
Registrant REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Hosting
IP Address 2001:49c8:8000:121d::78
Data source: rdap (0.4s)

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

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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