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https://chron.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
75
GRADE
C
FIX
1
REVIEW
5
PASS
3
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
301 Moved Permanently
Checks
9
3 PASS 5 REVIEW 1 FIX
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.

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
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLs
REVIEW
robots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 981 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Warning::
sitemap.xml contains invalid XML
Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors.
Warning::
sitemap.xml is empty — no URLs found
An empty sitemap provides no value. Add <url> entries for your pages.
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap

Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors.

Why this matters

An unparseable sitemap is silently ignored by Google — the URLs it advertises are never queued for crawl.

Learn more

Google's sitemap parser is strict about XML validity. A single unescaped `&` or unclosed tag invalidates the whole file. Run your sitemap through a validator (Search Console's Sitemaps report flags it) and fix the offending entry. Most generators escape correctly; mistakes usually come from manually-written entries.

Source: sitemaps.org / Google Search Central

An empty sitemap provides no value. Add <url> entries for your pages.

Why this matters

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

robots.txt 200 OK
Size 981 B Sitemaps referenced 2 User-agents omgilibot, scrapy, youbot, anthropic-ai, cohere-ai, friendlycrawler, perplexitybot, webzio-extended, ai2bot-dolma, claudebot, diffbot, duckassistbot, omgili, perplexity-user, timpibot, kangaroo-bot, AmazonAdBot, *, applebot-extended, bytespider, ccbot, claude-user, claude-web Blocking No — crawling allowed
Sitemap: https://www.chron.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.chron.com/sitemap_news.xml

User-agent: ai2bot-dolma
User-agent: anthropic-ai
User-agent: applebot-extended
User-agent: bytespider
User-agent: ccbot
User-agent: claude-user
User-agent: claude-web
User-agent: claudebot
User-agent: cohere-ai
User-agent: diffbot
User-agent: duckassistbot
User-agent: friendlycrawler
User-agent: omgili
User-agent: omgilibot
User-agent: perplexity-user
User-agent: perplexitybot
User-agent: scrapy
User-agent: timpibot
User-agent: youbot
User-agent: webzio-extended
User-agent: kangaroo-bot
Disallow: /


User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /business/press-releases/
Disallow: /style/beauty/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /style/fashion/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /living/relationships/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /homeandgarden/home/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /living/wellness/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /adtest
Disallow: /events/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /413gkwMT/
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type URL Set URLs 0 entries Valid XML No
B
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
REVIEW
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
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.chron.com/
200https://chron.com/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://chron.com/ https://www.chron.com/

Consistent

B
Domain Intelligence
chron.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 36 years, 6 months old, hosted on AWS
REVIEW
chron.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 36 years, 6 months old, hosted on AWS
Critical::
Domain expires in 4 days
This domain expires on April 26, 2026. Domains that expire accidentally cause complete website downtime. Enable auto-renewal or renew manually now.
Got: Expires Apr 26, 2026
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: CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
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: AWS
Got: AS14618
Domain expiry

EXPIRED

April 26, 2026

SSL certificate

58 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

36 years, 6 months

Registered April 25, 1990

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS14618

34.235.224.231

Registrar

CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.

Unlocked 6 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Domain has EXPIRED — renew immediately to avoid total site outage
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
Created April 25, 1990 (36 years, 6 months ago)
Expires April 26, 2026 (4 days)
Last Updated April 22, 2025
Name Servers ns1.hearstnp.com, ns2.hearstnp.com, ns3.hearstnp.com, ns4.hearstnp.com, ns5.hearstnp.com, ns6.hearstnp.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 34.235.224.231
ASN AS14618 (AMAZON-AES - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
Data source: rdap (0.3s)

This domain expires on April 26, 2026. Domains that expire accidentally cause complete website downtime. Enable auto-renewal or renew manually now.

Why this matters

Domain expiry approaching — renew immediately and ensure auto-renew + alerting are configured.

Source: ICANN renewal policy

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

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

Certificate validity

58
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
4 A records, 769 ms lookup
PASS
4 A records, 769 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 4 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 34.235.224.231, 34.197.233.251, 34.198.86.45, 34.204.119.243
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
6 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns1.hearstnp.com, ns6.hearstnp.com, ns4.hearstnp.com, ns5.hearstnp.com, ns2.hearstnp.com, ns3.hearstnp.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
Warning::
DNS resolution is slow (769 ms)
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
Got: 769 ms
A34.235.224.231, 34.197.233.251, 34.198.86.45, 34.204.119.243
AAAA
CNAME
NSns1.hearstnp.com, ns6.hearstnp.com, ns4.hearstnp.com, ns5.hearstnp.com, ns2.hearstnp.com, ns3.hearstnp.com
MX
10 chron-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
TXT
google-site-verification=bXQzLawUcr2NB_HDsMFsxU1cV--kiYYdJn-HJeVvtv4
yahoo-verification-key=zA3Nqn0H+laGoHH+8YxAXtFTV8X/S4VTGb+MF08dJNE=
atlassian-domain-verification=FpL/aWW65m3p2lAjgu9uaxMnORyl2KLKjkSbpFUulvCwkkhAoy...
SPF v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ip4:52.6.112.187 ip4:40.121.143.48 inc...
tollbit-domain-verification=cb3e166ee5635536162db59939f9969aefb11a32f692a5820430...
116ef58d61d4455d83f77260151e74a4
google-site-verification=aJ2MhHWI44ROTEi_krRLvN5cB2jlbDtJ4IlH5JqxSWo
fmT4RBuqAmEaayOBIyQqqT1XrByTwF1Nz/OIuHpUPPDzgR16WgdwToze/9VmRkoFPEo9eznpyK+IgISS...
facebook-domain-verification=dvj23ngdiqij56l9mbzqims48rzkh1
adobe-idp-site-verification=3ebb0754e0941b0fd3e9cfe346802f5b6321a2a9bce74d7ffbce...
google-site-verification=KNCJcU_4btGFrC7f2kVfZXwdcqiw1VMbdEOnscC6mgo
google-site-verification=UyC1Qqx18w8w7fkOjMCMRnrRW7Or_Q-loD7gMk6TJnY
wiz-domain-verification=0e3f64ae733aea426d564e2b1f371803c5580f839d43fe821cbf0fe6...
BSI103498586397
openai-domain-verification=dv-x0a9Xxj4lFPLIFU1DqqKMO7R
facebook-domain-verification=lltlr9gtjadga1pofa4vyg0zxf8gju
cursor-domain-verification-dfngkc=TMVCGaKBTMhUdc3nwj00Jf8dJ
_globalsign-domain-verification=Iiihy-iv_vLdlIMtHvh-aCdqO2T53oCoknhW44njXn
anthropic-domain-verification-jcgwhx=gQ9vv9MGYH3o0dENlAqoWHHJT
0TQB6LCrglBd2seHa5tdhcjfMvx2WrnaKedLF0Q2vrBR33Lb5dJ8tWeb/985/x4nzCBtYw6Myc8uYzMZ...
e2ma-verification=y54eb
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 769 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.

Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.

Why this matters

DNS resolution is slow — anycast DNS providers (Cloudflare, Route 53) typically resolve <50ms globally.

Source: DNS performance benchmarks

A
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 464 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 464 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://chron.com → https://www.chron.com/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://chron.com

299 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.chron.com/

165 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://chron.com301299 msHTTP/1.1Apache/2.4.58
2https://www.chron.com/200165 msHTTP/1.1

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 452 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
156 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
99 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
100 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
453 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
453 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 156 ms TCP Connect 99 ms TLS Handshake 100 ms Server Processing 98 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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