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Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
90
GRADE
A
FIX
0
REVIEW
2
PASS
7
INFO
0
Probed from New York, United Stated
302 Found
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
81 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

81
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Submit your domain to hstspreload.org to be added to the Chrome preload list
  • 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, 15 ms lookup
PASS
4 A records, 15 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 4 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 151.101.66.132, 151.101.194.132, 151.101.2.132, 151.101.130.132
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
9 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns1.dnsimple.com, ns1.dnsunlimited.com, ns2.dnsimple-edge.net, ns2.dnsunlimited.com, ns3.dnsimple.com, ns3.dnsunlimited.com, ns4.dnsimple-edge.org, ns4.dnsunlimited.com, ns5.dnsunlimited.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: 15 ms
Got: 15 ms
A151.101.66.132, 151.101.194.132, 151.101.2.132, 151.101.130.132
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSns1.dnsimple.com, ns1.dnsunlimited.com, ns2.dnsimple-edge.net, ns2.dnsunlimited.com, ns3.dnsimple.com, ns3.dnsunlimited.com, ns4.dnsimple-edge.org, ns4.dnsunlimited.com, ns5.dnsunlimited.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
facebook-domain-verification=l382f2v2i1nfui3f9jbe5qld3rw0sn
apple-domain-verification=WkMT4MJWjWcC3csbzo4R7AbUZrneLNY8q0f-CEvQVx0
slack-domain-verification=xUFyQGptIuaQbvz9gupfRkniC06SlIx4cJR12oHf
google-site-verification=I4BlH49DCiuGk2QNXZ4-nOEyAf2wEjw0h1ac82P_L-M
google-site-verification=SZ8cH6X7qBl3jqP1tnJQcWxmU9RbB96EtF0IGvlH52M
canva-site-verification=Nj-Dsc0AEOP995BTs5wNDw
apple-domain-verification=uL1NfC5eZbnNS5tR
atlassian-domain-verification=gyeGKvuGtcVsT6g58QJ89G7Bhzguj7jCXWBIpmxCaunkiOPNzl...
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:_spf.salesforce.com ip4:23.21.109.197 ip4...
airtable-verification=8e02fcd1848b05d74ddd6dcc2a68033e
stripe-verification=B50ABDD36E5F58827640B20817D99EE3262800925AFF6EE19E11832682C1...
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 15 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
1 redirect(s), 66 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 66 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://theconversation.com → https://theconversation.com/us (302)
Info::
Uses 302 (temporary) redirect
If permanent, use 301 instead.
Got: https://theconversation.com

https://theconversation.com

54 ms · HTTP/1.1

302

https://theconversation.com/us

12 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://theconversation.com30254 msHTTP/1.1nginx
2https://theconversation.com/us20012 msHTTP/1.1nginx

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

If permanent, use 301 instead.

Why this matters

302 (Found) is for genuinely temporary redirects — if this redirect is permanent, switch to 301 to preserve SEO equity.

Learn more ▾

Search engines treat 302 as temporary, keeping the original URL indexed and not transferring full link equity to the destination. Use 301 (Moved Permanently) for permanent redirects (HTTP→HTTPS, www-vs-non-www, URL restructures).

Source: Google Search Central

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 225 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 225 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 4598 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 225 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 225 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 4598 B Sitemaps referenced 15 User-agents ZanistaBot, Crawl4AI, Claude-User, Google-NotebookLM, GPTBot, MyCentralAIScraperBot, Amazonbot, Anomura, Applebot, bedrockbot, MistralAI-User/1.0, panscient.com, Operator, Panscient, Spider, AzureAI-SearchBot, Google-Extended, GoogleAgent-Mariner, AmazonBuyForMe, GoogleOther-Image, PanguBot, YouBot, Claude-Web, TikTokSpider, Brightbot 1.0, Thinkbot, Timpibot, TwinAgent, AI2Bot, bigsur.ai, Webzio-Extended, Ai2Bot-Dolma, Autn-WKOOP, Claude-SearchBot, LinkupBot, Manus-User, meta-webindexer, Factset_spyderbot, Channel3Bot, Crawlspace, Echobot Bot, EchoboxBot, FirecrawlAgent, ImagesiftBot, DeepSeekBot, quillbot.com, TavilyBot, wpbot, YandexAdditionalBot, FriendlyCrawler, HawaiiBot, img2dataset, laion-huggingface-processor, OAI-SearchBot, omgili, Scrapy, AI2Bot-DeepResearchEval, Awario, IbouBot, barkrowler, Bravebot, Diffbot, Perplexity-User, Sidetrade indexer bot, Applebot-Extended, Datenbank Crawler, SemrushBot-OCOB, SemrushBot-SWA, Devin, FacebookBot, ISSCyberRiskCrawler, Amzn-User, Google-Firebase, LAIONDownloader, meta-externalfetcher, WRTNBot, atlassian-bot, GoogleOther, meta-externalagent, ChatGPT Agent, Cotoyogi, NagetBot, AliyunSecBot/Aliyun, Gemini-Deep-Research, NotebookLM, cohere-training-data-crawler, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, dobot, Poggio-Citations, SBIntuitionsBot, MistralAI-User, PhindBot, *, CloudVertexBot, GoogleOther-Video, iAskBot, Kangaroo Bot, KlaviyoAIBot, BuddyBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, iaskspider, LinerBot, netEstate Imprint Crawler, PetalBot, Amzn-SearchBot, CCBot, iaskspider/2.0, omgilibot, Andibot, Bytespider, Google-CloudVertexBot, ICC-Crawler, LCC, OpenAI, ShapBot, VelenPublicWebCrawler, Cloudflare-AutoRAG, kagi-fetcher, TerraCotta, WARDBot, Poseidon Research Crawler, QualifiedBot, AddSearchBot, QuillBot, YaK, YandexAdditional, amazon-kendra, ChatGLM-Spider, DuckAssistBot, imageSpider, NovaAct, aiHitBot, anthropic-ai, KunatoCrawler, Linguee Bot Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-Agent: *
Disallow: /metrics/
Disallow: /auth/
Disallow: /content/
Disallow: /comments/*
Disallow: /sign_in?
Disallow: /sign_up?
Disallow: /become-an-author?
Disallow: /profiles/*/articles
Disallow: /profiles/*/activities
Disallow: /*/search?
Disallow: /experts/search?
Disallow: /experts/search/*
Disallow: /pb/*

Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/africa/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/au/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/br/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/ca/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/ca-fr/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/catalan/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/es/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/europe/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/fr/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/global/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/id/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/nz/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/uk/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://theconversation.com/us/sitemap_news.xml

User-agent: AddSearchBot
User-agent: AI2Bot
User-agent: AI2Bot-DeepResearchEval
User-agent: Ai2Bot-Dolma
User-agent: aiHitBot
User-agent: AliyunSecBot/Aliyun
User-agent: amazon-kendra
User-agent: Amazonbot
User-agent: AmazonBuyForMe
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
User-agent: Amzn-User
User-agent: Andibot
User-agent: Anomura
User-agent: anthropic-ai
User-agent: Applebot
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
User-agent: atlassian-bot
User-agent: Autn-WKOOP
User-agent: Awario
User-agent: AzureAI-SearchBot
User-agent: barkrowler
User-agent: bedrockbot
User-agent: bigsur.ai
User-agent: Bravebot
User-agent: Brightbot 1.0
User-agent: BuddyBot
User-agent: Bytespider
User-agent: CCBot
User-agent: Channel3Bot
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider
User-agent: ChatGPT Agent
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-User
User-agent: Claude-Web
User-agent: ClaudeBot
User-agent: Cloudflare-AutoRAG
User-agent: CloudVertexBot
User-agent: cohere-ai
User-agent: cohere-training-data-crawler
User-agent: Cotoyogi
User-agent: Crawl4AI
User-agent: Crawlspace
User-agent: Datenbank Crawler
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
User-agent: Devin
User-agent: Diffbot
User-agent: dobot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
User-agent: Echobot Bot
User-agent: EchoboxBot
User-agent: FacebookBot
User-agent: Factset_spyderbot
User-agent: FirecrawlAgent
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
User-agent: Gemini-Deep-Research
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
User-agent: Google-Extended
User-agent: Google-Firebase
User-agent: Google-NotebookLM
User-agent: GoogleAgent-Mariner
User-agent: GoogleOther
User-agent: GoogleOther-Image
User-agent: GoogleOther-Video
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: HawaiiBot
User-agent: iAskBot
User-agent: iaskspider
User-agent: iaskspider/2.0
User-agent: IbouBot
User-agent: ICC-Crawler
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
User-agent: imageSpider
User-agent: img2dataset
User-agent: ISSCyberRiskCrawler
User-agent: kagi-fetcher
User-agent: Kangaroo Bot
User-agent: KlaviyoAIBot
User-agent: KunatoCrawler
User-agent: laion-huggingface-processor
User-agent: LAIONDownloader
User-agent: LCC
User-agent: LinerBot
User-agent: Linguee Bot
User-agent: LinkupBot
User-agent: Manus-User
User-agent: meta-externalagent
User-agent: meta-externalfetcher
User-agent: meta-webindexer
User-agent: MistralAI-User
User-agent: MistralAI-User/1.0
User-agent: MyCentralAIScraperBot
User-agent: NagetBot
User-agent: netEstate Imprint Crawler
User-agent: NotebookLM
User-agent: NovaAct
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: omgili
User-agent: omgilibot
User-agent: OpenAI
User-agent: Operator
User-agent: PanguBot
User-agent: Panscient
User-agent: panscient.com
User-agent: Perplexity-User
User-agent: PerplexityBot
User-agent: PetalBot
User-agent: PhindBot
User-agent: Poggio-Citations
User-agent: Poseidon Research Crawler
User-agent: QualifiedBot
User-agent: QuillBot
User-agent: quillbot.com
User-agent: SBIntuitionsBot
User-agent: Scrapy
User-agent: SemrushBot-OCOB
User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA
User-agent: ShapBot
User-agent: Sidetrade indexer bot
User-agent: Spider
User-agent: TavilyBot
User-agent: TerraCotta
User-agent: Thinkbot
User-agent: TikTokSpider
User-agent: Timpibot
User-agent: TwinAgent
User-agent: VelenPublicWebCrawler
User-agent: WARDBot
User-agent: Webzio-Extended
User-agent: wpbot
User-agent: WRTNBot
User-agent: YaK
User-agent: YandexAdditional
User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
User-agent: YouBot
User-agent: ZanistaBot
Disallow: /
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 225 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.theconversation.com/
200https://theconversation.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

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

Consistent

A
Domain Intelligence
theconversation.com — via 1API GmbH, 23 years, 2 months old, hosted on Fastly
PASS
theconversation.com — via 1API GmbH, 23 years, 2 months old, hosted on Fastly
Warning::
Domain expires in 37 days
Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
Got: Expires May 29, 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: 1API GmbH
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: Fastly
Got: AS54113
Domain expiry

EXPIRED

May 29, 2026

SSL certificate

81 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

23 years, 2 months

Registered May 29, 2003

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Fastly

ASN AS54113

151.101.66.132

Registrar

1API GmbH

Unlocked 9 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 1API GmbH
Created May 29, 2003 (23 years, 2 months ago)
Expires May 29, 2026 (1 months)
Last Updated November 22, 2025
Name Servers ns1.dnsimple.com, ns1.dnsunlimited.com, ns2.dnsimple-edge.net, ns2.dnsunlimited.com, ns3.dnsimple.com, ns3.dnsunlimited.com, ns4.dnsimple-edge.org, ns4.dnsunlimited.com, ns5.dnsunlimited.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 151.101.66.132
ASN AS54113 (FASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US)
Provider Fastly
Data source: rdap (2.1s)

Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.

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

A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 51 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
2 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.
4 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
51 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
51 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 2 ms TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 4 ms Server Processing 44 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
A
CDN & Delivery
Fastly (MISS, MISS)
PASS
Fastly (MISS, MISS)
Info::
Site is served via Fastly CDN
Got: x-served-by: cache-chi-kigq8000165-CHI, cache-lga21981-LGA
Info::
CDN cache status: MISS, MISS
CDN Detected: Fastly
Provider Fastly Cache Status MISS, MISS Evidence x-served-by: cache-chi-kigq8000165-CHI, cache-lga21981-LGA
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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