Infrastructure
· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.DCDN & DeliveryActionNo CDN detectedFIX
Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.
BRedirect Chain2 redirect(s), 99 ms totalREVIEW
https://desmoinesregister.com
50 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/
14 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/
35 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://desmoinesregister.com | 301 | 50 ms | HTTP/1.1 | |
| 2 | https://www.desmoinesregister.com/ | 302 | 14 ms | HTTP/1.1 | |
| 3 | https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/ | 200 | 35 ms | HTTP/1.1 |
See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →
Each redirect adds latency. Try to minimize the chain to 1 hop.
Redirect chain — each hop adds latency; combine into one redirect where possible.
Source: Google Search Central / web.dev
If permanent, use 301 instead.
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
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
BCrawlabilityrobots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLsREVIEW
Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors.
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.
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 file for https://www.desmoinesregister.com/
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: AmazonBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /
User-agent: cohere-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: Googlebot-News
Disallow: /story/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /picture-gallery/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /videos/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /longform/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /pages/interactives/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /interactives/sponsor-story/
Disallow: /videos/embed/
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Diffbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: magpie-crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: NewsNow
Disallow: /
User-agent: news-please
Disallow: /
User-agent: omgili
Disallow: /
User-agent: omgilibot
Disallow: /
User-agent: peer39_crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: peer39_crawler/1.0
Disallow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: Scrapy
Disallow: /
User-agent: TurnitinBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
Disallow: /
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-User
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: AI2Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Ai2Bot-Dolma
Disallow: /
User-agent: Applebot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Arquivo-web-crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: AspiegelBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: AwarioRssBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: AwarioSmartBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Barkrowler
Disallow: /
User-agent: coccocbot-web
Disallow: /
User-agent: cohere-training-data-crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: crawler4j
Disallow: /
User-agent: Crawlspace
Disallow: /
User-agent: dotbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FriendlyCrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: https://hada.news
Disallow: /
User-agent: https://www.imediaethics.org
Disallow: /
User-agent: iaskspider/2.0
Disallow: /
User-agent: ICC-Crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: img2dataset
Disallow: /
User-agent: ISSCyberRiskCrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: JenkersBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Kangaroo Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: LivelapBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: MauiBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Meltwater
Disallow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher
Disallow: /
User-agent: MJ12bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Mojeek
Disallow: /
User-agent: MojeekBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: MoodleBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: NeticleBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Netvibes
Disallow: /
User-agent: PanguBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: PetalBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: SeekportBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Seekr
Disallow: /
User-agent: SemrushBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: SeznamBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Timpibot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Turnitin
Disallow: /
User-agent: VelenPublicWebCrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Webzio-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: yacy
Disallow: /
User-agent: yacybot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Yandex
Disallow: /
User-agent: YandexAdditional
Disallow: /
User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: YouBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
User-agent: archive.org_bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ia_archiver-web.archive.org
Disallow: /
User-agent: aiHitBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Amazon Kendra
Disallow: /
User-agent: Big Sur AI
Disallow: /
User-agent: Brandwatch
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bravest
Disallow: /
User-agent: ChatGPT Operator
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
User-agent: Cotoyogi
Disallow: /
User-agent: DigitalOceanGenAICrawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: Echobot Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: EchoboxBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Factset_spyderbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Grok
Disallow: /
User-agent: iaskspider
Disallow: /
User-agent: ICC Crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: imgproxy
Disallow: /
User-agent: LINER Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: MistralAI-User
Disallow: /
User-agent: netEstate Imprint Crawler
Disallow: /
User-agent: NovaAct
Disallow: /
User-agent: QualifiedBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: SBIntuitionsBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: SemrushBot-OCOB
Disallow: /
User-agent: SemrushBotSwa
Disallow: /
User-agent: Sidetrade
Disallow: /
User-agent: TikTokSpider
Disallow: /
User-agent: WARDBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: TaraGroup Intelligent Bot V1
Disallow: /
User-agent: TaraGroup Intelligent Bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow: /errors
Disallow: /interactive/
Disallow: /userauth/
Disallow: /ugc/
Disallow: /feeds/
Disallow: /services/
Disallow: /facebook/
Disallow: /version-info/
Disallow: /longform/draft/
Disallow: /story/draft/
Disallow: /topic/*/smart/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /module-showcase/
Disallow: /newsletter/
Disallow: /blended-newsletter/
Disallow: /story/nletter/
Disallow: /sports/services/photos/
Disallow: /optimus
Disallow: /ux-train
Disallow: /story/advisory/
Disallow: /.cam-tangent/
Disallow: /pbd/
Disallow: /gciaf/
Disallow: /gcdn/gciaf/
Disallow: /dcc/
Disallow: /gcdn/dcc/
Disallow: /dc/
Disallow: /gcdn/dc/
Disallow: /dcjs/
Disallow: /gcdn/dcjs/
Disallow: /content-queries/
Disallow: /zxc/
User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/news-sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/web-sitemap-index.xml
Sitemap: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/video-sitemap-index.xml
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations71 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 Records1 A records, 19 ms lookupPASS
| A | 140.248.134.62 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | dns1.p02.nsone.net, dns2.p02.nsone.net, dns3.p02.nsone.net, dns4.p02.nsone.net, ns01.gannett-dns.com, ns02.gannett-dns.com, ns03.gannett-dns.com, ns04.gannett-dns.com |
| MX | — |
| TXT | SPF v=spf1 include:spf.mandrillapp.com include:spf.gannett.com include:cust-spf.exac... facebook-domain-verification=0w77xifv06j5oeqjxh56tigl8s56me google-site-verification=ffI7bd2nHBME3C237kXBiD2j-aHI_EfgjP92iLcDIG8 6wfzq51pqzgfnfhv85c44yq18hqbwmzd brave-ledger-verification=374357678094daa736f4780dd0d3335efd8f0d39a5c1e276e583c6... tollbit-domain-verification=1c9a269001579a4fd089dedea1f06aa1e53e7844d0db7077eb48... |
| CAA | Lookup not available with standard resolver |
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
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.
Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.
A+URL Variantswww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSPASS
www / non-www
Preferred variant: non-www
HTTP → HTTPS
Consistent
ADomain Intelligencedesmoinesregister.com — via GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC, 28 years, 1 months old, hosted on FastlyPASS
36 days
July 20, 2026
71 days
Issued by Let's Encrypt
28 years, 1 months
Registered July 21, 1998
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
Fastly
ASN AS54113
140.248.134.62
GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC
Expiry timeline
Recommended actions
- Renew the domain or enable auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiry
- Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
- Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
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.
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