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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
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from Santa Clara, United Stated
200 OK
Checks
9
5 PASS 3 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.

B
DNS Records
4 A records, 13 ms lookup
REVIEW
4 A records, 13 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 4 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 151.101.2.62, 151.101.194.62, 151.101.130.62, 151.101.66.62
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Warning::
CNAME record at zone apex
A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.
Got: domains.gannett.map.fastly.net
Info::
No NS records found
Info::
No MX records — email not configured via DNS
Info::
CAA records not checked
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Info::
No SPF record found in TXT records
SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.
Info::
DNS resolution time: 13 ms
Got: 13 ms
A151.101.2.62, 151.101.194.62, 151.101.130.62, 151.101.66.62
AAAA—
CNAMEdomains.gannett.map.fastly.net
NS—
MX—
TXT
google-site-verification=VITSYrr9-MjbuNo827848QUGIVp192LxuJAft28XE64
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 13 ms

A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.

Why this matters

CNAME at the apex (example.com) breaks every other apex record (MX, TXT, NS) — DNS-protocol violation per RFC 1034.

Learn more ▾

RFC 1034 forbids CNAME alongside other records at the same name. Some DNS providers offer ALIAS / ANAME / flattened-CNAME records that work around this — use those instead. Otherwise apex-level CNAME breaks email (no MX), domain ownership verification (no TXT), and more.

Source: RFC 1034

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.

SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.

Why this matters

Without SPF, receiving servers can't validate sending IPs — your domain is easier to spoof in phishing.

Learn more ▾

SPF complements DMARC. Both should be published. SPF records list authorized sending IPs (e.g., `v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all` for Google Workspace). After publishing, verify in Google Postmaster Tools or mxtoolbox.

Source: RFC 7208 (SPF)

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

C
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
Action
29 days until leaf cert expires — 5 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

29
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+
Renew soon — under 30 days remaining

Recommended actions

  • Renew certificate — 29 days remaining
  • Add includeSubDomains to the HSTS directive
  • Add the preload directive and submit to hstspreload.org once max-age + includeSubDomains are in place
  • 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+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://www.usatoday.com

https://www.usatoday.com

26 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://www.usatoday.com20026 msHTTP/1.1
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 563 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 563 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 6994 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 563 entries
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 6994 B Sitemaps referenced 7 User-agents Timpibot, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, ImagesiftBot, netEstate Imprint Crawler, TaraGroup Intelligent Bot, AmazonBot, Seekr, ChatGPT-User, AwarioSmartBot, Big Sur AI, AmazonAdBot, SBIntuitionsBot, FacebookBot, Claude-SearchBot, Google-CloudVertexBot, MojeekBot, Claude-Web, meta-externalagent, Bytespider, Crawlspace, Meltwater, MoodleBot, WARDBot, news-please, Applebot-Extended, AhrefsBot, Applebot, MJ12bot, Brandwatch, MauiBot, PanguBot, omgili, YouBot, Factset_spyderbot, imgproxy, magpie-crawler, Meta-ExternalAgent, LivelapBot, SeznamBot, ia_archiver, Turnitin, QualifiedBot, Scrapy, OAI-SearchBot, AspiegelBot, dotbot, https://www.imediaethics.org, NeticleBot, SemrushBot, Googlebot-News, cohere-training-data-crawler, yacybot, ChatGPT Operator, iaskspider, img2dataset, Amazon Kendra, ClaudeBot, coccocbot-web, Yandex, archive.org_bot, ia_archiver-web.archive.org, Cotoyogi, Grok, Diffbot, peer39_crawler, AI2Bot, YandexAdditional, Sidetrade, anthropic-ai, DigitalOceanGenAICrawler, TikTokSpider, DataForSeoBot, NovaAct, NewsNow, peer39_crawler/1.0, Arquivo-web-crawler, Barkrowler, DuckAssistBot, FriendlyCrawler, GPTBot, Claude-User, EchoboxBot, TurnitinBot, Ai2Bot-Dolma, iaskspider/2.0, Kangaroo Bot, Mojeek, PetalBot, LINER Bot, JenkersBot, VelenPublicWebCrawler, omgilibot, Meta-ExternalFetcher, Netvibes, SeekportBot, Sidetrade Indexer Bot, aiHitBot, MistralAI-User, SemrushBot-OCOB, CCBot, Google-Extended, crawler4j, YandexAdditionalBot, https://hada.news, yacy, ICC-Crawler, Bravest, ICC Crawler, ISSCyberRiskCrawler, Webzio-Extended, Echobot Bot, SemrushBotSwa, TaraGroup Intelligent Bot V1, *, AwarioRssBot Blocking No — crawling allowed
# robots.txt file for https://www.usatoday.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/
Allow: /shopping/

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/
Allow: /shopping/

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
Allow: /contributor-content/
Allow: /story/special/contributor-content/
Allow: /shopping/

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/
Allow: /shopping/

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/
Allow: /shopping/

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/
Allow: /shopping/

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/
Disallow: /money/homefront/
Disallow: /exp-cruise
Disallow: /exp-las-vegas2
Disallow: /exp-faw
Disallow: /exp-caribbean
Disallow: /exp-beach
Disallow: /exp-cruise2
Disallow: /yourtake
Disallow: /story/sports/ncaab/2014/03/20/ge-cfo-challenge-daniel-kelly-amfam/6661213/
Disallow: /story/2014/03/20/ge-cfo-challenge-david-bartlett-amway/6653003/
Disallow: /story/sports/ncaab/2014/03/20/ge-cfo-challenge-art-mccarthy-neulion/6655521/
Disallow: /story/sports/ncaab/2014/03/20/ge-cfo-challenge-david-gross-major-league-lacrosse/6646987/
Disallow: /money/lookup/stocks/
Disallow: /money/blueprint/archive/
Disallow: /money/blueprint/transfer?pname=

User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/news-sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/web-sitemap-index.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/video-sitemap-index.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/sitemap-news.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/online-betting/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.usatoday.com/online-betting/news-sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type URL Set URLs 563 entries Valid XML Yes
Sample URLs:
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: www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

200https://www.usatoday.com/
301https://usatoday.com/

Preferred variant: www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://www.usatoday.com/ → https://www.usatoday.com/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
usatoday.com — via GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC, 32 years, 4 months old, hosted on Fastly
PASS
usatoday.com — via GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC, 32 years, 4 months old, hosted on Fastly
Info::
Domain registered until Apr 30, 2027 (1 years, 1 months remaining)
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: GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC
Info::
Hosting: Fastly
Got: AS54113
Domain expiry

318 days

April 30, 2027

SSL certificate

29 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

32 years, 4 months

Registered April 29, 1994

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Fastly

ASN AS54113

151.101.42.62

Registrar

GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC

Lock status unknown 8 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Renew the TLS certificate or verify auto-renewal is working
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
Registrar GoDaddy Corporate Domains, LLC
Created April 29, 1994 (32 years, 4 months ago)
Expires April 30, 2027 (1 years, 1 months)
Last Updated March 31, 2026
Name Servers dns1.p04.nsone.net, dns2.p04.nsone.net, dns3.p04.nsone.net, dns4.p04.nsone.net, ns01.gannett-dns.com, ns02.gannett-dns.com, ns03.gannett-dns.com, ns04.gannett-dns.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 151.101.42.62
ASN AS54113 (FASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US)
Provider Fastly
Data source: rdap (0.2s)

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

A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 23 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
5 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
2 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
5 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
20 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
24 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 5 ms TCP Connect 2 ms TLS Handshake 5 ms Server Processing 9 ms Content Transfer 3 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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