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https://bobvila.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
85
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
3
PASS
5
INFO
0
Probed from New York, United Stated
301 Moved Permanently
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.

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
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.bobvila.com/
200https://bobvila.com/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://bobvila.com/ https://bobvila.com/

Consistent

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

Certificate validity

83
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
1 A records, 6 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 6 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 192.0.66.176
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns-1413.awsdns-48.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-208.awsdns-26.com, ns-940.awsdns-53.net
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: 6 ms
Got: 6 ms
A192.0.66.176
AAAA
CNAME
NSns-1413.awsdns-48.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-208.awsdns-26.com, ns-940.awsdns-53.net
MX
1 aspmx.l.google.com
2 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
3 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
4 aspmx2.googlemail.com
5 aspmx3.googlemail.com
TXT
_globalsign-domain-verification=VzRovTWhxjedMqXFfoiZ-UNRnlnuTXYHgjKemPNt33
google-site-verification=572UHbYSzRAgomLgb85wQOIvrft0kpjr5Z5Czm9ciec
google-site-verification=8_7QGNdEIMdI-bLI7u6qpRrGVnKUPhpt49L93_yrB5A
google-site-verification=9ROI-ZgDQO0vFIoTpJRqQ_RIbRobZhcUAiEx3BiIPGw
google-site-verification=LBYnVChICurzD-yX8JEbQvnpw2RBVWwXy9QKAdWedjg
google-site-verification=UsQEgs6kjaS4_N72cq-75GWN1LoMmhXIH9HQR5Up3sI
google-site-verification=_NLVIxcSgrvO7bvdhrPKdld6y14WRnObFLG5Z4hQrLw
google-site-verification=b3eyruFX_bvhsvaqSHExQqjAEUD13Sk9i7kOeqlssLo
google-site-verification=sb0CgSYVEjo-Eg8ZM_4fjEmcZAagKzAdYbc7_cYS87Q
pinterest-site-verification=b491413d66fb910688116decd61f6d86
tollbit-domain-verification=7d573571d9262ee7d5f7249fe117f3cc29c8e3f4305875ae06fe...
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:amazonses.com include:sendgrid.net ~all
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 6 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
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 21 ms total
PASS
1 redirect(s), 21 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://bobvila.com → https://www.bobvila.com/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect

https://bobvila.com

12 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.bobvila.com/

9 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://bobvila.com30112 msHTTP/1.1nginx
2https://www.bobvila.com/2009 msHTTP/1.1nginx

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 4 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 4 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 1270 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 4 entries
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 1270 B Sitemaps referenced 2 User-agents *, AmazonAdBot Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *

Disallow: /wp-admin/

Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

Disallow: /t/

Disallow: /11043633/

Disallow: /Shop/

Disallow: /blog_iframes/

Disallow: /wwwboard/

Disallow: /BBS/

Disallow: /user/

Disallow: /tags/sections/

Disallow: /thumbs-up/

Disallow: /marketplace/

Disallow: /community/

Disallow: /academy/

Disallow: /quizzes/

Disallow: /calendars/

Disallow: /contest/

Disallow: /topics/

Disallow: /articles/authors/

Disallow: /articles/wp-content/plugins/

Disallow: /posts/sections/

Disallow: /forum/sections/

Disallow: /pages/sections/

Disallow: /slideshows/52109-thank-you-for-entering-bob-vila-s-giveaway

Disallow: /find-a-contractor

Disallow: /articles/page/

Disallow: /articles/2012/

Disallow: /academy

Disallow: /articles/author/

Disallow: /marketplace

Disallow: /static/

Disallow: /community

Disallow: /news_items

Disallow: /shop

Disallow: /flooring-guide

Disallow: /newsletters/new

Disallow: /newsletters/archives

Disallow: /radio

Disallow: /launch-academy

Disallow: */Article

Disallow: /*=$

Allow: /_static/

Disallow: /forum

Disallow: /asearch

Disallow: /whats_new?


User-agent: AmazonAdBot

Allow: /


Sitemap: https://www.bobvila.com/sitemap-news.xml/

Sitemap: https://www.bobvila.com/sitemap_index.xml


A
Domain Intelligence
bobvila.com — via NameCheap, Inc., 30 years, 2 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
PASS
bobvila.com — via NameCheap, Inc., 30 years, 2 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
Warning::
Domain expires in 89 days
Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
Got: Expires Jul 21, 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: NameCheap, 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: WordPress.com (Automattic)
Got: AS2635
Domain expiry

35 days

July 21, 2026

SSL certificate

83 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

30 years, 2 months

Registered July 22, 1996

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

WordPress.com (Automattic)

ASN AS2635

192.0.66.176

Registrar

NameCheap, Inc.

Unlocked 4 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 DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar NameCheap, Inc.
Created July 22, 1996 (30 years, 2 months ago)
Expires July 21, 2026 (2 months)
Last Updated June 21, 2025
Name Servers ns-1413.awsdns-48.org, ns-2008.awsdns-59.co.uk, ns-208.awsdns-26.com, ns-940.awsdns-53.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 192.0.66.176
ASN AS2635 (AUTOMATTIC - Automattic, Inc, US)
Provider WordPress.com (Automattic)
Data source: rdap (0.1s)

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 11 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
4 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.
12 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
12 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 4 ms TCP Connect 1 ms TLS Handshake 4 ms Server Processing 2 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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