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https://britannica.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
82
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
5
PASS
3
INFO
0
Probed from Singapore, Singapore
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.

B
Redirect Chain
1 redirect(s), 1220 ms total
REVIEW
1 redirect(s), 1220 ms total
Info::
Single redirect
Got: https://britannica.com → https://www.britannica.com:443/ (301)
Info::
WWW normalization redirect
Warning::
Redirect overhead: 1220 ms total
Got: 1220 ms

https://britannica.com

1123 ms · HTTP/1.1

301

https://www.britannica.com:443/

97 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://britannica.com3011123 msHTTP/1.1awselb/2.0
2https://www.britannica.com:443/20097 msHTTP/1.1cloudflare

See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →

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.britannica.com/
200https://britannica.com/

Inconsistent — duplicate content risk

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://britannica.com/ → https://www.britannica.com:443/

Consistent

B
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 1093 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
REVIEW
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
104 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
247 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
496 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
1.09 s
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
1.09 s

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 104 ms TCP Connect 247 ms TLS Handshake 496 ms Server Processing 247 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
146 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

146
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Prefer TLS 1.3 — TLS 1.2 is acceptable but TLS 1.3 removes RSA key exchange and improves latency
  • 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
2 A records, 114 ms lookup
PASS
2 A records, 114 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 2 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 100.26.177.151, 100.29.66.123
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
4 nameserver(s) configured
Got: ns-1050.awsdns-03.org, ns-1567.awsdns-03.co.uk, ns-243.awsdns-30.com, ns-829.awsdns-39.net
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::
SPF record present in TXT
Info::
DNS resolution time: 114 ms
Got: 114 ms
A100.26.177.151, 100.29.66.123
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSns-1050.awsdns-03.org, ns-1567.awsdns-03.co.uk, ns-243.awsdns-30.com, ns-829.awsdns-39.net
MX—
TXT
ca3-34d513380a624c15b1894f20512d2ca8
ca3-5187b5f7e89c48ce9ac11ac4ad4ba681
facebook-domain-verification=yx5oj1072bsq69m7blcnrkktdu6h4h
google-site-verification=3qlcdPLjaLxZmTfGmv2-7hXoRu7HWw7Sx--a2KgIoN0
google-site-verification=iCsMOBxTnqow6GNvW0LQ292qIMjLqMXwpQ6tOfIZgY4
google-site-verification=k10aAIZQu5EjFbrh-ABW-9q9phYyigXf-211snaxdg4
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com exists:%{i}._spf.sparkpostmail.com ~all
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 114 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+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 110 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 110 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 834 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 110 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 110 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 834 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents IAS_admantx, IAS_wombles, SlickBot, AdsBot-Google, CriteoBot, IAS_crawler, Peer39_crawler, PubMatic Crawler Bot, Mediapartners-Google, DVBot, Grapeshot, Proximic, Bidswitchbot, DoubleVerifyBot, Leikibot, Opebot-v, SinceraSyntheticUser, TTD-Content, *, AmazonAdBot, Gumgum Blocking No — crawling allowed
# /robots.txt file for encyclopaedia britannica 

Sitemap: https://www.britannica.com/bps-ssl-gsm-index.xml 

User-agent: * 
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /cdn-cgi/

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Allow: /
User-agent: AdsBot-Google
Allow: /
User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Bidswitchbot
Allow: /
User-agent: CriteoBot
Allow: /
User-agent: DoubleVerifyBot
Allow: /
User-agent: DVBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Grapeshot
Allow: /
User-agent: Gumgum
Allow: /
User-agent: IAS_admantx
Allow: /
User-agent: IAS_crawler
Allow: /
User-agent: IAS_wombles
Allow: /
User-agent: Leikibot
Allow: /
User-agent: Opebot-v
Allow: /
User-agent: Peer39_crawler
Allow: /
User-agent: Proximic
Allow: /
User-agent: PubMatic Crawler Bot
Allow: /
User-agent: SinceraSyntheticUser
Allow: /
User-agent: SlickBot
Allow: /
User-agent: TTD-Content
Allow: /
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 110 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A
Domain Intelligence
britannica.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 31 years, 3 months old, hosted on AWS
PASS
britannica.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 31 years, 3 months old, hosted on AWS
Warning::
Domain expires in 57 days
Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
Got: Expires Jun 13, 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

June 13, 2026

SSL certificate

146 days

Issued by Amazon

Domain age

31 years, 3 months

Registered June 14, 1995

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS14618

100.26.177.151

Registrar

CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.

Unlocked 4 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 June 14, 1995 (31 years, 3 months ago)
Expires June 13, 2026 (1 months)
Last Updated June 9, 2025
Name Servers ns-1050.awsdns-03.org, ns-1567.awsdns-03.co.uk, ns-243.awsdns-30.com, ns-829.awsdns-39.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 100.26.177.151
ASN AS14618 (AMAZON-AES - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
Data source: rdap (1.1s)

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

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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