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.
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
Sitemap: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sitemap_news.xml
Sitemap: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/sitemap_projects.xml
Sitemap: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sitemap_devhub.xml
Sitemap: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/video-sitemap-index.xml
User-agent: ai2bot-dolma
User-agent: anthropic-ai
User-agent: applebot-extended
User-agent: bytespider
User-agent: ccbot
User-agent: claude-user
User-agent: claude-web
User-agent: claudebot
User-agent: cohere-ai
User-agent: diffbot
User-agent: duckassistbot
User-agent: friendlycrawler
User-agent: omgili
User-agent: omgilibot
User-agent: perplexity-user
User-agent: perplexitybot
User-agent: scrapy
User-agent: timpibot
User-agent: youbot
User-agent: webzio-extended
User-agent: kangaroo-bot
Disallow: /
User-agent: AmazonAdBot
Allow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow: /adtest
Disallow: /business/press-releases/
Disallow: /style/beauty/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /style/fashion/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /living/relationships/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /homeandgarden/home/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /living/wellness/hearstmagazines/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /413gkwMT/
BURL Variantswww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSREVIEW
www / non-www
Inconsistent — duplicate content risk
HTTP → HTTPS
Consistent
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations66 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
ADNS Records4 A records, 542 ms lookupPASS
| A | 34.204.119.243, 34.235.224.231, 34.197.233.251, 34.198.86.45 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | ns6.hearstnp.com, ns1.hearstnp.com, ns2.hearstnp.com, ns3.hearstnp.com, ns4.hearstnp.com, ns5.hearstnp.com |
| MX | 10 houstonchronicle-com.mail.protection.outlook.com |
| TXT | _globalsign-domain-verification=Iiihy-iv_vLdlIMtHvh-aCdqO2T53oCoknhW44njXn cursor-domain-verification-dx6fxp=SQ9WVOvTFaWfBvBwvcaeouWaA google-site-verification=yNhhBtcCVpKMPwN_YDI3t2muDf05Z-4PkhGvYeDtc-g BSI103498586397 atlassian-domain-verification=FpL/aWW65m3p2lAjgu9uaxMnORyl2KLKjkSbpFUulvCwkkhAoy... SPF v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ip4:205.220.176.159 ip4:205.220.164.15... adobe-idp-site-verification=3ebb0754e0941b0fd3e9cfe346802f5b6321a2a9bce74d7ffbce... anthropic-domain-verification-c7t3f2=1EjUbtryqIuRl6FvVBm0EFdZE 07045472dbc34812894c806254b7ff1e facebook-domain-verification=3mqkk15xp9e7zi1t3ng9ni4vc6trvq MS=ms49469399 google-site-verification=uFd7flqGw-fThOdSg8u69RLl8N65Ho3hVKxZOa1suFc google-site-verification=KhYgRD04eg6tCey-NDU5cSWf4OZhPmtyfYW5ZrON8Bw openai-domain-verification=dv-k2W8ERbzGD5Pjoi4f4CaScc5 tollbit-domain-verification=3013c0f959a2ce27d0ecced54d6c3552e1ecffc8f7394c0ad834... Z4wk2XidRXosTsKn9KOtfTTlbk7pFCx5KB2jmtJNuediZ4Jgx+43JvhZnEkN+AIHfrJfrasPClkokWXA... google-site-verification=ycnNhudzGSAotvpbiibPWEkQll8mPj5iLubnFvQ8Zhg |
| CAA | Lookup not available with standard resolver |
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.
Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider.
DNS resolution is slow — anycast DNS providers (Cloudflare, Route 53) typically resolve <50ms globally.
Source: DNS performance benchmarks
ARedirect Chain1 redirect(s), 433 ms totalPASS
https://houstonchronicle.com
235 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/
198 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://houstonchronicle.com | 301 | 235 ms | HTTP/1.1 | Apache/2.4.58 |
| 2 | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ | 200 | 198 ms | HTTP/1.1 |
See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →
ADomain Intelligencehoustonchronicle.com — via CSC Corporate Domains, Inc., 30 years, 2 months old, hosted on AWSPASS
EXPIRED
July 8, 2026
66 days
Issued by Let's Encrypt
30 years, 2 months
Registered July 9, 1996
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
AWS
ASN AS14618
34.198.86.45
CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.
Expiry timeline
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
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