Infrastructure
· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.FCrawlabilityActionrobots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLsFIX
Disallow: / for all user-agents prevents search engines from indexing any page. This will remove the site from search results.
Disallow: / in robots.txt blocks every search crawler — the site becomes invisible in organic search.
Learn more ▾ ▴
Common deployment mistake: a staging robots.txt with `User-agent: * / Disallow: /` ships to prod. The site falls out of search results within days. Verify your robots.txt is the production-intended version. If this is intentional (private site), no action needed.
Source: Google Search Central
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
# This is the robots.txt file for the-sun.com
# The Sun does not permit the unlicensed use of our content for large language models.
# News Enterprises' Terms of Use may be found at
# https://www.the-sun.com/terms-and-conditions/
# Contact enquiries@newslicensing.co.uk for assistance.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
# Sitemap archive
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap.xml
# Sitemaps
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/news-sitemap.xml
# Additional sitemaps
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-authors.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-post_tag.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-where.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-who.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-feeds.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-category.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-football-team-taxo.xml
Sitemap: https://www.the-sun.com/sitemap-nypost-vertical-video.xml
User-agent: Googlebot
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
User-agent: Googlebot-News
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
User-agent: GoogleOther
User-agent: APIs-Google
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
User-agent: Slurp
User-agent: Twitterbot
User-agent: Bingbot
User-agent: adidxbot
User-agent: MicrosoftPreview
User-agent: Applebot
User-agent: AdsBot-Google
User-agent: AmazonAdBot
User-agent: facebookexternalhit
User-agent: Yahoo Ad Monitoring
User-agent: parse.ly scraper
User-agent: Screaming Frog SEO Spider
User-agent: SemrushBot
User-agent: Botify
User-agent: OnCrawl
User-agent: Chrome-Lighthouse
User-agent: Slackbot-LinkExpanding
User-agent: Slack-ImgProxy
User-agent: Slackbot
User-agent: Snap URL Preview Service
User-agent: proximic
User-agent: GumGum-Bot
User-agent: TTD-Content
User-agent: Pubmatic
User-agent: ias_crawler
User-agent: outbrain
User-agent: Leikibot
User-agent: weborama-fetcher
User-agent: AHC/2.1
User-agent: SirdataBot
User-agent: peer39_crawler/1.0
User-agent: EchoboxBot/1.0
User-agent: CriteoBot/0.1
User-agent: AdDefend Site Context Crawler/1.0
User-agent: SmartologyBot
User-agent: Dianomi
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
User-agent: GPTBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
Allow: /ads.txt
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Disallow: /search/
Disallow: /horoscope/
Disallow: /*?x=
Disallow: /*?action=
Disallow: /*&action=
Disallow: /*?adid=
Disallow: /*&adid=
Disallow: /*?bitrate=
Disallow: /*&bitrate=
Disallow: /*?channel=
Disallow: /*&channel=
Disallow: /*?clipid=
Disallow: /*&clipid=
Disallow: /*?contentCollection=
Disallow: /*&contentCollection=
Disallow: /*?contentId=
Disallow: /*&contentId=
Disallow: /*?ei=
Disallow: /*&ei=
Disallow: /*?format=
Disallow: /*&format=
Disallow: /*?height=
Disallow: /*&height=
Disallow: /*?iframe=
Disallow: /*&iframe=
Disallow: /*?mediaId=
Disallow: /*&mediaId=
Disallow: /*?module=
Disallow: /*&module=
Disallow: /*?monthnum=
Disallow: /*&monthnum=
Disallow: /*?pgtype=
Disallow: /*&pgtype=
Disallow: /*?preview=
Disallow: /*&preview=
Disallow: /*?priority=
Disallow: /*&priority=
Disallow: /*?sa=
Disallow: /*&sa=
Disallow: /*?section=
Disallow: /*§ion=
Disallow: /*?share=
Disallow: /*&share=
Disallow: /*?TB_iframe=
Disallow: /*&TB_iframe=
Disallow: /*?TBL_Prod100Page=
Disallow: /*&TBL_Prod100Page=
Disallow: /*?theme_preview=
Disallow: /*&theme_preview=
Disallow: /*?usg=
Disallow: /*&usg=
Disallow: /*?ved=
Disallow: /*&ved=
Disallow: /*?version=
Disallow: /*&version=
Disallow: /*?VID=
Disallow: /*&VID=
Disallow: /*?vxBitrate=
Disallow: /*&vxBitrate=
Disallow: /*?vxChannel=
Disallow: /*&vxChannel=
Disallow: /*?vxClipId=
Disallow: /*&vxClipId=
Disallow: /*?vxSiteId=
Disallow: /*&vxSiteId=
Disallow: /*?width=
Disallow: /*&width=
Disallow: /*?year=
Disallow: /*&year=
Disallow: /*.xml?uuid=
Disallow: /*?post_type=feedback&p=
Disallow: /*?wptouch_preview_theme=
Disallow: /*>
Disallow: /?attachment_id=
Disallow: /affiliate/
Disallow: /ai_log/
Disallow: /*?*pg99.asia*
Disallow: /*&*pg99.asia*
Disallow: /*?*gg155.cn*
Disallow: /*&*gg155.cn*
Disallow: /*?*To66.Asia*
Disallow: /*&*To66.Asia*
Disallow: /*horseracing/racecards/2019*
Disallow: /*horseracing/racecards/2020*
Disallow: /*horseracing/racecards/2021*
Disallow: /*horseracing/racecards/2022*
Disallow: /*horseracing/results/2019*
Disallow: /*horseracing/results/2020*
Disallow: /*horseracing/results/2021*
Disallow: /*horseracing/results/2022*
Disallow: /simwidgets/
Disallow: /player/brightcove/
Disallow: /*?s=*
Disallow: *&s=*
Disallow: /?p=*
Disallow: /sso/login/
Disallow: /wp-login.php
Disallow: /amp-tealium/
Disallow: /archives/
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
BURL Variantswww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSREVIEW
www / non-www
Inconsistent — duplicate content risk
HTTP → HTTPS
Consistent
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations80 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to addressREVIEW
Certificate validity
Recommended actions
- Submit your domain to hstspreload.org to be added to the Chrome preload list
- 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, 34 ms lookupPASS
| A | 192.0.66.136 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | ns-80.awsdns-10.com, ns-1330.awsdns-38.org, ns-742.awsdns-28.net, ns-1597.awsdns-07.co.uk |
| MX | 1 mxa-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com 10 mxb-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com |
| TXT | google-site-verification=s8JSP6x5Q8vJ_WfbOsl0uvid2ZsrsRgfjaHQ-WtGEkY google-site-verification=MJbQDNjSWmGxcFaqFszP108q3mqcIPvq2FBUl_fY2rU atlassian-domain-verification=uNoIhBXurxzVlQa0FvK2t9Yld5byfvXbFRQaMToGvrieKjBdyl... google-site-verification=KQXbITf4n-859fVcDDOWqa_laa2Qy7Ur88gk7XUwOGs adobe-idp-site-verification=564934793fede20477f3d065060f7c1557b4fd1d8343e33fea1c... ValidationTokenValue=8a71a208-7938-42a9-af65-7bc59a9f48a6 google-site-verification=S60Z39RfTGrakn_rbDBRjXy7QMm4VkMuQhAPuckh_nI SPF v=spf1 include:%{ir}.%{v}.%{d}.spf.has.pphosted.com include:spf-00596a03.pphoste... facebook-domain-verification=zd3xi9ro6x73uajm23hl97zuq64l2j 9tf5bc1bcqls3ss4gk46ck8zzrdty592 google-site-verification=5Uq7W0PnHkWV73dUOqcNnCHS0_tOyY3p7LrfnzimsJo google-site-verification=QxCS3vGryLxLffUk99aa676KaKfFXEUjhXh2xd0nW1o-WtGEkY ZOOM_verify_VWVssfZHTFOZoHxKqI7j6w |
| 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.
ARedirect Chain1 redirect(s), 150 ms totalPASS
https://the-sun.com
5 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://www.the-sun.com/
145 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://the-sun.com | 302 | 5 ms | HTTP/1.1 | nginx |
| 2 | https://www.the-sun.com/ | 200 | 145 ms | HTTP/1.1 | CloudFront |
See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →
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
A+Domain Intelligencethe-sun.com — via MarkMonitor Inc., 29 years, 4 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)PASS
667 days
May 15, 2028
80 days
Issued by Let's Encrypt
29 years, 4 months
Registered May 14, 1997
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
WordPress.com (Automattic)
ASN AS2635
192.0.66.136
MarkMonitor Inc.
Expiry timeline
Recommended actions
- Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
- Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
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