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
CCrawlabilityActionrobots.txt present, sitemap with 352 URLsREVIEW
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
# This is the robots.txt file for thetimes.com
# The Times does not permit the unlicensed use of our content for large language models.
# Times Media Limited’s Terms of Use may be found at # https://www.thetimes.com/static/terms-and-conditions
# Contact enquiries@newslicensing.com for assistances
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/sitemaps/news
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/sitemaps/articles/2025
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/sitemaps/articles
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/subscribe/sitemap_index.xml
Sitemap: https://www.thetimes.com/static/sitemap_index.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: /world/*?*region=*
Allow: /sport/*?*region=*
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /archive/page/
Disallow: /archive/article/
Disallow: /article/category/
Disallow: /interactives/
Disallow: /my-articles
Disallow: /my-articles/
Disallow: /player/brightcove/
Disallow: /topic/bbc
Disallow: /tto/archive/article/
Disallow: /tto/archive/find/
Disallow: /tto/archive/frame/article/
Disallow: /tto/archive/page/
Disallow: /*?*shareToken=*
Disallow: /*?*region=*
Disallow: /*?s=*
Disallow: /*&s=*
Disallow: /?_ga
Disallow: /?ExternalDataReference
Disallow: /search?*
Disallow: /search/browse-by-day*
Disallow: /article/this-article-has-been-deleted*
Disallow: /article/this-article-has-been-removed*
Disallow: /article/this-article-is-no-longer-available*
- https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/leicester-city-relegated-sky-bet-championship-7bkll96tf
- https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/us-iran-war-latest-news-tehran-ceasefire-peace-talks-538l07395
- https://www.thetimes.com/business/economics/article/parting-for-primark-is-sweet-sorrow-tjtcz3zdv
- https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-latest-peter-mandelson-scandal-fwbjhmdgz
- https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/apple-new-ceo-steve-jobs-tim-cook-john-ternus-7tjp9hpgn
CURL VariantsActionwww/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPSREVIEW
www / non-www
Inconsistent — duplicate content risk
HTTP → HTTPS
Use 301 (permanent) instead of 302 (temporary)
BTLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations68 days until leaf cert expires — 4 issues to addressREVIEW
Certificate validity
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 Records3 A records, 46 ms lookupPASS
| A | 52.208.17.106, 34.240.28.43, 54.76.240.177 |
| AAAA | — |
| CNAME | — |
| NS | ns-1158.awsdns-16.org, ns-195.awsdns-24.com, ns-1610.awsdns-09.co.uk, ns-812.awsdns-37.net |
| MX | 1 mxa-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com 10 mxb-00596a01.gslb.pphosted.com |
| TXT | google-site-verification=74cuTCQF4OE0tm4h3xITeG2YOTRClvDZsIbyk8-cDJ0 google-site-verification=IQWGKPWkMir2bOT7RHGAP_cnTlBTaKK79GfUyVlvMVM google-gws-recovery-domain-verification=47936229 ZOOM_verify_i7QA2Y0GzsIJIlZmqimrrK adobe-idp-site-verification=564934793fede20477f3d065060f7c1557b4fd1d8343e33fea1c... SPF v=spf1 include:%{ir}.%{v}.%{d}.spf.has.pphosted.com include:spf.flowmailer.net ~... google-site-verification=a3KFcGlir95_hLciDr9SEJQ6sDJ1kDa36ZCqXhtAGbo google-site-verification=zjgSEMb6CzkplYfsVfEnM5Q9zmd0pc0wO0hPv5qXXsQ |
| 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.
ARedirect Chain1 redirect(s), 594 ms totalPASS
https://thetimes.com
159 ms · HTTP/1.1
https://www.thetimes.com
435 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL
| # | URL | Status | Time | Protocol | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | https://thetimes.com | 301 | 159 ms | HTTP/1.1 | openresty/1.11.2.3 |
| 2 | https://www.thetimes.com | 200 | 435 ms | HTTP/1.1 | CloudFront |
See the visual redirect chain in the HTTP Probe tab →
A+Domain Intelligencethetimes.com — via MarkMonitor Inc., 31 years, 8 months old, hosted on AWSPASS
208 days
January 10, 2027
68 days
Issued by Let's Encrypt
31 years, 8 months
Registered January 11, 1995
Not enabled
Protects against DNS spoofing
AWS
ASN AS16509
54.76.240.177
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