Domain healthcheck codes

On the DOMAINSAFE portal, the domain healthcheck feature includes code that provide more detail about the results for each URL variation of your domain name.

The list below provides the detail for check.

Candidate canonical domain

Your candidate canonical domain is the combination of protocol, domain, and optional sub-domain, that our system has determined is most likely to be your preferred version.

Clearly identifiable canonical domains are important because they:

• Prevent duplicate content issues
• Consolidate link equity (SEO power)
• Guide crawlers toward the “main” version

There are a number of methods to implement a canonical domain including redirects and HTML tags. See our post Implementing a Canonical Domain for more information.

If you're not using the domain name, it's not always possible or necessary to determine the canonical domain. For example, if you're forwarding all traffic to another domain all variations should respond with a 30X code to the same forwarding address.

Domain responses

These are the results from testing the HTTP status code responses to requests common combinations of protocol, sub-domain, and domain name.

Status codes are a 3-digit number falling into 5 classes:

• 1xx informational response – the request was received, continuing process
• 2xx successful – the request was successfully received, understood, and accepted
• 3xx redirection – further action needs to be taken in order to complete the request
• 4xx client error – the request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled
• 5xx server error – the server failed to fulfil an apparently valid request

The report shows each response in the format:

[reference] [Requested domain] : [HTTP status code of response] -> [optional redirect path or location]

For example:

This indicates that the request to https://paulmiddleton.com.au/ resulted in a 301 (Moved Permanently) HTTP Status, with a redirect location of https://domainsafe.au/parked/?ref=paulmiddleton.com.au. In practical terms, if you try and visit https://paulmiddleton.com.au in a browser, you will be redirected to the DOMAINSAFE website.

Depending on your intention, this may be a good or bad thing. The reference number (6) explains why we believe this is the correct response, and hence why the row is highlighted green.

Responses that are highlighted red indicated the response is not as expected. Responses that are highlighted yellow indicate the response may not be expected, but that can't be determined with confidence.

The list below provides more detail on the reference codes that may appear against each response.

(2)

The response HTTP status code was in the 2xx range.
Green indicates this is considered the canonical domain.
Red indicates there are multiple 2xx responses, meaning there is no clear canonical domain.

(3)

Not used

(4)

The response HTTP status code was in the 3xx range and the domain status is 'forsale'.
Green indicates the request was forwarded to the DOMAINSAFE sale page for this domain.
Red indicates the request was fowarded to a different location.

(5)

Not used.

(6)

The response HTTP status code was in the 3xx range and the domain status is 'forwarding' or 'parked' or there is a forwarding address ('Forward to' value) on the domain.
Green indicates the request was forwarded to the correct location, e.g. https://domainsafe.au/parked/?ref=yourdomain.au.
Red indicates the request was forwarded to a different location.

(7)(8)(9)

The response HTTP status code was in the 3xx range and there were multiple redirects.
Yellow indicates the redirect path ended in the canonical domain or expected end location (in the case where the domain should be redirected).
Red indicates that the redirect path did not end in the expected location.

Redirect "chains" like these are bad because they can slow down users and search engine crawlers (important if you rely at all on search engines and especially if you're paying for SEO).

Chains can often be caused where a HTTP page first redirects to the HTTPS equivalent (e.g. http://example.com -> https://example.com) and the redirects to the correct subdomain (https://example.com -> https://www.example.com).

Ensure your redirects point straight to pages on the canonical domain to avoid these kinds of chains.

(10)

Not used.

(11)

Error response.

(12)

All domain variations redirected to the same location. This result is always displayed as green if present.

(13)

The common location of all redirects returning a 2xx HTTP status code.