What are Unsafe Domains?

Siteimprove's Unsafe Domains feature identifies and highlights external links to unsafe domains on your website. This article will explain what unsafe domains are, why it is crucial to eliminate them from your website, and where you can find this feature in the Quality Assurance module.

What are unsafe domains?

Unsafe domains are external links to websites that could contain phishing, malware, or unwanted software.

Phishing: Imitation of another website, designed to trick users into sharing personal or financial information.

Malware: The site appears to contain malicious code that could be downloaded to a computer without consent.

Unwanted software: The site might attempt to trick users into installing programs that harm user experience.

A screenshot warning users of a site that contains malware

Why is it crucial to eliminate unsafe domains from my website?

• You should avoid linking to unsafe domains because it could make your company seem untrustworthy or reduce your company’s respectability. 

• To ensure your own security, and the security of your visitors, you should eliminate unsafe domains where possible.

What else you can do in regards to Unsafe Domains?

• Double check the domain to check whether it is considered safe.

What if I think the Unsafe Domain is legitimate?

• It's up to you to determine which links and domains you'd like to include on your website. Siteimprove offers suggestions to help you decide which domains may require a second look.

Where can I find Unsafe Domains in Siteimprove?

1. Select Quality Assurance from the main menu.
2. Expand the Links menu
3. From the drop-down select Links to unsafe domains

Here you will see a list of unsafe domains on your website, we will also notify you if no unsafe domains were found on your website. Links to unsafe domains should be deleted from the affected page in your CMS.

Siteimprove uses Google’s register of potentially unsafe domains to inform users if we have found links to unsafe domains on their site. Links to these domains are highlighted on the page report and PDF document report.