Safety checks, search engines and acceptable use
The checks every deploy passes, when a site stays out of search results, and what gets a site suspended.
Checks on every deploy
One unsafe website can get every address on benchy.site blocked by browsers, so every deploy is checked before it goes public. Benchy reads the links and form targets in your HTML, SVG and XML files and checks them, with the website’s own addresses, against Google Web Risk.
| When | Free | Paid plans |
|---|---|---|
| A link or form target is flagged as unsafe | Not published | Not published |
| The check can’t run right now | Not published; try again in a few minutes | Live deploys wait the same way; previews publish and are checked again within 10 minutes |
| Some pages couldn’t be checked completely | Not published | Published, kept out of search and reviewed |
| A page has a password field, a form that sends to another site, or a very long link | Published, kept out of search and reviewed | Published, kept out of search and reviewed |
A page is checked completely unless it is larger than 2 MB or links to a very large number of sites. Split such pages and deploy again. A refused deploy changes nothing that is live.
Deploys held for review
A deploy held for review is live, but kept out of search engines while Benchy looks at it, usually within a working day. It is indexed again once the review clears it, or when you deploy a version without the reason. Benchy writes to the Owner if the review finds a problem.
Daily checks
Lists of unsafe pages change, so Benchy checks what each website serves again every day, previews included, and at once after a rollback. If a page a website links to is now flagged, the website is suspended.
Search engines
Benchy tells search engines not to index (with X-Robots-Tag: noindex):
- every preview address;
- a website in a Free workspace, for its first 14 days, or until the workspace moves to a paid plan;
- a website with a deploy held for review.
Otherwise indexing is up to you: a robots.txt and a sitemap.xml in your output folder are served like any other file. With a custom domain, a canonical link tells search engines which address to show.
Suspension
Benchy suspends a website that its checks flag or that breaks the rules below. A suspended website answers on every address, custom domains included, with a page saying it was taken offline, with HTTP status 451. Visitors’ browsers are asked to clear what it stored.
While any website in a workspace is suspended, the workspace is on hold:
- it can’t reserve names, deploy, roll back or add custom domains;
- its custom domains stop serving, on every website;
- unpublishing and removing domains still work.
Benchy tells the Owner why. If Benchy restores the website after a review, it serves what it served before, and the hold ends.
In an emergency Benchy can pause every website at once. Visitors then see “Back soon” with status 503, and nothing about your site changes.
Acceptable use
Websites on benchy.site follow the Benchy Terms of Service. A website may not:
- imitate another person, company or sign-in page, or collect passwords or payment details;
- spread malware or send visitors to pages that do;
- infringe others’ copyright or trademarks;
- host anything unlawful, or interfere with Benchy or other websites.
Report a website
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