Safety checks, search engines and acceptable use
Every deploy is checked for unsafe links before it goes public, and a website that breaks the rules is suspended.
Checks on every deploy
Every deploy is checked before it goes public, so one unsafe website can’t get every address on benchy.site blocked in browsers. Benchy checks the links and form targets in your HTML, SVG and XML files, and the website’s own addresses, against the lists browsers use to warn about unsafe pages.
| When | Free | Paid plans |
|---|---|---|
| A link or form target is on a list of unsafe pages | 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, hidden from search |
| A page has a password field, a form that sends to another website, or a very long link | Published, hidden from search | Published, hidden from search |
A page is checked completely unless it is larger than 2 MiB or links to a great many sites; split such pages. A refused deploy changes nothing that is live.
Hidden from search
While a version published “hidden from search” is live, search engines are told not to index the website, and Studio shows “Hidden from search engines for now.” under Live. It returns to search when you go live with a version without those findings. A preview never hides the live website.
Daily checks
Benchy checks what each website serves again every day, previews included. A website that now links to a listed page is suspended.
Search engines
Benchy tells search engines not to index:
- every preview address;
- a website made in a Free workspace, for 14 days from when its name was reserved, even if the workspace upgrades;
- a website whose live version is hidden from search.
While any of these applies, every response carries a noindex header, and Benchy answers /robots.txt itself, letting crawlers in so they read that header. Otherwise indexing is up to you: your own robots.txt and sitemap.xml are served like any other file.
A website published from a canvas gets its robots.txt, sitemap.xml and canonical link from Benchy, naming its main address; a website built as files sets its own. With a custom domain, see Your domain as the primary address.
Suspension
Benchy suspends a website its checks flag or that breaks the rules below. It then answers on every address, custom domains included, with a page saying it was taken offline, and 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, and its custom domains stop serving on every website. Taking a website offline and removing domains still work.
To appeal, write to the address under Report a website. If Benchy restores the website after review, it serves what it did before and the hold ends.
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.