Website Analysis

Website Analysis discovers the website associated with a business and performs a full analysis of the domain - registration age, SSL certificate, operational status, contact information, site structure, and more. It powers the domain legitimacy and impersonation checks described in the Online Presence: Best Practices guide.

When to use it

• You want to verify that the website submitted by an applicant is legitimate and consistent with the business's age and identity
• You are looking for fraud signals including potential impersonation (e.g. a lookalike domain registered shortly before the application)
• You want to cross-check contact information (email, phone, addresses) discovered on the website against the submitted application
• You are assessing whether a business has a real, operational online presence

Always populate the website field when possible. This enables input_website_analysis - the comparison between the submitted domain and the one Baselayer independently discovers - which is the most reliable impersonation signal available. See Domain Impersonation Patterns in the Online Presence: Best Practices guide.

If your onboarding form makes website optional, use the domain of the submitted email as a fallback: if the applicant provides [email protected] but no website, submit lucali.com as the website value. This ensures input_website_analysis is populated in the vast majority of applications without requiring an additional required field. Skip this only for free email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) - those domains carry no identity signal.

How to request it

Website Analysis is available on both integration paths.

Via POST /web_presence_requests

Include Order.WebsiteAnalysis in the options array. Results are returned inline in the response at website_analysis (discovered domain) and input_website_analysis (submitted domain, when a website was provided).

{
  "name": "Lucali",
  "address": "575 Henry St, Brooklyn, NY 11231",
  "website": "https://www.lucali.com",
  "options": ["Order.WebsiteAnalysis"]
}

Via POST /searches

Include Order.WebsiteAnalysis in the options array. Results are not inline, Baselayer returns a WebsiteAnalysisRequest tracking object in orderables[]. Fetch the result using the URL in that object, or listen for the WebsiteAnalysisRequest.completed webhook.

{
  "name": "Lucali",
  "address": "575 Henry St, Brooklyn, NY 11231",
  "website": "https://www.lucali.com",
  "options": ["Order.WebsiteAnalysis"]
}

The search response will contain:

{
  "orderables": [
    {
      "type": "WebsiteAnalysisRequest",
      "id": "ac5aca82-e75e-40d0-a0eb-1fc474cef2c4",
      "url": "https://api.baselayer.com/website_analysis_requests/ac5aca82-e75e-40d0-a0eb-1fc474cef2c4",
      "option": "Order.WebsiteAnalysis"
    }
  ]
}

Fetch the result:

GET /website_analysis_requests/{id}

When both a submitted and a discovered domain exist on /searches: Two WebsiteAnalysisRequest entries will appear in orderables[]. They are not labeled - call GET on each and inspect website_analysis.url to determine which domain was analyzed.

Via Order.Enhanced

Order.Enhanced on POST /searches includes Website Analysis automatically alongside Industry Prediction, Social Profiles, Reviews, and expanded officer/address discovery. See Online Presence: Basics for when to use Enhanced vs. individual orderables.

Response fields

The website_analysis and input_website_analysis objects share the same structure.

Core fields

ssl_validity fields

whois_record fields

Interpreting results

Website Analysis produces two types of signals: domain legitimacy (is this a real, operational site?) and identity consistency (does the submitted domain match the independently discovered one?). For the full decisioning framework - including thresholds, fraud patterns, and others - see:

• Website Analysis section in the Online Presence: Best Practices guide: domain legitimacy checks, ssl_validity, website_build_status, website_structure_metrics
• Domain Impersonation Patterns: whois_record.domain_age_months vs. months_in_business, lookalike domain detection, free email vs. deliverable corporate domain The key fields to evaluate in every application:
• business_website_match — whether the submitted domain matches the discovered one
• whois_record.domain_age_months on input_website_analysis — flag if < 90 days on a business older than 24 months; escalate immediately if < 30 days
• email_deliverable on website_analysis — cross-reference against the submitted email domain
• parked and website_build_status — flag inactive or placeholder sites for established businesses

Related guides

• Online Presence: Basics — integration path decision guide and data model
• Online Presence: Best Practices — full decisioning framework
• Online Presence: Response Reference — match values, match sources, and response shape by integration path
• Industry Prediction — often requested alongside Website Analysis for best accuracy
• Website Analysis API Reference — full endpoint documentation