Scan a site

The Citizen

citizen.co.za

Scanned Fresh929 checks

100OF 100
How it adds up →
In its own wordsLooks like: Blog or news siteThe Citizen | More News, Your WayGet the latest news from South Africa and around the world with The Citizen's online edition. From politics to sport and everything in between, The Citizen has it covered with more news, your way.
PopularityTop 10KBuilt withWordPress, Tailwind CSS, jQuery20 technologies foundTrust signals5 of 7 foundDomain registered 29 years agoBuilt with AI? None foundNo traces found

The Citizen (citizen.co.za) looks like a blog or news site, is ranked in the top 10,000 sites and was registered in 1997. It is built with WordPress, Tailwind CSS and jQuery; we found no traces of an AI site builder.

Popularity

Website Traffic Checker

Among the top 10K sites.

A popularity band, not a visit count.

Tranco: #14,715 · Chrome UX Report: Top 10,000 · Majestic Million: #12,629

Each list, with its date
SourceSaysAs of
TrancoA research ranking that combines several traffic and link sources, published daily.#14,715list of 7 Oct 2026
Chrome UX ReportRank buckets from Google’s real Chrome traffic, published monthly.Top 10,000Aug 2026
Majestic MillionRanks sites by how many separate networks link to them (links, not visits), published daily. CC BY 3.0#12,629list of 8 Oct 2026

Technology

Tech Stack Checker

Built with WordPress, jQuery and Tailwind CSS.

  • WordPressCMSShow evidenceHide evidence
    Evidence · page source, line 350
    <link rel="preload" href="https://media.citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Severe-weather-825x550.jpg">
    Popular sites using WordPress Is this wrong? Report it
  • jQueryJavaScript libraryShow evidenceHide evidence
    Evidence · page source, line 414
    <script src="https://www.citizen.co.za/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.min.js?ver=3.7.1">
    Popular sites using jQuery Is this wrong? Report it
  • Tailwind CSSCSS frameworkShow evidenceHide evidence
    Evidence · stylesheet /wp-content/cache/min/1/wp-content/themes/citizen-2023/dist/assets/main-BbCPlPHa.css?ver=1792200601
    …der-spacing-x:0;--tw-border-spacing-y:0;--tw-translate-x:0;--tw-translate-y:0;--tw-rotate:0;--…
    Popular sites using Tailwind CSS Is this wrong? Report it
Everything else it uses (17)

Around it: CDN, Performance, DNS, Email and more.

Business tools can stay listed after a site stops using them.

Trust signals

Website Trust Checker

5 of 7 trust signals found on the home page.

Signals, not a judgement: missing details are common on small, honest sites.

  • Domain registered15 Sept 1997, 29 years agoNoted
  • HTTPSLoads over HTTPS with a valid certificateFound
  • Contact detailsIn structured dataFound
    Show evidenceHide evidence
    Exhibit 1 · page source, line 365Masked for privacy. An email address or phone number can belong to a person, and data protection law, such as the EU’s GDPR, asks us to keep only what we need: that the page lists one, and where.
    "email": "o•••@citizen.co.za"
    Is this wrong? Report it
  • Privacy policyLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • TermsLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • Security filterNot blocked by Cloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filterNoted
Every signal we looked at

On the site

  • Contact pageLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • About pageLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • Privacy policyLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • TermsLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • Refund or returns policyNo link found on the home pageNot found
  • Contact detailsIn structured dataFound
    Show evidenceHide evidence
    Exhibit 1 · page source, line 365Masked for privacy. An email address or phone number can belong to a person, and data protection law, such as the EU’s GDPR, asks us to keep only what we need: that the page lists one, and where.
    "email": "o•••@citizen.co.za"
    Is this wrong? Report it
  • Company detailsName: The Citizen, a division of CTPPartly
  • Payment providersNone on the home pageNoted
  • Trackers1 analytics and advertising tool: Google Ad ManagerNoted

Behind the site

  • Security filterNot blocked by Cloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filterNotedCloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filter
  • Domain registered15 Sept 1997, 29 years agoNotedWHOIS (whois.registry.net.za)
  • HTTPSLoads over HTTPS with a valid certificateFound
  • Protective settings6 of 6 in placeFound
  • Email protectionProtected against forged emailFoundDNS records

A second opinion on its security setup: Mozilla’s HTTP Observatory grades the site when you open it. Ten checks before you buy · A signal looks wrong? Report it

What it is

Website Summary

Looks like: Blog or news site.

In its own wordsThe Citizen | More News, Your WayGet the latest news from South Africa and around the world with The Citizen's online edition. From politics to sport and everything in between, The Citizen has it covered with more news, your way.

Our reading of the page, high confidence.

Show evidence (4)Hide evidence
Exhibit 1 · Wikidata
Q2750599: The Citizen, newspaper
Exhibit 2 · its own title or description
The Citizen | More News, Your Way · The Citizen · Get the latest news from South Africa and around the world with The Citizen's online edition. From politics to
Exhibit 3 · page source, line 645
<a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/newsletter-subscription/">Newsletters</a>
Exhibit 4 · page source, line 860
<a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/tag/bafana-bafana/">Bafana Bafana</a>
Is this wrong? Report it

Who is behind it

  • structured dataThe Citizen, a division of CTP
  • WikidataThe Citizen

Confirmed by 2 independent sources: structured data and Wikidata.

Wikidata: Based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Its Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube accounts are the ones Wikidata lists.

Show evidence (2)Hide evidence
Exhibit 1 · page source, line 365
"name": "The Citizen, a division of CTP"
Exhibit 2 · Wikidata
Q2750599: The Citizen
Is this wrong? Report it

Each name is quoted from its source. A brand and the company that owns it often go by different names.

More about it: Wikidata, profiles, AI use, page facts

In Wikidata

  • The Citizen: South African newspaper · newspaper · since 1976

Wikidata, the free knowledge base behind Wikipedia, lists this domain as the official website of this item. Volunteers write it; each item shows its sources.

Its summary for AI assistantsThe Citizen is an independent South African news publisher with a history dating back to 1976. Its digital newsroom provides trusted, timely coverage of breaking news, politics, sport, business, entertainment, lifestyle, and community affairs across South Africa, with a strong focus on news that matters to local communities.Read it in full

Find them on

The profiles its home page links. We haven’t checked who runs them.

AI use

  • AI training: names FacebookBot, Google-Extended, GPTBot, ClaudeBot and 1 more with rules for some pages.
  • AI assistants: may read it for the people who ask them.
Show evidence (5)Hide evidence
Exhibit 1 · robots.txt, line 30
User-agent: FacebookBot
Exhibit 2 · robots.txt, line 34
User-agent: Google-Extended
Exhibit 3 · robots.txt, line 37
User-agent: GPTBot
Exhibit 4 · robots.txt, line 43
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Exhibit 5 · robots.txt, line 46
User-agent: Amazonbot
Is this wrong? Report it

What its robots.txt and robots tags ask of AI crawlers. Each crawler chooses whether to follow it.

Site name
The Citizen
Language
English (en)
What it tells search engines
CollectionPage, BreadcrumbList, WebSite, Organization

Named in its structured data

  • OrganizationThe Citizen

Read from what the page says about itself; we haven’t checked whether it’s true.

Built with AI?

AI Website Detector

No AI builder traces found.

Coding tools such as Cursor leave no traces, so this doesn’t mean a person made it.

AI traces: None found

How we know

AI site builders leave traces in the sites they make. We look for the traces of 53 of them and show every match with the line it came from, so you can check it yourself.

We test this on 2,312 sites whose makers we know, and publish what we get wrong.

How we test it · Every builder we know · How to tell if a site was built with AI

Score breakdown

Site Score

100 of 100: strong trust signals.

How established and checkable it is; AI traces carry no weight.

100OF 100
TransparencyContact, policies and about page30 / 30
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10
Why each part scored what it did
TransparencyContact, policies and about page30 / 30contact page linked · email and phone given · privacy policy linked · terms linked · no payments seen, so no refund policy needed · about page linked
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25domain registered 29 years ago
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20Top 10K in a popularity list
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15loads over HTTPS · sends visitors to HTTPS · always uses HTTPS · protective settings
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10site name matches the domain · describes itself · tells search engines what it is

A high score isn’t a promise that a business is honest. How the score works.

Domain history

Domain History

Registered in 1997; first archived in 2000.

  1. Domain registeredWHOIS (whois.registry.net.za)
  2. First captured by the web archiveInternet Archive
  3. This scanCheckAnySite

In the web archive: captured in 27 of 27 years · see the first capture

  1. 2000: captured
  2. 2001: captured
  3. 2002: captured
  4. 2003: captured
  5. 2004: captured
  6. 2005: captured
  7. 2006: captured
  8. 2007: captured
  9. 2008: captured
  10. 2009: captured
  11. 2010: captured
  12. 2011: captured
  13. 2012: captured
  14. 2013: captured
  15. 2014: captured
  16. 2015: captured
  17. 2016: captured
  18. 2017: captured
  19. 2018: captured
  20. 2019: captured
  21. 2020: captured
  22. 2021: captured
  23. 2022: captured
  24. 2023: captured
  25. 2024: captured
  26. 2025: captured
  27. 2026: captured
Changes, earlier scans and alerts
Since our previous scan
This is our first scan of the site.

How we scanned it

Only from what anyone can see: the site’s public pages and public records.

  • Politely. Our scanner, CheckAnySiteBot, says who it is and follows the site’s robots.txt.
  • With sources. Every fact above says where it came from and when.
  • Without guessing. When we couldn’t check something, we say so.
This scan, in numbers

929 checks on 27 Oct 2026, with version 0.5.0 of our checks and version 1.1 of the score.

How we work · What each version changed · About our scanner

Quick look

Built with AI?

None foundWe found no AI builder traces.

“None found” never means “made by a person”: coding assistants leave no traces.

All the evidence →

Related

Quick look

How popular is it?

Top 10KBy the best of 3 public lists.

  • Tranco#14,715list of 7 Oct 2026
  • Chrome UX ReportTop 10,000Aug 2026
  • Majestic Million#12,629list of 8 Oct 2026

A popularity band, never a visit count.

The popularity section →

Related

Quick look

What is it built with?

CMS
WordPress
JavaScript library
jQuery
CSS framework
Tailwind CSS

And 17 more around it (CDN, Performance, DNS, Email), in the section.

Each with its evidence →

Related

Quick look

Which trust signals does it show?

On the site

  • Contact pageFound
  • About pageFound
  • Privacy policyFound
  • TermsFound
  • Refund or returns policyNot found
  • Contact detailsFound
  • Company detailsPartly
  • Payment providersNoted
  • TrackersNoted

Behind the site

  • Security filterNoted
  • Domain registeredNoted
  • HTTPSFound
  • Security headersFound
  • Software versionsNoted
  • NetworkNoted
  • Email setupFound
  • First certificateCouldn’t check
  • DNSSECNot found
  • Certificate authoritiesNot found
  • Security contactFound

Signals, not a judgement: missing details are common on small, honest sites.

Every signal with its source →

Related

How has it changed? →
Quick look

How does it add up?

100OF 100

Strong trust signals. An open formula (v1.1): every point comes from a finding above. AI traces carry no weight.

TransparencyContact, policies and about page30 / 30
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10
Why each part scored what it did →

Related

Questions about citizen.co.za

What is citizen.co.za?

The Citizen describes itself: “Get the latest news from South Africa and around the world with The Citizen's online edition. From politics to sport and everything in between, The Citizen has it covered with more news, your way.” It looks like a blog or news site. See the evidence

How old is citizen.co.za?

Its domain was registered on 15 Sept 1997, 29 years ago. See the evidence

What is citizen.co.za built with?

It is built with WordPress, Tailwind CSS and jQuery; we found 20 technologies in all. See the evidence

How popular is citizen.co.za?

It is among the top 10,000 sites, by Tranco, Chrome UX Report and Majestic Million. See the evidence

Was citizen.co.za made with AI?

We found no traces of an AI site builder. That doesn’t prove a person built it: AI coding assistants leave no traces. See the evidence

Who is behind citizen.co.za?

The Citizen, a division of CTP, named by its structured data and Wikidata. See the evidence

More sites like this: blog or news site

Automated findings from the site’s public home page and public records, as of 27 Oct 2026. They describe what we found, not the people or business behind the site, and they may be incomplete or out of date. This is information, not advice. Terms · Report an error

What this scan can’t tell you
  • Whether the business is real, honest or delivers what it sells.
  • Whether a site was made with AI when no traces were left: coding assistants and hand edits leave none.
  • How many people visit: we show popularity bands from public lists, not visits.
  • Anything beyond the home page as it was at the time of the scan.

Is this your site? Ask for a correction.

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The result describes what we found on 27 Oct 2026, with evidence.

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One scan answers everything: AI traces, popularity, technology, trust signals, how the site describes itself, a score and its history. A quick check only decides which answer comes first. We read public pages as CheckAnySiteBot and follow robots.txt.