Safe Official docs AI & LLM Bots

Linkup Search

Operated by Linkup

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
LinkupBot
Category:
AI & LLM Bots
Operator:
Linkup
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
www.linkup.so

Confirmed by the operator

Linkup names LinkupBot on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on October 19, 2026.

What is Linkup Search?

Linkup Search is an AI search-index crawler operated by Linkup. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Linkup's AI search experience. Allowing Linkup Search can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.

Linkup Search is an AI search-index crawler operated by Linkup. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside Linkup's AI search experience. Allowing Linkup Search can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.
Linkup Search uses the user-agent token LinkupBot. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block Linkup Search?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Linkup Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Linkup Search is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

Want to see whether Linkup Search actually visits you? Read how do I monitor AI bot traffic to my website?

How to block Linkup Search with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: LinkupBot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: LinkupBot Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: LinkupBot Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: LinkupBot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Linkup Search if ($http_user_agent ~* "LinkupBot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Linkup Search SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "LinkupBot" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Linkup Search safe to allow?

Yes, Linkup Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Linkup. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Linkup Search requests resolve to Linkup's domain.

What does Linkup Search do?

Understanding Linkup Search's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Indexes web pages for AI-powered search answers
  • Surfaces your content as citations inside AI search results
  • Builds a knowledge index used to answer user questions
  • Allowing it can increase visibility in AI search
  • Respects robots.txt directives

Linkup Search in context

Linkup Search is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers operated by Linkup. In plain terms, it builds a search or answer index. Our database files it under AI and LLM crawlers and ranks it Tier 2, important crawlers from established AI and search operators. 74 of the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is low. So the decision about Linkup Search rests on what you want from Linkup, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Linkup Search

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track LinkupBot as a named token, so we do not publish an adoption figure for it. If you run a large site, your own logs are the best evidence of how often it visits.

Does it follow robots.txt?

Linkup Search's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the Linkup Search rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.

Linkup crawlers and close alternatives

Linkup runs only this one crawler in our database, so a single User-agent: LinkupBot group controls everything Linkup fetches through it.

Other AI and LLM crawlers that do the same job (builds a search or answer index) include AddSearchBot from AddSearch, AIWebIndex from Lyrenth, atlassian-bot from Atlassian, AzureAI-SearchBot from Microsoft, Cloudflare-AI-Search from Cloudflare, Cloudflare-AutoRAG from Cloudflare. Deciding about Linkup Search is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded LinkupBot on June 18, 2026. Linkup documents it on linkup.so, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Linkup Search actually follows

Linkup Search reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names LinkupBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: LinkupBot
Disallow: /drafts/
  1. Find the group. Linkup Search looks for a group naming LinkupBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
  2. Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
  3. The surprise. /private/ is open to Linkup Search, because that rule lives in the * group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeat Disallow: /private/ inside its own group.
Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to Linkup Search if the file also has a User-agent: LinkupBot group?

No. Once a group names it, Linkup Search reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking Linkup Search remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. Linkup Search is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: linkupbot the same as User-agent: LinkupBot?

Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.

Should you allow Linkup Search? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Linkup Search by type of site
If you are...Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite itAllow it. Linkup Search fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them.
You license content and want to stop AI trainingBlocking it does not stop training, because Linkup Search is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shopAllow it on product and category pages, which are the pages shoppers ask assistants about.
Your server is under load from botsRate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Linkup Search on your own site

  1. Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for LinkupBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
  2. List the Disallow lines in the group Linkup Search follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
  3. Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse Linkup Search even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
  4. Run our AI crawler checker to see how Linkup Search and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Linkup Search

The errors we see most often with Linkup Search in the files and firewalls we test:

  1. Blocking Linkup Search while trying to stop AI training. Retrieval crawlers fetch pages so answers can cite them; blocking it can remove you from those answers without affecting training.
  2. Letting a firewall or bot-fight mode refuse Linkup Search while robots.txt allows it. The file looks right, but the crawler still gets a 403 or a challenge page.
  3. Forgetting that once a User-agent: LinkupBot group exists, Linkup Search ignores every rule under User-agent: *.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Linkup Search from outside after every change.

Spotting Linkup Search in your logs

robots.txt says what Linkup Search may do; your access logs show what it actually did.

Count requests

On a server with standard Nginx or Apache logs, this counts matching requests per day (adjust the log path for your host):

grep -iE "LinkupBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c

And this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:

grep -iE "LinkupBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the Linkup Search user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

  • LinkupBot: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Linkup Search request with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Linkup Search?
The official user-agent string for Linkup Search is: LinkupBot. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Linkup Search by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Linkup Search safe?
Yes, Linkup Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Linkup. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Linkup Search hurt my SEO?
✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Linkup Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Linkup Search is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
How do I block Linkup Search in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: LinkupBot
Disallow: /

This instructs Linkup Search not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Linkup Search respect robots.txt?
Linkup Search is operated by Linkup and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.
How do I verify if Linkup Search is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string LinkupBot (case-insensitive: grep -i "LinkupBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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