Safe Official docs Google Bots

Google-Site-Verification

Q: What is the user-agent string for Google-Site-Verification?

Google-Site-Verification uses the token Google-Site-Verification . Match it case-insensitively in robots.txt and in any server-level rule.

Operated by Google

Scout's quick take

Google-Site-Verification visits a page only when a person asks Google's assistant to open it. It is not a background crawler. Heads up: Google says robots.txt may not apply to it, so use a firewall rule if you need it stopped.

# Block only if you really mean to
User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Disallow: /

Test AI crawler access Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: Google-Site-Verification
Category:: Google Bots
Operator:: Google
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Medium - Affects a specific feature, not rankings
SEO Impact Score:: 7/10
Official docs:: developers.google.com

Confirmed by the operator

Google names Google-Site-Verification 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 Google-Site-Verification?

Google-Site-Verification fetches the specific file or meta tag that proves you own a domain when you add a property to Google Search Console.

Google-Site-Verification fetches the specific file or meta tag that proves you own a domain when you add a property to Google Search Console.
Google-Site-Verification identifies itself with the user-agent token Google-Site-Verification. You can control it with a User-agent: Google-Site-Verification group in robots.txt. Robots.txt is voluntary, so for hard enforcement combine it with server-level blocking.

What happens if you block Google-Site-Verification?

⚠️ Blocking Google-Site-Verification does NOT deindex your site, and it does not affect rankings. It has one specific and self-defeating consequence: Google can no longer fetch the verification file or meta tag that proves you own the domain, so adding or re-verifying the property in Google Search Console will fail. If verification is failing for no obvious reason, check that this user-agent is not disallowed.

Do not block. Blocking it prevents you verifying your own domain.

How to control Google-Site-Verification with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Block Google-Site-Verification
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google-Site-Verification") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Block Google-Site-Verification
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google-Site-Verification" bad_bot
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Meta robots tag

X-Robots-Tag header

X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Google-Site-Verification safe to allow?

Yes, Google-Site-Verification is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Google and documented publicly, and it identifies itself honestly with the token Google-Site-Verification. Do not block. Blocking it prevents you verifying your own domain.

Verify by reverse-DNS: genuine Google fetchers resolve to googlebot.com, google.com or googleusercontent.com. Confirm the forward lookup matches the original IP.

What does Google-Site-Verification do?

Understanding what Google-Site-Verification is for helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

Fetches your domain verification file or meta tag
Confirms ownership for Google Search Console
Runs when you add or re-verify a property
Blocking it prevents you verifying your own site
Respects robots.txt directives

Google-Site-Verification in context

Google-Site-Verification is a user-triggered agent operated by Google. In plain terms, it checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service. Our database files it under Google crawlers and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 20 of the 24 Google crawlers in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is critical. So Google-Site-Verification is both well behaved and costly to lose: the strongest case for allowing it. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Google-Site-Verification

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track Google-Site-Verification 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?

Google-Site-Verification's operator says it does not follow robots.txt for these requests, so a robots.txt rule will not stop Google-Site-Verification. Use a firewall, CDN or server rule if you need to block it.

Google crawlers and close alternatives

Google-Site-Verification is one of 32 Google crawlers in our database. A User-agent: Google-Site-Verification group controls Google-Site-Verification only; the other Google tokens below need their own lines.

Google-Site-Verification: this crawler (Tier 3)
AdsBot-Google: Google Ads Quality (Desktop), checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
AdsBot-Google-Mobile: Google Ads Quality (Mobile), checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 3)
APIs-Google: APIs-Google, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)
Chrome-Lighthouse: Lighthouse Audit, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 4)
FeedFetcher-Google: Google Feed Fetcher, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
Gemini-Deep-Research: Gemini-Deep-Research, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)
Google-Agent: Google Agent (Project Mariner), fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 2)
Google-CloudVertexBot: Google Vertex AI, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 3)

To give Google-Site-Verification the same answer as its siblings, stack User-agent: Google-Site-Verification with their lines above one set of rules; to treat Google-Site-Verification differently, give it its own group.

No other crawler in our Google crawlers category has exactly the same purpose, which makes Google-Site-Verification an unusual case: decide about it on its own merits.

We first recorded Google-Site-Verification on May 31, 2026. Google documents it on developers.google.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Google-Site-Verification actually follows

Google-Site-Verification reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names Google-Site-Verification, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Disallow: /drafts/

Find the group. Google-Site-Verification looks for a group naming Google-Site-Verification. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
The surprise. /private/ is open to Google-Site-Verification, 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 Google-Site-Verification if the file also has a User-agent: Google-Site-Verification group?

No. Once a group names it, Google-Site-Verification reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking Google-Site-Verification remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. Google-Site-Verification is a user-triggered agent, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: google-site-verification the same as User-agent: Google-Site-Verification?

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

Should you allow Google-Site-Verification? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Google-Site-Verification by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Allow it. Google-Site-Verification fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because Google-Site-Verification is a user-triggered agent. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Google-Site-Verification on your own site

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

Common mistakes with Google-Site-Verification

The errors we see most often with Google-Site-Verification in the files and firewalls we test:

Assuming a robots.txt rule will stop Google-Site-Verification. User-triggered fetches act for a person, and some operators say robots.txt may not apply to them. Check the operator's statement above.
Blocking Google-Site-Verification as if it were a bulk crawler. It fetches one page because a person asked; blocking it means that person's assistant cannot read your page.
Counting Google-Site-Verification visits as crawl volume. Each request maps to a real user question, which makes the paths it requests a useful signal of what people ask about you.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Google-Site-Verification from outside after every change.

Spotting Google-Site-Verification in your logs

robots.txt says what Google-Site-Verification 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 "Google-Site-Verification" /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 "Google-Site-Verification" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the Google-Site-Verification user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

Google-Site-Verification: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Google-Site-Verification request with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the user-agent string for Google-Site-Verification?

Google-Site-Verification uses the token Google-Site-Verification. Match it case-insensitively in robots.txt and in any server-level rule.

Is Google-Site-Verification safe?

Yes. Google-Site-Verification is operated by Google and is documented publicly. Google-Site-Verification fetches the specific file or meta tag that proves you own a domain when you add a property to Google Search Console.

Will blocking Google-Site-Verification hurt my SEO?

Blocking Google-Site-Verification does NOT deindex your site, and it does not affect rankings. It has one specific and self-defeating consequence: Google can no longer fetch the verification file or meta tag that proves you own the domain, so adding or re-verifying the property in Google Search Console will fail. If verification is failing for no obvious reason, check that this user-agent is not disallowed.

How do I block Google-Site-Verification in robots.txt?

Add these lines to /robots.txt:

User-agent: Google-Site-Verification
Disallow: /

To restrict only part of your site, disallow specific paths and allow the rest.