Safe Official docs Search Engines

Naver Search

Operated by Naver

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
Yeti
Category:
Search Engines
Operator:
Naver
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Critical - Blocking removes you from search results
SEO Impact Score:
10/10
Official docs:
searchadvisor.naver.com

Confirmed by the operator

Naver names Yeti 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 Naver Search?

Yeti is the crawler for Naver, South Korea's largest search engine. It collects pages for Naver Search and other Naver services.

It identifies itself with the token Yeti. Naver documents it at searchadvisor.naver.com.

What happens if you block Naver Search?

Blocking Yeti removes your pages from Naver Search. It has no effect on Google or Bing.
Keep it allowed if you want traffic from Naver Search, especially from South Korea.

How to block Naver Search with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: Yeti Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: Yeti Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: Yeti Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Naver Search if ($http_user_agent ~* "Yeti") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Naver Search SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Yeti" 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 Naver Search safe to allow?

Yes. Naver Search is a documented bot: Naver publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.
Naver says to run a reverse DNS lookup: the hostname must end in .naver.com and resolve back to the same IP. Naver also publishes its IP ranges as JSON.

What does Naver Search do?

From Naver's own documentation.

  • Yeti is the crawler for Naver, South Korea's largest search engine.
  • Blocking Yeti removes your pages from Naver Search. It has no effect on Google or Bing.

Naver Search in context

Naver Search is a search engine crawler operated by Naver. In plain terms, it builds a search or answer index. Our database files it under search engines and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 62 of the 63 search engines in our database share this tier.

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

How site owners treat Naver Search

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track Yeti 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?

Naver Search's operator says it follows robots.txt, so a correctly written Naver Search group is enough to control it.

Naver crawlers and close alternatives

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

Other search engines that do the same job (builds a search or answer index) include Amzn-SearchBot from Amazon, Applebot from Apple, baidu from Baidu, Baiduspider from Baidu, Baiduspider-favo from Baidu, Baiduspider-image from Baidu. Deciding about Naver Search is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded Yeti on October 19, 2026. Naver documents it on searchadvisor.naver.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Naver Search actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: Yeti
Disallow: /drafts/
  1. Find the group. Naver Search looks for a group naming Yeti. 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 Naver 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 Naver Search if the file also has a User-agent: Yeti group?

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

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

Often, yes. Naver Search is a search engine crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: yeti the same as User-agent: Yeti?

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

Should you allow Naver Search? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Naver Search by type of site
If you are...Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite itAllow it. It is how this search engine finds your pages.
You license content and want to stop AI trainingBlocking it does not stop training, because Naver Search is a search engine crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shopAllow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from botsRate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Naver Search on your own site

  1. Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for Yeti. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
  2. List the Disallow lines in the group Naver 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 Naver Search even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
  4. Run our blocked AI crawler check to see how Naver Search and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Naver Search

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

  1. Blocking Naver Search to save bandwidth and then wondering why pages drop out of that search engine. Use crawl-rate settings or caching first.
  2. Writing a User-agent: Yeti group to add one rule for Naver Search and accidentally dropping every rule it used to follow under User-agent: *.
  3. Disallowing CSS and JavaScript folders, which can stop Naver Search rendering your pages properly.

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

Spotting Naver Search in your logs

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

Check the requests are genuine

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Naver Search?
The official user-agent string for Naver Search is: Yeti. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Naver says to run a reverse DNS lookup: the hostname must end in .naver.com and resolve back to the same IP. Naver also publishes its IP ranges as JSON.
Is Naver Search safe?
Yes. Naver Search is a documented bot: Naver publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.
Will blocking Naver Search hurt my SEO?
Blocking Yeti removes your pages from Naver Search. It has no effect on Google or Bing.
How do I block Naver Search in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: Yeti
Disallow: /

This instructs Naver Search not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Naver Search respect robots.txt?
Yes. Naver documents Yeti as its search robot; control it with a User-agent: Yeti group.
How do I verify if Naver Search is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string Yeti (case-insensitive: grep -i "Yeti" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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