Safe Official docs SEO Tools

DataForSeoBot

Q: What is the official user-agent string for DataForSeoBot?

The official user-agent string for DataForSeoBot is: DataForSeoBot . This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from DataForSeoBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Q: Is DataForSeoBot safe?

Yes, DataForSeoBot is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by DataForSEO, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string DataForSeoBot is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Q: Will blocking DataForSeoBot hurt my SEO?

❓ Impact Unknown - The SEO consequences of blocking DataForSeoBot are not fully documented. Before blocking, check your analytics to confirm whether this bot generates referral traffic, review your server logs for crawl frequency, and test in a staging environment if possible.

Q: How do I block DataForSeoBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: DataForSeoBot Disallow: / This instructs DataForSeoBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/ ). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt .

Q: How do I verify if DataForSeoBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string DataForSeoBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "DataForSeoBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log ). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For DataForSeoBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Operated by DataForSEO

Scout's quick take

DataForSeoBot gathers data for an SEO platform. Blocking it does not affect your rankings; it only hides your site from that tool's reports.

# Block only if you really mean to
User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /

Check my website crawlability Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: DataForSeoBot
Category:: SEO Tools
Operator:: DataForSEO
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Varies - Evaluate before blocking
SEO Impact Score:: 0/10
Official docs:: dataforseo.com

Confirmed by the operator

DataForSEO names DataForSeoBot 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 DataForSeoBot?

DataForSeoBot collects SERP and keyword data to provide API services for other SEO software developers.

DataForSeoBot collects SERP and keyword data to provide API services for other SEO software developers.
DataForSeoBot is a commercial SEO analytics crawler operated by DataForSEO. It builds backlink graphs, crawls for technical SEO issues, and tracks keyword rankings. The user-agent DataForSeoBot is well-known and respected in the SEO industry. Blocking it removes your domain from DataForSEO's index, preventing competitors from analysing your backlink profile via their platform. However, other DataForSEO users also lose visibility into links pointing TO your site - weigh this trade-off carefully.

What happens if you block DataForSeoBot?

❓ Impact Unknown - The SEO consequences of blocking DataForSeoBot are not fully documented. Before blocking, check your analytics to confirm whether this bot generates referral traffic, review your server logs for crawl frequency, and test in a staging environment if possible.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block DataForSeoBot with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block DataForSeoBot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "DataForSeoBot") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block DataForSeoBot
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "DataForSeoBot" 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 DataForSeoBot safe to allow?

Yes, DataForSeoBot is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by DataForSEO, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string DataForSeoBot is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate DataForSeoBot requests resolve to dataforseo's domain.

What does DataForSeoBot do?

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

Analyzes website structure and SEO health
Tracks backlinks and referring domains
Monitors keyword rankings and competitor analysis
Crawls sites for technical SEO audits
Generates reports for SEO professionals

DataForSeoBot in context

DataForSeoBot is a utility crawler operated by DataForSEO. In plain terms, it checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service. Our database files it under SEO tools and ranks it Tier 4, specialist crawlers that matter to particular sites or markets. 19 of the 19 SEO tools in our database share this tier.

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

How site owners treat DataForSeoBot

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

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

DataForSEO crawlers and close alternatives

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

Other SEO tools that do the same job (checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service) include AhrefsBot from Ahrefs, AhrefsSiteAudit from Ahrefs, AwarioBot from Awario, AwarioRssBot from Awario, AwarioSmartBot from Awario, Chrome-Lighthouse from Google. Deciding about DataForSeoBot is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded DataForSeoBot on March 17, 2026. DataForSEO documents it on dataforseo.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule DataForSeoBot actually follows

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

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /drafts/

Find the group. DataForSeoBot looks for a group naming DataForSeoBot. 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 DataForSeoBot, 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 DataForSeoBot if the file also has a User-agent: DataForSeoBot group?

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

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

Often, yes. DataForSeoBot is a utility crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: dataforseobot the same as User-agent: DataForSeoBot?

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

Should you allow DataForSeoBot? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for DataForSeoBot by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Low stakes either way. It does not decide whether AI answers cite you.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because DataForSeoBot is a utility crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it unless your logs show it is costly.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check DataForSeoBot on your own site

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

Common mistakes with DataForSeoBot

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

Treating DataForSeoBot as an AI or search crawler. Blocking it has little effect on visibility; decide based on load and what it does with your data.
Relying on robots.txt alone when DataForSeoBot is rated caution or aggressive. Back the rule with a server-side block.
Blocking DataForSeoBot by IP alone. Ranges change; match the token and verify with logs.

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

Spotting DataForSeoBot in your logs

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

Check the requests are genuine

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for DataForSeoBot?

The official user-agent string for DataForSeoBot is: DataForSeoBot. This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from DataForSeoBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Is DataForSeoBot safe?

Will blocking DataForSeoBot hurt my SEO?

How do I block DataForSeoBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /

This instructs DataForSeoBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt.

Does DataForSeoBot respect robots.txt?

Yes - DataForSeoBot is a well-behaved bot operated by DataForSEO. It fetches and parses /robots.txt before crawling any page, following RFC 9309.

How do I verify if DataForSeoBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string DataForSeoBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "DataForSeoBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For DataForSeoBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

What is the crawl frequency of DataForSeoBot?

DataForSeoBot crawls at a moderate rate. If you notice excessive traffic in your logs, you can add a Crawl-delay directive:

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Crawl-delay: 10

(10 second delay between requests).

Can I block DataForSeoBot from specific pages only?

Yes. Instead of a global Disallow: / you can restrict DataForSeoBot to specific paths:

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

This allows DataForSeoBot everywhere except the listed paths. Path matching in robots.txt uses prefix matching - Disallow: /private/ blocks /private/page.html but NOT /public/private/.

Why would I want to block DataForSeoBot?

There are two main reasons to block DataForSeoBot:
1. Competitive intelligence: DataForSEO users (your competitors) can analyse your backlink profile, keyword rankings, and site structure. Blocking prevents this.
2. Crawl budget: If your site is large, SEO tool crawlers consume crawl bandwidth without contributing to search rankings. Blocking frees up server resources for search engine bots.
The trade-off: you also become invisible in DataForSEO's backlink database, meaning links pointing TO your site from other domains won't appear in competitor reports either.