Semrush Writing Assistant
Operated by Semrush
Quick Facts
- User-Agent:
- SemrushBot-SWA
- Category:
- SEO Tools
- Operator:
- Semrush
- Safety:
- Safe
- Blocking Impact:
- Low - No SEO ranking impact
- SEO Impact Score:
- 2/10
- Official docs:
- www.semrush.com
Confirmed by the operator
Semrush names SemrushBot-SWA 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 Semrush Writing Assistant?
Semrush Writing Assistant is a monitoring and validation agent operated by Semrush. It checks pages, ad destinations, or policy compliance rather than collecting training data. It has no effect on search rankings.
Semrush Writing Assistant is a monitoring and validation agent operated by Semrush. It checks pages, ad destinations, or policy compliance rather than collecting training data. It has no effect on search rankings.
Semrush Writing Assistant uses the user-agent token SemrushBot-SWA. 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 Semrush Writing Assistant?
How to block Semrush Writing Assistant with robots.txt
<code>User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.
Is Semrush Writing Assistant safe to allow?
What does Semrush Writing Assistant do?
Understanding Semrush Writing Assistant's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.
- Validates pages, ads, or policy compliance
- Performs automated quality and safety checks
- Does not collect training data
- No impact on search rankings
- Generally safe to allow
Semrush Writing Assistant in context
Semrush Writing Assistant is a utility crawler operated by Semrush. 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 Semrush Writing Assistant rests on what you want from Semrush, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.
How site owners treat Semrush Writing Assistant
Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track SemrushBot-SWA 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?
Semrush Writing Assistant's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the Semrush Writing Assistant rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.
Semrush crawlers and close alternatives
Semrush Writing Assistant is one of 3 Semrush crawlers in our database. A User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA group controls Semrush Writing Assistant only; the other Semrush tokens below need their own lines.
SemrushBot-SWA: this crawler (Tier 4)SemrushBot: Semrush SEO, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 4)SemrushBot-OCOB: SemrushBot-OCOB, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 4)
To give Semrush Writing Assistant the same answer as its siblings, stack User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA with their lines above one set of rules; to treat Semrush Writing Assistant differently, give it its own group.
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 Semrush Writing Assistant is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.
We first recorded SemrushBot-SWA on September 22, 2026. Semrush documents it on semrush.com, and we recheck that page before each release.
Which rule Semrush Writing Assistant actually follows
Semrush Writing Assistant reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names SemrushBot-SWA, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA
Disallow: /drafts/- Find the group. Semrush Writing Assistant looks for a group naming
SemrushBot-SWA. One exists, so it ignoresUser-agent: *completely. - Apply only that group. It is refused
/drafts/and nothing else. - The surprise.
/private/is open to Semrush Writing Assistant, because that rule lives in the*group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeatDisallow: /private/inside its own group.
Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to Semrush Writing Assistant if the file also has a User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA group?
No. Once a group names it, Semrush Writing Assistant reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.
Test yourself: will blocking Semrush Writing Assistant remove your pages from AI answers?
Often, yes. Semrush Writing Assistant is a utility crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.
Related: how AI engines choose their sources
Test yourself: is User-agent: semrushbot-swa the same as User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA?
Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.
Should you allow Semrush Writing Assistant? Decide by situation
| 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 Semrush Writing Assistant 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 Semrush Writing Assistant on your own site
- Open
/robots.txton your domain and search forSemrushBot-SWA. If it is not named, it followsUser-agent: *. - List the
Disallowlines in the group Semrush Writing Assistant follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, andAllowwins a tie. - Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse Semrush Writing Assistant even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
- Run our AI bot access checker to see how Semrush Writing Assistant and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.
Common mistakes with Semrush Writing Assistant
The errors we see most often with Semrush Writing Assistant in the files and firewalls we test:
- Treating Semrush Writing Assistant 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 Semrush Writing Assistant is rated caution or aggressive. Back the rule with a server-side block.
- Blocking Semrush Writing Assistant by IP alone. Ranges change; match the token and verify with logs.
All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Semrush Writing Assistant from outside after every change.
Spotting Semrush Writing Assistant in your logs
robots.txt says what Semrush Writing Assistant 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 "SemrushBot-SWA" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
| awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -cAnd this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:
grep -iE "SemrushBot-SWA" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
| awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20Check the requests are genuine
Anyone can send the Semrush Writing Assistant user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:
SemrushBot-SWA: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Semrush Writing Assistant request with caution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the official user-agent string for Semrush Writing Assistant?
SemrushBot-SWA. 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 Semrush Writing Assistant by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.Is Semrush Writing Assistant safe?
Will blocking Semrush Writing Assistant hurt my SEO?
How do I block Semrush Writing Assistant in robots.txt?
/robots.txt file:User-agent: SemrushBot-SWA Disallow: /
This instructs Semrush Writing Assistant not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g.,
Disallow: /blog/).Does Semrush Writing Assistant respect robots.txt?
/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 Semrush Writing Assistant is crawling my site?
SemrushBot-SWA (case-insensitive: grep -i "SemrushBot-SWA" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).