Sidetrade Indexer Bot
Operated by Sidetrade
Quick Facts
- User-Agent:
- Sidetrade Indexer Bot
- Category:
- SEO Tools
- Operator:
- Sidetrade
- Safety:
- Safe
- Blocking Impact:
- Low - No SEO ranking impact
- SEO Impact Score:
- 2/10
- Official docs:
- None published by Sidetrade
Reported, not operator documented
Sidetrade has not published a crawler page that names Sidetrade Indexer Bot. It is listed here on our own evidence. Verified by AI Crawler Check: 82 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 carry a rule for Sidetrade Indexer Bot, so site owners treat it as a real crawler name (how we measure this). That proves the spelling is in use, not who sends it. Reported Sidetrade crawler; vendor page returns 403.
What that means for you: the Sidetrade Indexer Bot rule on this page is the best available spelling, but Sidetrade has made no statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance. Treat a Sidetrade Indexer Bot request in your logs as a clue, not proof of who sent it, and add a firewall rule if that traffic matters to you. If the operator publishes documentation, this profile moves to Official docs.
What is Sidetrade Indexer Bot?
Sidetrade Indexer Bot is a monitoring and validation agent operated by Sidetrade. It checks pages, ad destinations, or policy compliance rather than collecting training data. It has no effect on search rankings.
Sidetrade Indexer Bot is a monitoring and validation agent operated by Sidetrade. It checks pages, ad destinations, or policy compliance rather than collecting training data. It has no effect on search rankings.
Sidetrade Indexer Bot uses the user-agent token Sidetrade Indexer Bot. 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot?
How to block Sidetrade Indexer Bot with robots.txt
<code>User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.
Is Sidetrade Indexer Bot safe to allow?
What does Sidetrade Indexer Bot do?
Understanding Sidetrade Indexer Bot'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
Sidetrade Indexer Bot in context
Sidetrade Indexer Bot is a utility crawler operated by Sidetrade. 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot rests on what you want from Sidetrade, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.
How site owners treat Sidetrade Indexer Bot
In our own scan of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid robots.txt files), 82 files (1.5%) name Sidetrade Indexer Bot in a User-agent line. That shows site owners treat the token as a real crawler worth a rule. It does not, on its own, prove who operates it.
Does it follow robots.txt?
Sidetrade Indexer Bot's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the Sidetrade Indexer Bot rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.
Sidetrade crawlers and close alternatives
Sidetrade runs only this one crawler in our database, so a single User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot group controls everything Sidetrade 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.
We first recorded Sidetrade Indexer Bot on March 17, 2026. We could not find a page where Sidetrade names it, so treat the token as reported rather than documented.
Which rule Sidetrade Indexer Bot actually follows
Sidetrade Indexer Bot reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names Sidetrade Indexer Bot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot
Disallow: /drafts/- Find the group. Sidetrade Indexer Bot looks for a group naming
Sidetrade Indexer Bot. One exists, so it ignoresUser-agent: *completely. - Apply only that group. It is refused
/drafts/and nothing else. - The surprise.
/private/is open to Sidetrade Indexer Bot, 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot if the file also has a User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot group?
No. Once a group names it, Sidetrade Indexer Bot reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.
Test yourself: will blocking Sidetrade Indexer Bot remove your pages from AI answers?
Often, yes. Sidetrade Indexer Bot 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: sidetrade indexer bot the same as User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot?
Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.
Should you allow Sidetrade Indexer Bot? 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot on your own site
- Open
/robots.txton your domain and search forSidetrade Indexer Bot. If it is not named, it followsUser-agent: *. - List the
Disallowlines in the group Sidetrade Indexer Bot 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
- Run our blocked AI crawler check to see how Sidetrade Indexer Bot and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.
Common mistakes with Sidetrade Indexer Bot
The errors we see most often with Sidetrade Indexer Bot in the files and firewalls we test:
- Treating Sidetrade Indexer Bot 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 Sidetrade Indexer Bot is rated caution or aggressive. Back the rule with a server-side block.
- Blocking Sidetrade Indexer Bot by IP alone. Ranges change; match the token and verify with logs.
All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Sidetrade Indexer Bot from outside after every change.
Spotting Sidetrade Indexer Bot in your logs
robots.txt says what Sidetrade Indexer Bot 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 "Sidetrade Indexer Bot" /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 "Sidetrade Indexer Bot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
| awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20Check the requests are genuine
Anyone can send the Sidetrade Indexer Bot user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:
Sidetrade Indexer Bot: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Sidetrade Indexer Bot request with caution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What user-agent string does Sidetrade Indexer Bot use?
Sidetrade Indexer Bot. Evidence that the spelling is in real use comes from our own robots.txt study: 82 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 name it (fetched October 20, 2026), not from Sidetrade, which has not published crawler documentation naming it. Use it in robots.txt as the best available match, and treat a request carrying it as a clue rather than proof of who sent it.Is Sidetrade Indexer Bot safe?
Will blocking Sidetrade Indexer Bot hurt my SEO?
How do I block Sidetrade Indexer Bot in robots.txt?
/robots.txt file:User-agent: Sidetrade Indexer Bot Disallow: /
This instructs Sidetrade Indexer Bot not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g.,
Disallow: /blog/).Does Sidetrade Indexer Bot respect robots.txt?
Sidetrade Indexer Bot will stop a client that chooses to honour it; for enforcement, add a firewall or CDN rule as well.How do I verify if Sidetrade Indexer Bot is crawling my site?
Sidetrade Indexer Bot (for example grep -i "Sidetrade Indexer Bot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Because the operator publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern, a match shows that something used the name, not that Sidetrade sent it.