What is CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler?

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Cloudflare.

Bot name
CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler
Operator
Cloudflare
Category
SEO Crawlers
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
Collapsify
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler

Cloulflare internal service that crawls customer error pages in order to serve them directly from our edge network.

SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler user agent

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 Collapsify/0.6.0 node/v10.16.0

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler from the whole site

User-agent: Collapsify
Disallow: /

Block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler from some folders

User-agent: Collapsify
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler only on some folders

User-agent: Collapsify
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler and block other crawlers

User-agent: Collapsify
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: Collapsify group, CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take Collapsify from CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler's user agent; check Cloudflare's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Cloudflare's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler

Publishers

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler works for an SEO tool's customers, often your competitors. It adds server load without readers, so rate limit or block it unless you use the tool.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

SEO crawlers map landing pages and links for competitor research. Keep CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler's visits out of campaign data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler can map your catalogue, prices and site structure for competitors. Block it unless you use the tool yourself.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler only if your team uses the tool; otherwise rate limit it on docs and marketing pages.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler on your site

  • See every CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler?

CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Cloudflare. Cloulflare internal service that crawls customer error pages in order to serve them directly from our edge network.

Does CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler?

Add "User-agent: Collapsify" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "Collapsify/" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler may not follow it, and anyone can send CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler's user agent, so a fake CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block CloudflareCustomErrorPageCrawler?

SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.

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