What is EzoicBot?

EzoicBot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Ezoic Inc.

Bot name
EzoicBot
Operator
Ezoic Inc
Category
SEO Crawlers
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
EzoicBot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About EzoicBot

Ezoic is a technology platform for digital publishers. You can learn more about what Ezoic does here.EzoicBot is our web crawler designed to extract valuable information about how the internet, search engines, and websites all work together. EzoicBot can helps publishers better understand how their sites work. This includes the ability for search engines, like Google, to index and rank their content.

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.

EzoicBot user agent

EzoicBot identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.0; Pixel 2 Build/OPD3.170816.012) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.0.3626.121 Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; EzLynx/0.1; +http://www.ezoic.com/bot.html)

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 EzoicBot in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether EzoicBot 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 EzoicBot from the whole site

User-agent: EzoicBot
Disallow: /

Block EzoicBot from some folders

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

Allow EzoicBot only on some folders

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

Allow EzoicBot and block other crawlers

User-agent: EzoicBot
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: EzoicBot group, EzoicBot ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take EzoicBot from EzoicBot's user agent; check Ezoic Inc'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. EzoicBot may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that EzoicBot 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 EzoicBot's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Ezoic Inc's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real EzoicBot from a fake one.

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

Who should care about EzoicBot

Publishers

EzoicBot 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 EzoicBot's visits out of campaign data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

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

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block EzoicBot with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows EzoicBot 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 EzoicBot on your site

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

Frequently asked questions

What is EzoicBot?

EzoicBot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Ezoic Inc. Ezoic is a technology platform for digital publishers. You can learn more about what Ezoic does here.EzoicBot is our web crawler designed to extract valuable information about how the internet, search engines, and websites all work together. EzoicBot can helps publishers better understand how their sites work. This includes the ability for search engines, like Google, to index and rank their content.

Does EzoicBot respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether EzoicBot 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 EzoicBot?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block EzoicBot?

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

Should I block EzoicBot?

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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Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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