What is HelloWork?

HelloWork is a bot in the content aggregators category, operated by HelloWork Group.

Bot name
HelloWork
Operator
HelloWork Group
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
HelloworkJobPostingBot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About HelloWork

HelloWork is a French job board, and its bot aggregates job listings for its platform. It crawls company career pages and other sources to collect this information.

Aggregators collect articles and links from many sites to build news feeds, read later apps and discovery services. Some send referral traffic, others republish your content. Check what each one does with your pages before allowing it.

HelloWork user agent

HelloWork identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • HelloworkJobPostingBot/1.0

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 HelloWork in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether HelloWork 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 HelloWork from the whole site

User-agent: HelloworkJobPostingBot
Disallow: /

Block HelloWork from some folders

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

Allow HelloWork only on some folders

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

Allow HelloWork and block other crawlers

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

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

Who should care about HelloWork

Publishers

HelloWork fetches pages when your links are shared or syndicated. Keep it allowed so previews and feeds work, but leave it out of page views and ad requests.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

When ads or posts are shared, HelloWork fetches the landing page. Those hits are not clicks, so keep them out of campaign reports.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Product links shared in chats and feeds are fetched by HelloWork. Keep it allowed so previews show the right image and price.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow HelloWork on public pages so shared links preview well, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block HelloWork with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is HelloWork?

HelloWork is a bot in the content aggregators category, operated by HelloWork Group. HelloWork is a French job board, and its bot aggregates job listings for its platform. It crawls company career pages and other sources to collect this information.

Does HelloWork respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether HelloWork 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 HelloWork?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block HelloWork?

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

Should I block HelloWork?

Aggregators collect articles and links from many sites to build news feeds, read later apps and discovery services. Some send referral traffic, others republish your content. Check what each one does with your pages before allowing it.

Related bots

All content aggregators · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

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.

Stay ahead of the publishing curve

Privacy, security, monetization, and performance insights. A few emails a month, no spam.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy.