MozDotbot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Moz.
Dotbot is Moz's web crawler, it gathers web data for the Moz Link Index. This data we collect through Dotbot is available in the Links section of your Moz Pro campaign, Link Explorer, and the Moz Links API.
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.
MozDotbot identifies itself with this user agent string:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.1; http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot, [email protected])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.
MozDotbot follows robots.txt, so these rules stop it crawling the paths you choose. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.
User-agent: DotBot Disallow: /
User-agent: DotBot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /search
User-agent: DotBot Allow: /blog/ Disallow: /
User-agent: DotBot Allow: / User-agent: * Disallow: /
User-agent: DotBot group, MozDotbot ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.DotBot from MozDotbot's user agent; check Moz's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.
MozDotbot 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 publishersSEO crawlers map landing pages and links for competitor research. Keep MozDotbot's visits out of campaign data.
Transfon Security for advertisersMozDotbot can map your catalogue, prices and site structure for competitors. Block it unless you use the tool yourself.
Transfon Security for e-commerceAllow MozDotbot only if your team uses the tool; otherwise rate limit it on docs and marketing pages.
Transfon Security for SaaS and APIsrobots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows MozDotbot 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
MozDotbot is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Moz. Dotbot is Moz's web crawler, it gathers web data for the Moz Link Index. This data we collect through Dotbot is available in the Links section of your Moz Pro campaign, Link Explorer, and the Moz Links API.
Yes. MozDotbot follows robots.txt, so a Disallow rule for the DotBot user agent stops it from crawling the paths you list.
Add "User-agent: DotBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "DotBot" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.
No. robots.txt is voluntary, so MozDotbot may not follow it, and anyone can send MozDotbot's user agent, so a fake MozDotbot ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source 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.
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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