What is MRGbot?

MRGbot is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by MRG Web Services srl.

Bot name
MRGbot
Operator
MRG Web Services srl
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Yes
robots.txt user agent
MRGbot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About MRGbot

Search engine aimed at generating a corpus of data to be able to aggregate data in various ways.

Search engine crawlers index your pages so they can appear in search results. Keep the genuine ones allowed and verify them, because fake search crawlers are one of the most common disguises for scrapers.

MRGbot user agent

Sample user agent strings sent by MRGbot:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MRGbot/1.0; +https://www.mrg.ro/bot.html)
  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MRGbot/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 MRGbot in robots.txt

MRGbot 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.

Block MRGbot from the whole site

User-agent: MRGbot
Disallow: /

Block MRGbot from some folders

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

Allow MRGbot only on some folders

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

Allow MRGbot and block other crawlers

User-agent: MRGbot
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: MRGbot group, MRGbot ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take MRGbot from MRGbot's user agent; check MRG Web Services srl'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. MRGbot may not follow the rule. MRGbot says it follows robots.txt, but nothing enforces that. Changes can take a day to apply, the operator can change its policy, and other crawlers from MRG Web Services srl use different names and rules.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send MRGbot's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by MRG Web Services srl's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real MRGbot from a fake one.

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

Who should care about MRGbot

Publishers

MRGbot brings search traffic, so keep the real one allowed. Fake MRGbot requests are a common cover for scrapers, so verify it by network rather than by name.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Search crawlers fetch landing pages to check them. Keep MRGbot allowed, but out of campaign and conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

MRGbot indexes products for search results. Allow it, and block impersonators that use its name to scrape prices.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow MRGbot on marketing and docs pages, and keep it off signed-in app pages it cannot use.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block MRGbot with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is MRGbot?

MRGbot is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by MRG Web Services srl. Search engine aimed at generating a corpus of data to be able to aggregate data in various ways.

Does MRGbot respect robots.txt?

Yes. MRGbot follows robots.txt, so a Disallow rule for the MRGbot user agent stops it from crawling the paths you list.

How do I block MRGbot?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block MRGbot?

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

Should I block MRGbot?

Search engine crawlers index your pages so they can appear in search results. Keep the genuine ones allowed and verify them, because fake search crawlers are one of the most common disguises for scrapers.

Related bots

All search engine crawlers · 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.

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