What is PingPingBot?

PingPingBot is a bot in the monitoring and analytics bots category, operated by PingPing.io.

Bot name
PingPingBot
Operator
PingPing.io
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
PingPingBot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About PingPingBot

PingPing.io is a monitoring system to monitor the online status of websites and validity

Monitoring bots check uptime, performance and page changes on behalf of a site owner or a third party. Allow the services you run yourself and exclude them from analytics so they do not inflate page views.

PingPingBot user agent

PingPingBot identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • pingping.io/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 PingPingBot in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether PingPingBot 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 PingPingBot from the whole site

User-agent: PingPingBot
Disallow: /

Block PingPingBot from some folders

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

Allow PingPingBot only on some folders

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

Allow PingPingBot and block other crawlers

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

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

Who should care about PingPingBot

Publishers

Allow PingPingBot if it is a service you use, and keep its visits out of page views and ad requests either way.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

PingPingBot is not a person. Exclude it from campaign and conversion data so reports reflect real visitors.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Allow PingPingBot only if it works for your store, and keep it away from cart and checkout.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

If PingPingBot is a service you use, allow it on the endpoints it needs and block it elsewhere.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block PingPingBot with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is PingPingBot?

PingPingBot is a bot in the monitoring and analytics bots category, operated by PingPing.io. PingPing.io is a monitoring system to monitor the online status of websites and validity

Does PingPingBot respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether PingPingBot 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 PingPingBot?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block PingPingBot?

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

Should I block PingPingBot?

Monitoring bots check uptime, performance and page changes on behalf of a site owner or a third party. Allow the services you run yourself and exclude them from analytics so they do not inflate page views.

Related bots

All monitoring and analytics bots · 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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