What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a bot in the advertising and marketing bots category, operated by Salesforce.

Bot name
Salesforce
Operator
Salesforce
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
SFDC-Callout
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About Salesforce

CRM + Marketing

Advertising bots review landing pages, check ad placements and classify pages for brand safety and contextual targeting. Blocking ad verification bots can stop your ads or your inventory from serving, so allow the ones your ad partners use.

Salesforce user agent

Salesforce identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • SFDC-Callout/49.0

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 Salesforce in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether Salesforce 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 Salesforce from the whole site

User-agent: SFDC-Callout
Disallow: /

Block Salesforce from some folders

User-agent: SFDC-Callout
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Salesforce only on some folders

User-agent: SFDC-Callout
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Salesforce and block other crawlers

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

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

Who should care about Salesforce

Publishers

Ad verification and contextual crawlers like Salesforce can decide whether your pages get demand. Blocking the ones your partners use can lower fill rates.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Salesforce checks pages for ad platforms. Its visits to landing pages are not users, so exclude them from conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Ad platforms send crawlers like Salesforce to check product landing pages. Keep it allowed so ads are not disapproved, and out of analytics.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow Salesforce on landing pages linked from your ads, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Salesforce with Transfon Security

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a bot in the advertising and marketing bots category, operated by Salesforce. CRM + Marketing

Does Salesforce respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether Salesforce 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 Salesforce?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block Salesforce?

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

Should I block Salesforce?

Advertising bots review landing pages, check ad placements and classify pages for brand safety and contextual targeting. Blocking ad verification bots can stop your ads or your inventory from serving, so allow the ones your ad partners use.

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