What is SiteSearch360?

SiteSearch360 is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by SEMKNOX GmbH.

Bot name
SiteSearch360
Operator
SEMKNOX GmbH
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
SiteSearch360
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About SiteSearch360

Site Search 360 is a popular Google Site Search replacement. Our crawler indexes content on our customers' sites for search.

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.

SiteSearch360 user agent

SiteSearch360 identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; SiteSearch360/1.0; +https://sitesearch360.com/)

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 SiteSearch360 in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360 from the whole site

User-agent: SiteSearch360
Disallow: /

Block SiteSearch360 from some folders

User-agent: SiteSearch360
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow SiteSearch360 only on some folders

User-agent: SiteSearch360
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow SiteSearch360 and block other crawlers

User-agent: SiteSearch360
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: SiteSearch360 group, SiteSearch360 ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take SiteSearch360 from SiteSearch360's user agent; check SEMKNOX GmbH'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. SiteSearch360 may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by SEMKNOX GmbH's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real SiteSearch360 from a fake one.

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

Who should care about SiteSearch360

Publishers

SiteSearch360 brings search traffic, so keep the real one allowed. Fake SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360 allowed, but out of campaign and conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360 on marketing and docs pages, and keep it off signed-in app pages it cannot use.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block SiteSearch360 with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360 on your site

  • See every SiteSearch360 visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit SiteSearch360 with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is SiteSearch360?

SiteSearch360 is a bot in the search engine crawlers category, operated by SEMKNOX GmbH. Site Search 360 is a popular Google Site Search replacement. Our crawler indexes content on our customers' sites for search.

Does SiteSearch360 respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether SiteSearch360 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 SiteSearch360?

Add "User-agent: SiteSearch360" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "SiteSearch360" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block SiteSearch360?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so SiteSearch360 may not follow it, and anyone can send SiteSearch360's user agent, so a fake SiteSearch360 ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block SiteSearch360?

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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