SEO tools, run by DataForSEO.

What is DataForSeoBot? DataForSEO's SEO tool crawler. It can't be verified beyond its name.

Run by DataForSEO.
Purpose: SEO tools. A visit means an SEO tool is crawling your site, either for its own index of links and pages or because someone ran an audit or test on your site.
robots.txt name: DataForSeoBot.
Name only: no published list to check a visit against.

At a glance, the facts in one table.

DataForSeoBot at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.

DataForSeoBot facts
	DataForSeoBot
Operator	DataForSEO
Purpose	SEO tools
User agent contains	`DataForSeoBot`
robots.txt name	`DataForSeoBot`
Verification	Name only
Documentation	None listed

Purpose, what it does and why it came.

What DataForSeoBot does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. DataForSeoBot is in the SEO tools group.

DataForSeoBot is DataForSEO's crawler that collects data for DataForSEO's SEO tools.

What a visit means

A visit means an SEO tool is crawling your site, either for its own index of links and pages or because someone ran an audit or test on your site.

Detection, the header SenseGap matches.

How SenseGap recognizes DataForSeoBot. By its User-Agent header. A separate check then decides whether the visit is real.

Every request carries a User-Agent header naming the software that sent it. SenseGap counts a request as DataForSeoBot when that header contains DataForSeoBot, in any letter case. The header is plain text, so any script can copy it. Matching the name is where recognition starts, not where trust starts.

Pattern matched against User-Agent

/DataForSeoBot/i

Verification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.

DataForSeoBot can't be fully verified. SenseGap knows of no published IP ranges or DNS names for it, so the name is all there is.

How we verify bots

What this means

Not beyond the user agent. SenseGap knows of no published IP ranges or DNS names for DataForSeoBot, so anyone can send its name. SenseGap marks these visits Unverified rather than calling them real.

robots.txt, rules you can copy.

Block or allow DataForSeoBot in robots.txt. Its robots.txt name is DataForSeoBot. Paste a group into the robots.txt at your site's root.

Block the whole site

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /

Allow the whole site

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Allow: /

Block one folder

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /private/

One rule catches people out. Under the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309), a crawler that finds a group naming it follows only that group and ignores your User-agent: * rules. If you add a DataForSeoBot group, repeat in it anything from the catch-all group you still want applied.

robots.txt is a request, not a lock. To enforce a block, match the User-Agent header at your server or CDN. In nginx:

Enforce it at the server

# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "DataForSeoBot") {
    return 403;
}

SenseGap reads your robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, what you allow and which bots fetched pages you disallowed. See what you get.

Trade-off, what blocking changes.

Should you block DataForSeoBot? It depends on what you want from DataForSEO. Here is what each choice means.

If you allow it
Your site's data in the tool stays complete, and audits you run with it keep working.
If you block it
The tool's picture of your site becomes incomplete, and its audits of your site may fail. It has no effect on how search engines rank you.

SEO tools, other bots with the same job.

Other SEO tool crawlers. Same purpose, different companies.

Browse the directory

FAQ, DataForSeoBot in short answers.

DataForSeoBot, answered plainly