See it on a real storeBots, pages and people sent by AI on an example store. No sign-up.Search engines, run by Yandex.
What is YandexBot? Yandex's search engine crawler. Verifiable by reverse DNS.
Run by Yandex.
Purpose: Search engines. A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index.
robots.txt name: YandexBot.
Verifiable by reverse DNS.
At a glance, the facts in one table.
YandexBot at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.
All bots| YandexBot | |
|---|---|
| Operator | Yandex |
| Purpose | Search engines |
| User agent contains | YandexBot, YandexImages, YandexMobileBot |
| robots.txt name | YandexBot |
| Verification | Reverse DNS |
| Documentation | None listed |
Purpose, what it does and why it came.
What YandexBot does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. YandexBot is in the Search engines group.
YandexBot is Yandex's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Yandex's search results.
What a visit means
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
Comparing how often a search engine and AI assistants read the same pages shows which content AI relies on more, or less, than search does.
Detection, the header SenseGap matches.
How SenseGap recognizes YandexBot. 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 YandexBot when that header contains any of YandexBot, YandexImages or YandexMobileBot, 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.
/YandexBot|YandexImages|YandexMobileBot/iVerification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.
How to verify YandexBot. Yandex publishes the DNS names its servers use, so a real visit can be proven.
How we verify bots- 01
Look up the visiting address
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address the request came from. It returns a hostname.
- 02
Check the hostname
The hostname must end in .yandex.ru, .yandex.net or .yandex.com. Anything else is not YandexBot.
*.yandex.ru *.yandex.net *.yandex.com - 03
Look the hostname up again
Run a forward lookup on that hostname. It must return the same IP address, otherwise the reverse record could have been set by anyone.
$ host <visiting-ip>
… domain name pointer <hostname>.yandex.ru.
$ host <hostname>.yandex.ru
<hostname>.yandex.ru has address <visiting-ip>SenseGap runs this check on every visit that claims to be YandexBot. A pass is marked Real. A visit that sends the name and fails is marked Fake, and stays out of your other reports.
robots.txt, rules you can copy.
Block or allow YandexBot in robots.txt. Its robots.txt name is YandexBot. Paste a group into the robots.txt at your site's root.
User-agent: YandexBot
Disallow: /User-agent: YandexBot
Allow: /User-agent: YandexBot
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 YandexBot 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:
# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexBot|YandexImages|YandexMobileBot") {
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 YandexBot? It depends on what you want from Yandex. Here is what each choice means.
If you allow it
Your pages can rank and be found in that search engine.
If you block it
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants.
Search engines, other bots with the same job.
Other search engine crawlers. Same purpose, different companies.
Browse the directoryFAQ, YandexBot in short answers.
YandexBot, answered plainly
What is YandexBot?
YandexBot is Yandex's search engine crawler that indexes pages for Yandex's search results.
Who runs YandexBot?
Yandex. SenseGap's directory has no documentation link for it yet.
What does a visit from YandexBot mean?
A visit means your page is being crawled for a classic search index. SenseGap keeps search engines in your reports so you can compare AI activity with them.
What user agent does YandexBot use?
Its User-Agent header contains one of "YandexBot", "YandexImages" or "YandexMobileBot". SenseGap matches any of these regardless of letter case.
How do I block YandexBot?
Add "User-agent: YandexBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt. robots.txt is a request, not a lock; to enforce it, block the user agent at your server or CDN.
How do I know a visit is really YandexBot?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the address: the hostname must end in .yandex.ru, .yandex.net or .yandex.com, and a forward lookup of that hostname must return the same address. SenseGap runs these checks on every visit.
Does Yandex publish IP ranges for YandexBot?
Not as a list SenseGap uses. It can be verified by reverse DNS instead: real hosts end in .yandex.ru, .yandex.net or .yandex.com.
What happens if I block YandexBot?
Your pages drop out of that search engine's results over time. For major engines this is rarely what a site wants.