Which user-agent strings identify GoogleBot?

The following user-agent strings identify GoogleBot: Googlebot.

Does GoogleBot respect robots.txt rules?

Yes, GoogleBot respects robots.txt directives according to official documentation.

How do I block or allow GoogleBot in robots.txt?

You can control GoogleBot access using robots.txt rules. See the blocking snippet on this page for specific directives.

How can I verify GoogleBot traffic in server logs?

You can verify GoogleBot requests by checking your server access logs for the documented user-agent strings. For accurate verification, correlate user-agent patterns with IP ranges or verification methods provided by Google.

What is GoogleBot?

Direct Answer: Google uses crawlers and fetchers to perform actions for its products, either automatically or triggered by user request.

Operator: Google Purpose: Search Indexing

User-Agent Identification

The following user-agent strings identify GoogleBot in your server logs:

Googlebot

robots.txt Rules for GoogleBot

Respects robots.txt: Yes

Use the following robots.txt rules to control GoogleBot access:

# Block GoogleBot
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /

# Allow GoogleBot
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

Crawl Behavior

Request Pattern: Not Documented

Official Documentation Quotes

""

Source: Official Documentation

Log Verification

To verify GoogleBot traffic in your server logs:

Search access logs for the user-agent strings listed above
Check if the IP addresses match documented ranges (if provided by Google)
Verify the crawl pattern matches documented behavior
Use reverse DNS lookup for additional verification if available

Note: Observed behavior in production environments may differ from official documentation. Log-based monitoring provides the only reliable verification of actual bot behavior.

Missing Information

The following information is not officially documented for GoogleBot:

requestBehavior

Official Documentation

View Official GoogleBot Documentation →

Information extracted on February 2, 2026 from official sources. Content generated with AI assistance.