01 · Operator
Who operates YandexWebmaster
- Company
- Yandex
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- yandex.com
02 · Behavior
What YandexWebmaster does
Yandex lists it as the robot of the Yandex Webmaster service. It follows robots.txt.
03 · Impact
Why YandexWebmaster matters for your site
If you allow it
- Needed for Yandex Webmaster tools
- Follows robots.txt
If you block it
- Little value if you do not use Yandex Webmaster
04 · Allow
How to allow YandexWebmaster
robots.txt
User-agent: YandexWebmaster
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexWebmaster")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: YandexWebmaster
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexWebmaster") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexWebmaster [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block YandexWebmaster
YandexWebmaster follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: YandexWebmaster
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexWebmaster")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: YandexWebmaster
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexWebmaster") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexWebmaster [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for YandexWebmaster
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexWebmaster/2.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)07 · Verification
Is it really YandexWebmaster?
Anyone can copy a user agent. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to yandex.ru</code>, <code>yandex.net</code>, <code>yandex.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about YandexWebmaster
Does YandexWebmaster respect robots.txt?
Yes. Yandex lists YandexWebmaster among the robots that follow robots.txt rules.
How do I block YandexWebmaster?
Add "User-agent: YandexWebmaster" and "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt.
How can I verify that YandexWebmaster is really from Yandex?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP. The hostname must end in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, and a forward lookup must return the same IP.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026