01 · Operator
Who operates Adsbot
- Company
- Seostar
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- seostar.co
02 · Behavior
What Adsbot does
Adsbot crawls the web to build Seostar's link database. Seostar says the data helps customers improve ads and plan online marketing. It states that it respects robots.txt and supports Crawl-Delay in seconds.
03 · Impact
Why Adsbot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Follows robots.txt and Crawl-Delay
- Your links appear in Seostar's backlink data
If you block it
- Serves Seostar's customers, not your visitors
- Adds crawl load with no search traffic in return
04 · Allow
How to allow Adsbot
robots.txt
User-agent: adsbot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "adsbot")
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: adsbot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "adsbot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} adsbot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Adsbot
Adsbot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: adsbot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "adsbot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: adsbot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "adsbot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} adsbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Adsbot
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Adsbot/3.1; +https://seostar.co/robot/)07 · Verification
Is it really Adsbot?
Adsbot’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.
FAQ
Questions about Adsbot
Is Adsbot the same as Google AdsBot?
No. Adsbot/3.1 belongs to Seostar, an SEO and marketing toolset. Google's ads crawler uses the token AdsBot-Google.
How do I block Adsbot?
Add User-agent: adsbot with Disallow: / to robots.txt. Seostar says it strictly respects robots.txt.
Can I slow Adsbot down?
Yes. Seostar says Adsbot supports the Crawl-Delay directive, measured in seconds.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026