01 · Operator
Who operates AhrefsSiteAudit
- Company
- Ahrefs
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- ahrefs.com
02 · Behavior
What AhrefsSiteAudit does
It crawls sites that Ahrefs users audit. It obeys robots.txt and crawl-delay by default. Verified site owners can let it ignore those rules on their own sites.
03 · Impact
Why AhrefsSiteAudit matters for your site
If you allow it
- Needed if you audit your site with Ahrefs
- Verifiable by IP and reverse DNS
If you block it
- Competitors can audit your site
- Adds crawl load
04 · Allow
How to allow AhrefsSiteAudit
robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsSiteAudit
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "AhrefsSiteAudit")
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: AhrefsSiteAudit
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "AhrefsSiteAudit") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} AhrefsSiteAudit [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block AhrefsSiteAudit
AhrefsSiteAudit follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsSiteAudit
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "AhrefsSiteAudit")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: AhrefsSiteAudit
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "AhrefsSiteAudit") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} AhrefsSiteAudit [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for AhrefsSiteAudit
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsSiteAudit/6.1; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/site-audit)07 · Verification
Is it really AhrefsSiteAudit?
Anyone can copy a user agent. Real AhrefsSiteAudit requests come from the IP ranges published at api.ahrefs.com/v3/public/crawler-ip-ranges. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to ahrefs.com</code>, <code>ahrefs.net, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about AhrefsSiteAudit
What is AhrefsSiteAudit?
It is the crawler that powers Ahrefs' Site Audit tool.
Does AhrefsSiteAudit obey robots.txt?
Yes by default. Verified owners can ask it to ignore robots.txt on their own sites.
How do I verify AhrefsSiteAudit?
Check the IP against Ahrefs' published IP ranges, or confirm reverse DNS ends in ahrefs.com or ahrefs.net.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026