01 · Operator
Who operates MJ12bot
- Company
- Majestic
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- mj12bot.com
02 · Behavior
What MJ12bot does
It spiders the web to record which sites link to which. Majestic uses the data in its link index and search tools. The crawler is community-based and distributed, so it has no fixed IP blocks. It obeys robots.txt, including Allow rules and wildcards.
03 · Impact
Why MJ12bot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Your backlinks appear in Majestic's index
- It obeys robots.txt and Crawl-delay
If you block it
- It brings no direct traffic
- It cannot be verified by IP because it is distributed
- Its name is easy to spoof
04 · Allow
How to allow MJ12bot
robots.txt
User-agent: MJ12bot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "MJ12bot")
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: MJ12bot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "MJ12bot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} MJ12bot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block MJ12bot
MJ12bot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: MJ12bot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "MJ12bot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: MJ12bot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "MJ12bot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} MJ12bot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for MJ12bot
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MJ12bot/v1.4.8; http://mj12bot.com/)07 · Verification
Is it really MJ12bot?
MJ12bot’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 MJ12bot
How do I block MJ12bot?
Add User-agent: MJ12bot with Disallow: / to robots.txt. Majestic states the bot obeys robots.txt.
Why does MJ12bot come from many different IP addresses?
Majestic runs a community-based distributed crawler. It does not use consecutive IP blocks.
Can I slow MJ12bot down?
Yes. Majestic says MJ12bot honors Crawl-delay with a delay of up to 20 seconds between requests.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026