01 · Operator
Who operates SEBot-WA
- Company
- SE Ranking
- Type
- SEO tool crawler
- Official docs
- help.seranking.com
02 · Behavior
What SEBot-WA does
It crawls a website on behalf of an SE Ranking user to find technical and on-page SEO issues. By default it follows robots.txt. The user can change this in the project settings. Its servers use hostnames under sr-srv.net.
03 · Impact
Why SEBot-WA matters for your site
If you allow it
- Your own team or agency may use SE Ranking audits
- It follows robots.txt by default
- Verifiable by reverse DNS
If you block it
- Third parties can audit your site
- Users can turn off robots.txt compliance
- It brings no direct traffic
04 · Allow
How to allow SEBot-WA
robots.txt
User-agent: SEBot-WA
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "SEBot-WA")
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: SEBot-WA
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "SEBot\-WA") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SEBot\-WA [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block SEBot-WA
SEBot-WA does not always follow robots.txt. Add a server or CDN rule if you need a hard block.
robots.txt
User-agent: SEBot-WA
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "SEBot-WA")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: SEBot-WA
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "SEBot\-WA") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SEBot\-WA [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for SEBot-WA
The user agent published by the operator:
SEBot-WA07 · Verification
Is it really SEBot-WA?
Anyone can copy a user agent. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to sr-srv.net, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about SEBot-WA
What is SEBot-WA?
SEBot-WA is SE Ranking's crawler for its Website Audit and On-Page SEO Checker. It runs when an SE Ranking user audits a site.
How do I verify SEBot-WA?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP. A real request resolves to a subdomain of sr-srv.net, confirmed by a forward lookup.
Does SEBot-WA obey robots.txt?
By default yes. SE Ranking users can change this setting in their project, so it is not guaranteed.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026