01 · Operator
Who operates Yahoo Link Preview
- Company
- Yahoo
- Type
- Social preview bot
- Official docs
- help.yahoo.com
02 · Behavior
What Yahoo Link Preview does
When a Yahoo Mail user references a page from your site, the client fetches it. It collects a thumbnail image, the page title and the description. It only fetches pages that users link to and is not a general crawler.
03 · Impact
Why Yahoo Link Preview matters for your site
If you allow it
- Makes your links look better in Yahoo Mail
- Only fetches pages users share
If you block it
- No direct search visibility
04 · Allow
How to allow Yahoo Link Preview
robots.txt
# Yahoo Link Preview has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Yahoo Link Preview")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# Yahoo Link Preview has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Yahoo Link Preview") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Yahoo Link Preview [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Yahoo Link Preview
Start with robots.txt. If Yahoo Link Preview keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
# Yahoo Link Preview has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Yahoo Link Preview")
Action: BlockWordPress
# Yahoo Link Preview has no documented robots.txt token and does not read robots.txt.
# Use a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule instead.nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Yahoo Link Preview") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Yahoo Link Preview [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Yahoo Link Preview
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo Link Preview; https://help.yahoo.com/kb/mail/yahoo-link-preview-SLN23615.html)07 · Verification
Is it really Yahoo Link Preview?
Yahoo Link Preview’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 Yahoo Link Preview
What is Yahoo Link Preview?
It is a Yahoo client that fetches thumbnails, titles and descriptions for links shared in Yahoo Mail.
Is Yahoo Link Preview a crawler?
Not a general one. Yahoo says it only fetches pages that Yahoo users link to.
Last updated Oct 14, 2026