01 · Operator
Who operates YandexBot
- Company
- Yandex
- Official docs
- yandex.com
02 · Behavior
What YandexBot does
YandexBot crawls web pages and adds them to the Yandex search index. Yandex documents that it follows robots.txt. Yandex also runs many specialised robots that share the yandex.com/bots reference in their user agents.
03 · Impact
Why YandexBot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Your pages can appear in Yandex search results
- Important for audiences in Russia and nearby markets
- Honors robots.txt
If you block it
- Little value if you have no audience in Yandex markets
- Adds crawl load
04 · Allow
How to allow YandexBot
robots.txt
User-agent: YandexBot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexBot")
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: YandexBot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexBot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block YandexBot
YandexBot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.
robots.txt
User-agent: YandexBot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "YandexBot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: YandexBot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "YandexBot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for YandexBot
The user agent published by the operator:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)07 · Verification
Is it really YandexBot?
Anyone can copy a user agent. A reverse DNS lookup of a real request resolves to yandex.ru</code>, <code>yandex.net</code>, <code>yandex.com, and that hostname resolves back to the same IP.
FAQ
Questions about YandexBot
What is YandexBot?
YandexBot is the main indexing robot of the Yandex search engine.
Does YandexBot respect robots.txt?
Yes. Yandex lists YandexBot among the robots that follow robots.txt.
How do I verify a real Yandex robot?
Run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP. The hostname must end in yandex.ru, yandex.net or yandex.com, and a forward lookup must return the same IP.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026