AhrefsBot in robots.txt
AhrefsBot is Ahrefs's crawler. Here's exactly what it does, whether it respects robots.txt, and the rules to control it. To apply a policy in one click, use the AI Crawler Manager.
What AhrefsBot is
AhrefsBot is the crawler for Ahrefs, a major SEO platform. It builds Ahrefs' backlink index and site-audit data. It does not affect your search rankings — it only feeds a third-party SEO tool.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| User-agent | AhrefsBot |
| Operator | Ahrefs |
| Category | SEO crawlers |
| Honors robots.txt | Yes |
| Affects search ranking | No |
Official documentation: Ahrefs crawler docs.
What AhrefsBot does
- Crawls the web to map links between pages for Ahrefs' backlink database.
- Powers Ahrefs Site Explorer, Site Audit, and rank-tracking features.
Why site owners care
- Blocking AhrefsBot hides your backlink profile from Ahrefs users — including competitors researching you.
- On large sites, SEO crawlers add server load without sending you traffic.
- It has no effect on Google or Bing rankings.
How to allow or block AhrefsBot
Add a group targeting the AhrefsBot user-agent. Disallow: / blocks it from your whole site; an empty Disallow: allows it.
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow:No effect on search ranking
How to verify AhrefsBot
Verify via reverse DNS to an ahrefs.com / ahrefs.net host, or match Ahrefs' published IP ranges.
Does it honor robots.txt?
Recommendation
Recommended: Allow
Does blocking AhrefsBot hurt my SEO?
No. AhrefsBot only feeds the Ahrefs SEO tool. It is unrelated to Googlebot or Bingbot, so blocking it has zero effect on your search rankings — it only limits what Ahrefs (and its users) can see about your backlinks.
How do I block AhrefsBot?
Add a group: User-agent: AhrefsBot followed by Disallow: /. You can also slow it down with Crawl-delay instead of blocking it outright.
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