What is SerpstatBot? Serpstat's SEO crawler
SerpstatBot is Serpstat's crawler. It scans the web for new and changed links for the backlink index Serpstat users plan and monitor campaigns with.
47 of the 1662 major websites we measure block SerpstatBot in robots.txt (3%). 12 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.
Key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | Serpstat |
| Used for | Serpstat's backlink index |
| Type | SEO tool. Collects web data for an SEO tool. Listed here because people look it up beside AI crawlers. It isn't counted in the AI crawler figures. |
| robots.txt token | SerpstatBot |
| Operator's documentation | Read it here |
What blocking SerpstatBot does
Serpstat says SerpstatBot follows robots.txt, honours a crawl delay of up to 20 seconds, and treats a site as unrestricted when it cannot read robots.txt, for example after a 403.
How to allow or block SerpstatBot
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. It is a stated preference that well-behaved crawlers read, not an enforcement mechanism.
User-agent: SerpstatBot Disallow: /
User-agent: SerpstatBot Allow: /
SerpstatBot user agent string
Serpstat's page doesn't list a full string, so look for SerpstatBot in the user agent field of your logs.
How to verify a request is really SerpstatBot
Anyone can put a crawler's name in a user agent string, so the name alone proves nothing. We did not find a published IP list or reverse DNS rule from Serpstat.
How to whitelist SerpstatBot in a firewall or CDN
robots.txt only states a preference. A firewall, CDN or bot protection service can still refuse the request, and the crawler then gets an error even though robots.txt allows it.
- Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
- Add an allow rule in your firewall or CDN that matches the name in the user agent. Keep the rule narrow, because anyone can copy a name.
- Check your server logs for a 200 response from SerpstatBot afterwards.
On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.
Why SerpstatBot gets a 403 or 405 error
A 403 means the server refused the request, which usually points to a firewall or bot rule. A 405 means the server refused the request's method, so check any rule that only permits certain methods. A crawler that obeys robots.txt won't request a page it is told to avoid, so an error in your logs points to your server's configuration. To stop it deliberately at the server, this nginx rule returns a 403:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "SerpstatBot") {
return 403;
}Who blocks SerpstatBot, by sector
| Sector | Sites measured | Blocking | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social and media platforms | 115 | 11 | 10% |
| News publishers | 182 | 11 | 6% |
| Finance and business media | 94 | 4 | 4% |
| Reference and research | 114 | 4 | 4% |
| Technology media | 126 | 4 | 3% |
| AI companies | 128 | 3 | 2% |
| Developer references | 159 | 3 | 2% |
| E-commerce and retail | 92 | 1 | 1% |
| Government and institutions | 98 | 1 | 1% |
| Health publishers | 88 | 1 | 1% |
| Hosting and infrastructure | 98 | 1 | 1% |
| SaaS platforms | 196 | 2 | 1% |
| SEO and marketing tools | 86 | 1 | 1% |
| Travel | 86 | 0 | 0% |
Sites blocking SerpstatBot
academia.edu, afterpay.com, barrons.com, bhf.org.uk, breakingnews.ie, computerbase.de, consilium.europa.eu, devclass.com, disneyplus.com, distill.pub, eluniversal.com.mx, facebook.com, flickr.com, fortinet.com, hackernoon.com, imdb.com, influxdata.com, instacart.com, instagram.com, linguee.com, lobste.rs, magento.com, marketwatch.com, meta.ai, netflix.com, news.com.au, news24.com, pinterest.com, poe.com, reddit.com, reuters.com, rosettacode.org, sap.com, sciencedirect.com, seekingalpha.com, spiegel.de, sr.ht, theregister.com, thesun.co.uk, thetimes.co.uk, threads.net, todayonline.com, webmasterworld.com, wordreference.com, wsj.com, x.com, zeit.de.
Sites that allow SerpstatBot by name
See all 36 AI crawlers, the rule change log or the full study. Being reachable is only the first step: how AI search engines choose what to cite covers the rest.
Cite this data
You are welcome to quote or republish these figures. Please credit IndexHalo with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). All our datasets are on the data page.
IndexHalo. "SerpstatBot block rate across major websites." Measured 12 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/serpstatbot/
<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/serpstatbot/">SerpstatBot block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>