Instantly check if Google bots and AI crawlers can access your website.

🤖 Instant Crawler Checker

Enter any URL to instantly check if major search engine and AI crawlers like Googlebot and ChatGPT are allowed or blocked from accessing your website URL and pages.
View Supported Crawlers & User Agents

💸 Avoid Costly SEO Mistakes

Accidentally blocking the wrong bot can hurt your rankings. Verify your crawl rules and optimize your website to ensure improved visibility on search engines and AI bots.
How to Improve SEO Visibility Common Issues & Fixes

🧩 How CrawlerCheck Works

It analyzes your site's robots.txt file, meta robots tags, and X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers to provide a clear report on which user-agents are allowed or disallowed for your URL.
Learn How CrawlerCheck Works

Why This Report Matters

This check shows if search engines and AI tools can access your content — or if anything is blocked by mistake.

✅ Make sure you're visible: Check that you didn't accidentally block Google or other search engines with robots.txt, meta tags, or headers.

🛑 Block AI bots if needed: If you don't want tools like ChatGPT or Claude using your content, this helps you confirm they're blocked.

🧠 Show intent: Blocking crawlers sets a clear boundary — useful in legal cases around AI or content scraping.

💸 Save crawl budget: On larger sites, blocking bots that don't matter ensures Google focuses on your key pages.

Summary: Whether you allow or block bots, this tool helps you check that everything works exactly as you intended.

FAQ

How can I check if Googlebot is blocked by my site?

Use CrawlerCheck, a fast Googlebot checker and crawler check tool, to test any URL. It analyzes robots.txt, meta robots, and headers to confirm whether Googlebot can crawl or is blocked.

How do I test Bingbot vs. Googlebot access?

With CrawlerCheck, you can run a bot crawler test on any page. It instantly compares Googlebot, Bingbot, and other search engine crawlers, so you'll know if your rules are blocking one but not the other.

How do I perform a manual crawl test?

To perform a crawl test, simply paste your URL into CrawlerCheck. The SEO tool will simulate a visit from specific user-agents, effectively running a website crawl test to show you exactly which bots are allowed or blocked.

Can I see if AI crawlers like ChatGPT or Perplexity can crawl my site?

Yes. CrawlerCheck works as an AI crawler access checker, letting you verify if AI bots such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity can read your site. It shows whether robots.txt, meta tags, or headers allow or block AI crawlers.

Why isn't Google indexing all my sitemap pages?

Indexing issues often come from restrictions in robots.txt or meta tags. Run a crawler test with CrawlerCheck to confirm whether your pages are blocked. It's a quick way to diagnose crawlability problems before waiting on Search Console.

What's an easy way to understand robots.txt?

Robots.txt is a robots exclusion checker file that tells bots where they can or cannot go. Try it out with CrawlerCheck: paste a URL, and you'll see how crawlers interpret your site's rules in real time.

Can I test specific pages, not just the homepage?

Absolutely. CrawlerCheck runs a crawler test on any page you enter — homepage, product pages, or deep content. It's a simple way to check crawlability across your site, not just at the top level.

How do I fix "Blocked due to access forbidden (403)" in Search Console?

This error means Googlebot tried to crawl your URL but was rejected by your server. This is rarely a robots.txt issue. It is usually caused by a Web Application Firewall (WAF) (like Cloudflare, Wordfence, or Akamai) or a server configuration that is blocking the specific User-Agent or IP address of the bot. The Fix: Use CrawlerCheck above to simulate a Googlebot request. If our tool receives a "403 Forbidden" but a normal browser request gets a "200 OK," you need to whitelist the Googlebot User-Agent in your firewall settings.

How do I fix "Blocked by robots.txt" in Google Search Console?

This error means you have a specific Disallow rule in your robots.txt file that prevents Googlebot from crawling that URL. The Fix: Use the tool above to check your URL. It will highlight exactly which line in your robots.txt file is triggering the block. Note: If you want the page indexed, remove the Disallow rule. If you don't want it indexed, you must allow crawling and add a noindex tag instead.

CrawlerCheck: Essential Insights for SEO Professionals & Webmasters

Supported Crawlers and User-Agents: Search Engines, AI Bots, SEO Tools, Social Media, and More

CrawlerCheck supports a comprehensive and categorized list of web crawlers and user-agents to help you monitor and manage crawler access effectively. This includes:

Major search engine bots: Googlebot, Bingbot, YandexBot, Baiduspider, DuckDuckBot, Applebot
AI and large language model (LLM) crawlers: ChatGPT-User, GPTBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, anthropic-ai, OAI-SearchBot, quillbot.com, YouBot, MyCentralAIScraperBot
Popular SEO audit and analysis tools: AhrefsBot, SemrushBot, MJ12bot, DotBot, DataForSeoBot, AwarioRssBot, AwarioSmartBot, Jetslide, peer39_crawler
Social media and content sharing bots: facebookexternalhit, FacebookBot, Twitterbot, Pinterestbot, Slackbot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Meta-ExternalFetcher
Security and cloud service bots: AliyunSecBot, Amazonbot, Google-CloudVertexBot
Data scraping, aggregation, and research bots: BLEXBot, Bytespider, CCBot, Diffbot, DuckAssistBot, EchoboxBot, FriendlyCrawler, ImagesiftBot, magpie-crawler, NewsNow, news-please, omgili, omgilibot, Poseidon Research Crawler, Quora-Bot, Scrapy, SeekrBot, SeznamHomepageCrawler, TaraGroup Intelligent Bot, Timpibot, TurnitinBot, ViennaTinyBot
Other specific and extended bots: Applebot-Extended, peer39_crawler/1.0, Claude-Web, meta-externalagent, meta-externalfetcher, Poseidon Research Crawler

Monitoring these user-agents ensures you understand which crawlers interact with your website, enabling better control over your website's crawlability, security, and SEO performance.

How to Improve SEO Visibility Using CrawlerCheck Reports

With the help of the actionable insights provided by CrawlerCheck's crawler access reports, you can optimize your website's search engine visibility through:

Optimizing your crawl budget: Identify and block low-value or duplicate pages (such as internal search results or filtered content) that consume crawl resources, allowing search engines to prioritize your most valuable content.
Ensuring access to critical resources: Verify that essential assets like CSS, JavaScript, and images are accessible to crawlers, enabling full page rendering and accurate indexing.
Including sitemap references: Add or update your XML sitemap link within your robots.txt file to guide search engines to all important pages efficiently.
Reviewing and refining crawl rules: Detect accidental blocks or permissions in your robots.txt directives and meta robots tags, and adjust them to align with your SEO strategy.

Regularly analyzing and updating your crawl settings based on these reports helps ensure search engines can crawl and index your website effectively, improving rankings and organic traffic.

Common Crawler Access Issues and How to Fix Them

Many websites encounter frequent problems that hinder search engine crawlers from properly accessing and indexing content. Understanding these issues and applying the right fixes can significantly boost your SEO health.

Unintentionally blocked URLs in robots.txt: Critical pages may be disallowed by mistake. Regularly audit your robots.txt file to ensure only intended URLs are restricted.
Server errors (5xx) and missing pages (404): Broken or unavailable pages disrupt crawler access. Fix server issues promptly and update or remove broken links.
Excessive URL parameters and duplicate content: Multiple URL variants can confuse crawlers and dilute SEO signals. Use canonical tags and clean URL structures to consolidate indexing.
JavaScript-rendered content and links: Some crawlers struggle with JavaScript-only content. Implement server-side rendering or ensure critical links and content are present in the initial HTML.
Poor internal linking and site architecture: Pages that are isolated or poorly linked may not be discovered. Maintain a clear, logical internal linking structure to improve crawl depth.
User-agent blocking and IP restrictions: Firewalls or server settings may block legitimate bots. Verify and whitelist important crawlers to avoid accidental exclusion.
Mobile usability issues: With Google's mobile-first indexing, ensure your website is fully responsive and functional on mobile devices to prevent ranking penalties.

Continuously monitoring crawl reports and addressing these common issues helps maintain optimal search engine access and improves your website's SEO performance.

What Does CrawlerCheck Analyze?

CrawlerCheck inspects the critical technical SEO elements that govern how web crawlers and bots interact with your website. It analyzes your site's robots.txt file, which specifies crawl directives for different user-agents, as well as meta robots tags embedded in your HTML pages and X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers sent by your server.

These components collectively determine which crawlers can access and index your content, and which are restricted. By evaluating these sources, CrawlerCheck helps you understand your crawl rules' configuration and alignment with your SEO and privacy objectives.

The detailed report provides clear insights into crawler permissions, empowering you to optimize your website's visibility and technical SEO settings.

SEO Good to know

How to Run a Google Crawl Test

Performing a website crawl test is essential when launching new pages. Unlike a simple "check" which looks at status, a full test crawl website procedure verifies if Googlebot can actually fetch your resources.

Use the input field above to simulate a Google crawl test. This validates that your server headers, robots.txt, and meta tags allow the bot to pass through, ensuring your content is visible for indexing.

Robots.txt Overview

The robots.txt file is a fundamental tool in website management that controls how search engine crawlers and other bots access your site. Located in the root directory of your domain (e.g., www.example.com/robots.txt), it instructs crawlers which parts of your website they are allowed or disallowed to visit. This helps conserve your crawl budget by preventing bots from wasting resources on irrelevant or sensitive pages, such as admin panels or duplicate content.

Unlike meta tags or HTTP headers, the robots.txt file works at the crawling stage, meaning it stops bots from even requesting certain URLs. However, since it only controls crawling and not indexing, pages blocked by robots.txt may still appear in search results if other sites link to them. Therefore, using robots.txt effectively requires careful planning to avoid unintentionally blocking important content from being discovered.

Because robots.txt directives are publicly accessible, they should not be relied upon for security or privacy. Instead, it's best used to guide well-behaved crawlers and optimize how search engines interact with your site. When combined with other tools like meta robots tags and X-Robots-Tag headers, robots.txt forms a comprehensive strategy for crawler management and SEO optimization. Detailed info at: Google's Robots.txt Documentation, also make sure you check out: Robots.txt Standards & Grouping

Meta Robots vs X-Robots-Tag

Meta robots tags and X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers both serve to instruct search engines on how to index and display your content, but they differ in implementation and scope. The meta robots tag is placed directly in the HTML <head> section of a specific webpage, making it easy to apply indexing and crawling rules on a per-page basis. Common directives include noindex to prevent indexing and nofollow to block link following.

In contrast, the X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header sent by the server as part of the response, allowing you to control indexing rules across various file types beyond HTML, such as PDFs, images, and videos. This makes the X-Robots-Tag more flexible and powerful for managing how search engines handle non-HTML resources or entire sections of a website at the server level. However, it requires server configuration and may be less accessible to those without technical expertise.

Both methods influence indexing rather than crawling. Importantly, if a URL is blocked in robots.txt, crawlers won't access the page to see meta tags or HTTP headers, so those directives won't apply. Therefore, combining these tools strategically ensures you control both crawler access and how content appears in search results.

Why AI Bots Might Be Blocked (ChatGPT, GPTBot)

AI-powered crawlers like ChatGPT-User, GPTBot, and others are increasingly used by companies to gather web content for training language models and providing AI-driven services. While these bots can enhance content discovery and AI applications, some website owners may choose to block them due to concerns about bandwidth usage, data privacy, or unauthorized content scraping.

Unlike traditional search engine bots that primarily aim to index content for search results, AI bots may process and store large amounts of data for machine learning purposes. This can raise legal or ethical issues, especially if sensitive or copyrighted content is involved. Additionally, some AI bots might not respect crawling rules as strictly as established search engines, prompting site owners to restrict their access proactively.

Blocking AI bots can be done via robots.txt, meta robots tags, or server-level configurations, but it's important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks. While blocking may protect resources and privacy, it might also limit your site's exposure on emerging AI platforms. Therefore, site owners should monitor bot activity carefully and decide based on their specific goals and policies. About OpenAI bots: OpenAI Crawler Documentation

When It's Okay to Block Bots (e.g., Private Pages)

Blocking bots is appropriate and often necessary when dealing with private, sensitive, or low-value pages that should not be indexed or crawled. Examples include login pages, user account dashboards, staging or development environments, and duplicate content pages. Preventing bots from accessing these areas helps protect user privacy, conserve server resources, and avoid SEO issues like duplicate content penalties.

Using robots.txt to disallow crawling is the most common method for blocking bots from these sections. However, for pages that should not appear in search results at all, adding noindex directives via meta robots tags or X-Robots-Tag headers is recommended to ensure they are excluded from indexes even if crawled. Combining these methods provides a robust approach to controlling crawler behavior.

It's also acceptable to block certain bots that are known to be malicious, overly aggressive, or irrelevant to your site's goals. For instance, blocking spammy bots or scrapers can protect your content and server performance. Ultimately, blocking bots should be a deliberate decision aligned with your site's privacy, security, and SEO strategies.

Debugging "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt"

One of the most common warnings in Google Search Console is "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt." This seems contradictory—how can it be indexed if it's blocked?

The Problem: You have a Disallow rule in your robots.txt file, but other websites are linking to that page. Google follows the link, sees the "Do Not Enter" sign (robots.txt), and stops. However, because it found the link, it still indexes the URL without reading the content.

The Solution: You cannot fix this by adding a noindex tag, because Googlebot is blocked from reading the tag!

Use CrawlerCheck to confirm which specific line in your robots.txt is triggering the block.
Remove the Disallow rule temporarily.
Add a 'noindex' meta tag to the page HTML.
Allow Googlebot to crawl the page again so it sees the noindex instruction and drops the page from search results.

How to Debug "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed"

This is the most confusing status in Search Console. It means Google visited your page but decided not to include it in the search results. While this is often a content quality issue, it can also be a hidden technical error.

Hidden "noindex" Headers Sometimes a plugin adds an X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header that you can't see in the HTML source code. CrawlerCheck reveals these hidden headers instantly.
The "False Positive" Block If your page takes too long to respond (Timeout/5xx), Googlebot might abandon the indexing process. Check your "Status Code" results above to ensure it's a clean 200 OK.

✅ Quick Fix: Run a check on the URL above to rule out technical blocks before rewriting your content.