What is DotBot?
DotBot is Moz's web crawler that gathers web data for the Moz Link Index, providing data used in Moz Pro campaigns, Link Explorer, and the Moz Links API to analyze website backlinks and SEO metrics. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when DotBot visits your website.
Category
| Example User Agent | Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; help@moz.com) |
| Operated By | Moz |
| Source | Official Website |
| Triggered By | Customer-configured crawl |
| Used for AI Model Training | Not expected |
| Affects AI Chat & Search Visibility | Not directly |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
Why Is DotBot Visiting My Website?
Your domain appears in the ranking, backlink, or competitor data maintained by DotBot's operator. A customer may be tracking your site, one of your competitors, or a backlink that connects another site to yours.
Should I Block DotBot?
Consider blocking DotBot only if you do not want your pages included in SEO databases. It does not influence how search engines rank you, and blocking it will not hide backlinks to your site because those are discovered on the linking sites. For context, 9% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for DotBot.
How Do I Block DotBot Using Robots.txt?
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block DotBot from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all SEO crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: DotBot # https://knownagents.com/agents/dotbot
Disallow: /Insights for DotBot
As of October 30, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Compliance
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Frequently Asked Questions
What Traffic Patterns Should I Expect From DotBot?
DotBot usually performs comprehensive, link-following crawls rather than spot checks. Visit frequency may rise while a customer actively monitors your site or a related market.
Does DotBot Follow Robots.txt Rules?
DotBot is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step if you want to block it. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether DotBot respects it.
Is DotBot Used for AI Model Training?
Not ordinarily. DotBot is not categorized as an AI training scraper or data provider, so AI model training is not its expected purpose.
Does Blocking DotBot Affect AI Search or Citations?
Not directly. DotBot's expected purpose is not to supply an AI search index or retrieve pages for AI-generated answers.
Does DotBot Access Private Content?
No. DotBot can reach only public pages, and authentication prevents it from accessing private content.
How Can I Verify a Request From DotBot?
Agent Analytics tracks DotBot visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "DotBot". Look for comprehensive site crawls that follow internal links. Because DotBot does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
How Is DotBot Different From Other Moz Agents?
Moz operates separate agents for different purposes, so each agent should be evaluated and controlled independently.
- rogerbot: rogerbot is a web crawler operated by Moz, a company specializing in SEO and marketing analytics tools. This bot collects data about website structure, content, and perfo…
- Moz dotbot: Moz dotbot is an SEO crawler operated by Moz.
- Moz rogerbot: Moz rogerbot is an SEO crawler operated by Moz.
- rogerbot-crawler: rogerbot-crawler is Moz's automated site audit crawler that analyzes websites for SEO issues, technical problems, and optimization opportunities as part of Moz Pro Campai…