Googlebot-News
What is Googlebot-News?
About
Googlebot-News is a search engine crawler operated by Google. It's not currently known to be artificially intelligent or AI-related. If you think that's incorrect or can provide more detail about its purpose, please contact us.
You can set up agent analytics to see when Googlebot-News visits your website.
Detail
| Operator | |
| Documentation | http://google.com/bot.html |
Type
Expected Behavior
Search engine crawlers do not adhere to a fixed visitation schedule for websites. The frequency of visits varies widely based on several factors, including popularity, the rate at which its content is updated, and the website's overall trustworthiness. Websites with fresh, high-quality content tend to be crawled more frequently, while less active or less reputable sites may be visited less often.
Insights
Googlebot-News Visiting Your Website
Half of your traffic probably comes from artificial agents, and there are more of them every day. Track their activity with the API or WordPress plugin.
Set Up Agent AnalyticsOther Websites
Access Control
Should I Block Googlebot-News?
Probably not. Search engine crawlers power search engines, which are a useful way for users to discover your website. In fact, blocking search engine crawlers could severely reduce your traffic.
Using Robots.txt
You can block Googlebot-News or limit its access by setting user agent token rules in your website's robots.txt. We recommend setting up agent analytics to check whether it's actually following them.
| User Agent Token | Description |
|---|---|
Googlebot-News |
Should match instances of Googlebot-News |
# robots.txt
# This should block Googlebot-News
User-agent: Googlebot-News
Disallow: /
Instead of doing this manually, you can use the API or Wordpress plugin to keep your robots.txt updated with the latest known AI scrapers, crawlers, and assistants automatically.
Set Up Automatic Robots.txt