What Is meta-webindexer?
meta-webindexer is Meta's web crawler that browses the internet to improve search results for Meta AI users. It analyzes online content to make Meta AI's responses more relevant and accurate. When the crawler accesses your website, it allows Meta AI to properly cite and link back to your content when answering user questions, ensuring you get credit while helping the AI provide better information. You can see how often meta-webindexer visits your website by setting up Dark Visitors Agent Analytics.
Agent Type
Expected Behavior
AI search crawlers index websites to power AI-driven search engines, similar to how traditional search crawlers work for Google or Bing. They regularly scan sites to build and update their index, with crawl frequency varying based on content freshness, site authority, and perceived importance. Unlike traditional search engines with relatively predictable crawl schedules, AI search crawlers may visit more sporadically or in bursts depending on their algorithmic indexing priorities.
Detail
| Operated By | Meta |
| Last Updated | 16 hours ago |
Top Website Robots.txts
Country of Origin
Top Website Blocking Trend Over Time
The percentage of the world's top 1000 websites who are blocking meta-webindexer
Overall AI Search Crawler Traffic
The percentage of all internet traffic coming from AI search crawlers
Top Visited Website Categories
User Agent String
| Example | meta-webindexer/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/crawler) |
Access other known user agent strings and recent IP addresses using the API.
Robots.txt
In this example, all pages are blocked. You can customize which pages are off-limits by swapping out / for a different disallowed path.
User-agent: meta-webindexer # https://darkvisitors.com/agents/meta-webindexer
Disallow: /Frequently Asked Questions About meta-webindexer
Should I Block meta-webindexer?
Generally no. meta-webindexer enables users to discover your content through an AI-powered search engine. These platforms typically provide attribution and link back to original sources, potentially driving traffic to your site. Blocking it may reduce your visibility in those AI search results.
How Do I Block meta-webindexer?
If you want to, you can block or limit meta-webindexer's access by configuring user agent token rules in your robots.txt file. The best way to do this is using Automatic Robots.txt, which blocks all agents of this type and updates continuously as new agents are released. While the vast majority of agents operated by reputable companies honor these robots.txt directives, bad actors may choose to ignore them entirely. In that case, you'll need to implement alternative blocking methods such as firewall rules or server-level restrictions. You can verify whether meta-webindexer is respecting your rules by setting up Agent Analytics to monitor its visits to your website.
Will Blocking meta-webindexer Hurt My SEO?
Blocking AI search crawlers will likely hurt your SEO performance in AI-powered search engines. As these platforms gain market share, preventing indexing could significantly reduce your visibility in AI search results and organic traffic from users who prefer AI-powered search interfaces.
Does meta-webindexer Access Private Content?
AI search crawlers generally only index publicly accessible content, similar to traditional search engines. They typically respect authentication barriers and don't attempt to access private content behind login walls. However, they may index content that's publicly accessible but not intended for search engines, such as staging environments or development sites if they're not gated properly.
How Can I Tell if meta-webindexer Is Visiting My Website?
Setting up Agent Analytics will give you realtime visibility into meta-webindexer visiting your website, along with hundreds of other AI agents, crawlers, and scrapers. This will also let you measure human traffic to your website coming from AI search and chat LLM platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Why Is meta-webindexer Visiting My Website?
meta-webindexer discovered your site through standard web discovery methods like following links from other indexed sites, processing your sitemap, or finding references to your domain elsewhere on the web. Your site was selected for indexing to make your content searchable through their AI-powered search engine.
How Can I Authenticate Visits From meta-webindexer?
Agent Analytics authenticates agent visits from many agents, letting you know whether each one was actually from that agent, or spoofed by a bad actor. This helps you identify suspicious traffic patterns and make informed decisions about blocking or allowing specific user agents.