msnbot

Last updated 15 hours ago.

What is msnbot?

About

msnbot is a search engine crawler operated by Microsoft. 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.

Detail

Operator	Microsoft
Documentation	http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm

Type

Search Engine Crawler

Indexes web content for search engine results

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

Activity on Your Website

Half of your website's 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 Analytics

Other Websites

of top websites are currently blocking msnbot in some way

Learn How →

Access Control

Should I Block msnbot?

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

User Agent Token	Description
`msnbot`	Should match instances of msnbot

You can block msnbot or limit its access by setting user agent token rules in your website's robots.txt.

# robots.txt
# This should block msnbot

User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /

Instead of doing this manually, you can generate a robots.txt using the API or WordPress plugin that stays up to date with the agent list automatically. The WordPress plugin can also enforce your robots.txt and block agents who try to ignore the rules.

Set Up Your Robots.txt