Google-InspectionTool
Google •
Since 2022
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Official Docs
What is Google-InspectionTool?
Google-InspectionTool is the user agent used by Google's Search Console testing tools, including the URL Inspection tool and the Rich Results Test. When webmasters use these tools to test how Google sees their pages, this bot fetches and renders the content. It respects robots.txt directives, which means if a page is blocked via robots.txt, the inspection tool will also be unable to fully test the page.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Google-InspectionTool/1.0;)
How to Control Google-InspectionTool
Block Completely
To prevent Google-InspectionTool from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Google-InspectionTool
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Google-InspectionTool
Verification Method:
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to googlebot.com or google.com
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to googlebot.com or google.com
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Google-InspectionTool in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Google\-InspectionTool/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; Google\-InspectionTool/1\.0;\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Google\-InspectionTool[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*Google\-InspectionTool/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Google-InspectionTool
function detect_google_inspectiontool() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Google\\-InspectionTool/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Google-InspectionTool detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Google-InspectionTool
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_google_inspectiontool():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Google-InspectionTool'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class GoogleInspectionToolMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Google-InspectionTool
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Google-InspectionTool
function detectGoogleInspectionTool(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Google-InspectionTool/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Google-InspectionTool detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Google-InspectionTool';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectGoogleInspectionTool);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Google-InspectionTool
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-InspectionTool [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-InspectionTool [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Google\-InspectionTool" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Google\-InspectionTool/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Google-InspectionTool
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_google_inspectiontool {
default 0;
~*Google\-InspectionTool 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_google_inspectiontool) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_google_inspectiontool) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_google_inspectiontool) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Google-InspectionTool
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Google-InspectionTool
Robots.txt Name
Google-InspectionTool
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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