Googlebot-Image
Google •
Since 2001
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Googlebot-Image?
Googlebot-Image is Google's specialized crawler dedicated to discovering and indexing images for Google Images search. This bot traverses the web looking for image files, analyzing their content, context, and metadata to make them searchable. It processes various image formats and considers factors like alt text, surrounding content, and image quality. The crawler respects the same robots.txt directives as standard Googlebot and can be specifically controlled using the Googlebot-Image user agent token. For websites with significant visual content, ensuring Googlebot-Image can access images is crucial for visibility in Google Images search results.
User Agent String
Googlebot-Image/1.0
How to Control Googlebot-Image
Block Completely
To prevent Googlebot-Image from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Googlebot-Image
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
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: Googlebot-Image
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Googlebot-Image
Verification Method:
Same verification as standard Googlebot
Same verification as standard Googlebot
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Googlebot-Image in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Googlebot\-Image/i
Strict Pattern
/^Googlebot\-Image/1\.0$/
Flexible Pattern
/Googlebot\-Image[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*Googlebot\-Image/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Googlebot-Image
function detect_googlebot_image() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Googlebot\\-Image/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Googlebot-Image 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Googlebot-Image
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_googlebot_image():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Googlebot-Image'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class GooglebotImageMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Googlebot-Image
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Googlebot-Image
function detectGooglebotImage(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Googlebot-Image/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Googlebot-Image detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Googlebot-Image';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectGooglebotImage);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Googlebot-Image
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Googlebot\-Image" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Googlebot\-Image/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Googlebot-Image
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_googlebot_image {
default 0;
~*Googlebot\-Image 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_googlebot_image) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_googlebot_image) {
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_googlebot_image) {
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: Googlebot-Image
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: Googlebot-Image
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Googlebot-Image
Robots.txt Name
Googlebot-Image
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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