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Googlebot-Image

Google Since 2001
Search Respects robots.txt
#search #google #images #crawler
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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

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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html'); exit; } return true; } return false; }
# Python/Flask Detection for Googlebot-Image import re from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_googlebot_image(): user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '') pattern = r'Googlebot-Image' if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE): # Create response with caching response = make_response() response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600' response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive' return True return False# Django Middleware class GooglebotImageMiddleware: def __init__(self, get_response): self.get_response = get_response def __call__(self, request): if self.detect_bot(request): # Handle bot traffic pass return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Googlebot-Image const express = require('express'); const app = express();// Middleware to detect Googlebot-Image function detectGooglebotImage(req, res, next) { const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || ''; const pattern = /Googlebot-Image/i; if (pattern.test(userAgent)) { // Log bot detection console.log('Googlebot-Image detected from IP:', req.ip); // Set cache headers res.set({ 'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600', 'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive' }); // Mark request as bot req.isBot = true; req.botName = 'Googlebot-Image'; } next(); }app.use(detectGooglebotImage);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Googlebot-Image# Block completely RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC] RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Image [NC] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /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 TypeRecommendationReasoning
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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