Googlebot-Mobile
Google •
Since 2004
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Googlebot-Mobile?
Googlebot-Mobile is Google's crawler specifically designed to index mobile versions of websites. With Google's mobile-first indexing approach, this bot has become the primary crawler for most websites. It simulates a mobile device to see how pages appear to mobile users, which is crucial since Google predominantly uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking. The bot evaluates mobile usability factors including responsive design, page speed on mobile networks, and touch-friendly interfaces. Understanding and optimizing for Googlebot-Mobile is essential for modern SEO.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 6.0.1; Nexus 5X Build/MMB29P) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
How to Control Googlebot-Mobile
Block Completely
To prevent Googlebot-Mobile from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Googlebot-Mobile
User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile
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-Mobile
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Googlebot-Mobile
Verification Method:
Same as standard Googlebot verification
Same as standard Googlebot verification
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Googlebot-Mobile in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Googlebot\-Mobile/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(Linux; Android 6\.0\.1; Nexus 5X Build/MMB29P\) AppleWebKit/537\.36 \(KHTML, like Gecko\) Chrome/W\.X\.Y\.Z Mobile Safari/537\.36 \(compatible; Googlebot/2\.1; \+http\://www\.google\.com/bot\.html\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Googlebot\-Mobile[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*Googlebot\-Mobile/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Googlebot-Mobile
function detect_googlebot_mobile() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Googlebot\\-Mobile/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Googlebot-Mobile 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Googlebot-Mobile
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_googlebot_mobile():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Googlebot-Mobile'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class GooglebotMobileMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Googlebot-Mobile
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Googlebot-Mobile
function detectGooglebotMobile(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Googlebot-Mobile/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Googlebot-Mobile detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Googlebot-Mobile';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectGooglebotMobile);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Googlebot-Mobile
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Mobile [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Mobile [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Googlebot\-Mobile" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Googlebot\-Mobile/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Googlebot-Mobile
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_googlebot_mobile {
default 0;
~*Googlebot\-Mobile 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_googlebot_mobile) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_googlebot_mobile) {
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_mobile) {
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-Mobile
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-Mobile
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Googlebot-Mobile
Robots.txt Name
Googlebot-Mobile
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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