Googlebot-Video
Google •
Since 2007
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Googlebot-Video?
Googlebot-Video is Google's specialized crawler for discovering and indexing video content across the web. This bot identifies video files, analyzes video metadata, thumbnails, and surrounding content to make videos discoverable in Google Search and Google Videos. It supports various video formats and protocols, including embedded videos and video sitemaps. The crawler plays a crucial role in Google's video search ecosystem, helping users find relevant video content. Website owners can optimize for Googlebot-Video by providing structured data, video sitemaps, and ensuring video content is accessible.
User Agent String
Googlebot-Video/1.0
How to Control Googlebot-Video
Block Completely
To prevent Googlebot-Video from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Googlebot-Video
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
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-Video
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Googlebot-Video
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-Video in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Googlebot\-Video/i
Strict Pattern
/^Googlebot\-Video/1\.0$/
Flexible Pattern
/Googlebot\-Video[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Google.*Googlebot\-Video/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Googlebot-Video
function detect_googlebot_video() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Googlebot\\-Video/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Googlebot-Video 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Googlebot-Video
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_googlebot_video():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Googlebot-Video'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class GooglebotVideoMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Googlebot-Video
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Googlebot-Video
function detectGooglebotVideo(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Googlebot-Video/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Googlebot-Video detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Googlebot-Video';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectGooglebotVideo);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Googlebot-Video
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot\-Video [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Googlebot\-Video" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Googlebot\-Video/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Googlebot-Video
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_googlebot_video {
default 0;
~*Googlebot\-Video 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_googlebot_video) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_googlebot_video) {
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_video) {
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-Video
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-Video
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Googlebot-Video
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Googlebot-Video
Robots.txt Name
Googlebot-Video
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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