Rogerbot
Moz •
Since 2013
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Rogerbot?
Rogerbot is Moz's specialized crawler designed specifically for their Moz Pro customers to perform detailed site audits. Unlike DotBot which crawls the general web, Rogerbot focuses on deep analysis of specific websites when requested by Moz Pro users. The bot identifies technical SEO issues, crawl errors, duplicate content, and site structure problems. It provides actionable insights for SEO optimization, making it a valuable tool for technical SEO audits. Rogerbot only crawls sites that are explicitly added to Moz Pro campaigns by their owners or authorized users.
User Agent String
rogerbot/1.0 (http://moz.com/help/pro/rogerbot-crawler)
How to Control Rogerbot
Block Completely
To prevent Rogerbot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Rogerbot
User-agent: rogerbot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: rogerbot
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: rogerbot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Rogerbot
Verification Method:
Originates from Moz IP ranges
Originates from Moz IP ranges
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Rogerbot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Rogerbot/i
Strict Pattern
/^rogerbot/1\.0 \(http\://moz\.com/help/pro/rogerbot\-crawler\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Rogerbot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Moz.*Rogerbot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Rogerbot
function detect_rogerbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Rogerbot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Rogerbot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Rogerbot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_rogerbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Rogerbot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class RogerbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Rogerbot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Rogerbot
function detectRogerbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Rogerbot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Rogerbot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Rogerbot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectRogerbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Rogerbot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Rogerbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Rogerbot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Rogerbot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Rogerbot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Rogerbot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_rogerbot {
default 0;
~*Rogerbot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_rogerbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_rogerbot) {
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_rogerbot) {
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 | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: rogerbot
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: rogerbot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: rogerbot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Rogerbot
Robots.txt Name
rogerbot
Category
seo
Respects robots.txt
Yes
Copied to clipboard!