SemrushBot-ESI
Semrush •
Web Crawler
What is SemrushBot-ESI?
Semrush identifies SemrushBot-ESI as the token for its Enterprise Site Intelligence service, which analyses on-page SEO, technical and usability issues. It publishes a dedicated robots.txt blocking example. This is not another name for the core SemrushBot. The source documents the bot token, not a stable full HTTP header, so the directory deliberately displays the token rather than fabricating an example request string.
User Agent String
SemrushBot-ESI
How to Control SemrushBot-ESI
Block Completely
To prevent SemrushBot-ESI from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block SemrushBot-ESI
User-agent: SemrushBot-ESI
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: SemrushBot-ESI
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: SemrushBot-ESI
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify SemrushBot-ESI
Verification Method:
A claimed token is spoofable; inspect the request pattern and ask Semrush bot support to verify disputed activity. Static IP matching is not recommended by Semrush.
A claimed token is spoofable; inspect the request pattern and ask Semrush bot support to verify disputed activity. Static IP matching is not recommended by Semrush.
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect SemrushBot-ESI in your application:
Basic Pattern
/SemrushBot\-ESI/i
Strict Pattern
/^SemrushBot\-ESI$/
Flexible Pattern
/SemrushBot\-ESI[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Semrush.*SemrushBot\-ESI/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for SemrushBot-ESI
function detect_semrushbot_esi() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/SemrushBot\-ESI/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('SemrushBot-ESI 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for SemrushBot-ESI
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_semrushbot_esi():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'SemrushBot\-ESI'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class semrushbot_esiMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for SemrushBot-ESI
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect SemrushBot-ESI
function detect_semrushbot_esi(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /SemrushBot\-ESI/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('SemrushBot-ESI detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'SemrushBot-ESI';
}
next();
}
app.use(detect_semrushbot_esi);
# Apache .htaccess rules for SemrushBot-ESI
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-ESI [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-ESI [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "SemrushBot\-ESI" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /SemrushBot\-ESI/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for SemrushBot-ESI
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_semrushbot_esi {
default 0;
~*SemrushBot\-ESI 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_semrushbot_esi) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_semrushbot_esi) {
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_semrushbot_esi) {
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: SemrushBot-ESI
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: SemrushBot-ESI
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: SemrushBot-ESI
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
SemrushBot-ESI
Robots.txt Name
SemrushBot-ESI
Category
seo
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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