SemrushBot-OCOB
Semrush •
Web Crawler
What is SemrushBot-OCOB?
Semrush names SemrushBot-OCOB as the crawler to address when controlling requests for its Content Toolkit. Its bot page supplies a product-specific robots.txt disallow rule. That makes it distinct from the main SemrushBot and the Site Audit, Backlink Audit and On Page SEO Checker identities. The documented token is shown here; Semrush does not provide a canonical full browser-style header for it on that page.
User Agent String
SemrushBot-OCOB
How to Control SemrushBot-OCOB
Block Completely
To prevent SemrushBot-OCOB from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block SemrushBot-OCOB
User-agent: SemrushBot-OCOB
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: SemrushBot-OCOB
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-OCOB
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify SemrushBot-OCOB
Verification Method:
Do not rely on the token alone for authentication. Use request context and contact Semrush bot support if traffic needs verification.
Do not rely on the token alone for authentication. Use request context and contact Semrush bot support if traffic needs verification.
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect SemrushBot-OCOB in your application:
Basic Pattern
/SemrushBot\-OCOB/i
Strict Pattern
/^SemrushBot\-OCOB$/
Flexible Pattern
/SemrushBot\-OCOB[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Semrush.*SemrushBot\-OCOB/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for SemrushBot-OCOB
function detect_semrushbot_ocob() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/SemrushBot\-OCOB/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('SemrushBot-OCOB 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for SemrushBot-OCOB
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_semrushbot_ocob():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'SemrushBot\-OCOB'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class semrushbot_ocobMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for SemrushBot-OCOB
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect SemrushBot-OCOB
function detect_semrushbot_ocob(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /SemrushBot\-OCOB/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('SemrushBot-OCOB detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'SemrushBot-OCOB';
}
next();
}
app.use(detect_semrushbot_ocob);
# Apache .htaccess rules for SemrushBot-OCOB
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-OCOB [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-OCOB [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "SemrushBot\-OCOB" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /SemrushBot\-OCOB/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for SemrushBot-OCOB
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_semrushbot_ocob {
default 0;
~*SemrushBot\-OCOB 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_semrushbot_ocob) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_semrushbot_ocob) {
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_ocob) {
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-OCOB
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-OCOB
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: SemrushBot-OCOB
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
SemrushBot-OCOB
Robots.txt Name
SemrushBot-OCOB
Category
seo
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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