SemrushBot-SA
Semrush •
Since 2015
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What is SemrushBot-SA?
SemrushBot-SA is Semrush's specialized crawler for their Site Audit tool. Unlike the general SemrushBot, this crawler only operates when website owners or authorized users initiate site audits within Semrush. It performs deep technical SEO analysis, checking for issues like broken links, duplicate content, crawlability problems, and site structure issues. The bot provides detailed technical reports that help SEO professionals optimize their websites. It only crawls sites explicitly added to Semrush projects.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; SemrushBot-SA/0.97; +http://www.semrush.com/bot.html)
How to Control SemrushBot-SA
Block Completely
To prevent SemrushBot-SA from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block SemrushBot-SA
User-agent: SemrushBot-SA
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: SemrushBot-SA
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-SA
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify SemrushBot-SA
Verification Method:
Originates from Semrush infrastructure
Originates from Semrush infrastructure
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect SemrushBot-SA in your application:
Basic Pattern
/SemrushBot\-SA/iStrict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; SemrushBot\-SA/0\.97; \+http\://www\.semrush\.com/bot\.html\)$/Flexible Pattern
/SemrushBot\-SA[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/iVendor Match
/.*Semrush.*SemrushBot\-SA/iImplementation Examples
// PHP Detection for SemrushBot-SA
function detect_semrushbot_sa() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/SemrushBot\\-SA/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('SemrushBot-SA 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for SemrushBot-SA
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_semrushbot_sa():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'SemrushBot-SA'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class SemrushBotSAMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for SemrushBot-SA
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect SemrushBot-SA
function detectSemrushBotSA(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /SemrushBot-SA/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('SemrushBot-SA detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'SemrushBot-SA';
}
next();
}app.use(detectSemrushBotSA);
# Apache .htaccess rules for SemrushBot-SA# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-SA [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SemrushBot\-SA [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "SemrushBot\-SA" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /SemrushBot\-SA/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for SemrushBot-SA# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_semrushbot_sa {
default 0;
~*SemrushBot\-SA 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_semrushbot_sa) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_semrushbot_sa) {
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_sa) {
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-SA
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-SA
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: SemrushBot-SA
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
SemrushBot-SARobots.txt Name
SemrushBot-SACategory
seoRespects robots.txt
Yes
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