VKShare
VK •
Since 2010
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is VKShare?
VKShare bot generates link previews when users share URLs on VK (VKontakte), Russia's largest social network. With over 100 million monthly active users primarily in Russia and Eastern Europe, VK is a critical platform for reaching Russian-speaking audiences. The bot fetches page metadata, images, and descriptions to create rich preview cards in VK posts and messages. For websites targeting Russian and CIS markets, ensuring proper rendering for VKShare is essential for social media visibility.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; vkShare; +https://vk.com/dev/Share)
How to Control VKShare
Block Completely
To prevent VKShare from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block VKShare
User-agent: vkShare
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: vkShare
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: vkShare
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify VKShare
Verification Method:
VK crawler identification
VK crawler identification
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect VKShare in your application:
Basic Pattern
/VKShare/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; vkShare; \+https\://vk\.com/dev/Share\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/VKShare[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*VK.*VKShare/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for VKShare
function detect_vkshare() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/VKShare/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('VKShare 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for VKShare
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_vkshare():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'VKShare'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class VKShareMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for VKShare
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect VKShare
function detectVKShare(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /VKShare/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('VKShare detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'VKShare';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectVKShare);
# Apache .htaccess rules for VKShare
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} VKShare [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} VKShare [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "VKShare" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /VKShare/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for VKShare
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_vkshare {
default 0;
~*VKShare 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_vkshare) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_vkshare) {
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_vkshare) {
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: vkShare
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: vkShare
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: vkShare
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
VKShare
Robots.txt Name
vkShare
Category
social
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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