YandexImages
Yandex •
Since 2005
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Official Docs
What is YandexImages?
YandexImages is the specialized crawler for Yandex's image search service. It discovers and indexes images across the web, with particular strength in Russian and Eastern European content. The bot analyzes image files, their metadata, alt text, and surrounding content to make images searchable. For websites targeting Russian-speaking audiences or containing significant visual content, YandexImages is an important crawler. The bot respects robots.txt and can be controlled separately from the main YandexBot.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexImages/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)
How to Control YandexImages
Block Completely
To prevent YandexImages from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block YandexImages
User-agent: YandexImages
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: YandexImages
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: YandexImages
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify YandexImages
Verification Method:
Same as YandexBot
Same as YandexBot
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect YandexImages in your application:
Basic Pattern
/YandexImages/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; YandexImages/3\.0; \+http\://yandex\.com/bots\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/YandexImages[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Yandex.*YandexImages/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for YandexImages
function detect_yandeximages() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/YandexImages/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('YandexImages 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for YandexImages
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_yandeximages():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'YandexImages'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class YandexImagesMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for YandexImages
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect YandexImages
function detectYandexImages(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /YandexImages/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('YandexImages detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'YandexImages';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectYandexImages);
# Apache .htaccess rules for YandexImages
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexImages [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} YandexImages [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "YandexImages" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /YandexImages/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for YandexImages
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_yandeximages {
default 0;
~*YandexImages 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_yandeximages) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_yandeximages) {
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_yandeximages) {
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 | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: YandexImages
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: YandexImages
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: YandexImages
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
YandexImages
Robots.txt Name
YandexImages
Category
search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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