Bot signals · Web crawler
What is SEBot-WA?
SE Ranking Website Audit crawler (SEBot-WA)
SE Ranking’s crawler crawls websites for SE Ranking’s Website Audit and On-Page SEO Checker tools, and identifies itself with the user agent SEBot-WA. SE Ranking says it follows robots.txt by default, though its users can change this in a project’s settings.
01 · Profile
SEBot-WA at a glance.
What to look for in your logs, and what the lookup API returns for its addresses.
- Type
- Web crawler
- User agent
SEBot-WA- API flag
risk.is_crawler
A user agent alone never sets a flag. Anyone can claim to be SEBot-WA; the flag follows the address the request comes from.
02 · In the response
What a match looks like.
A lookup of a SEBot-WA address sets risk.is_crawler. The flags come with geolocation and network data in the same response, for API keys on every paid plan.
The response says which kind of bot an address belongs to, not which operator. A request that claims to be SEBot-WA while risk.is_crawler is false should not be trusted as SEBot-WA.
{
// … location and network fields …
"risk": {
"is_ai": false,
"is_crawler": true,
"is_scanner": false
}
}
03 · Control
Allow or block SEBot-WA.
Your options
- robots.txt works only for crawlers that choose to follow it. Check the operator’s documentation for the token it reads.
- Firewall, WAF or CDN. Many offer bot rules you can allow or deny by category. Use them to enforce what robots.txt only asks for.
- In your app. Look up the client address and allow or deny on
risk.is_crawler, alongside the user agent. - Never on the user agent alone. Blocking the name stops only honest clients; allowing it lets anyone in who borrows it.
04 · Questions
About SEBot-WA.
What is SEBot-WA?
SE Ranking’s crawler crawls websites for SE Ranking’s Website Audit and On-Page SEO Checker tools, and identifies itself with the user agent SEBot-WA. SE Ranking says it follows robots.txt by default, though its users can change this in a project’s settings.
How do I block SEBot-WA?
Deny it at your firewall, WAF or CDN, or look up each client address and deny requests where risk.is_crawler is true. Do not rely on the user agent alone.
Can I trust a request that says it is SEBot-WA?
Not on the user agent alone: any client can send “SEBot-WA” in its user agent. A user agent alone never sets a flag. Check the address with the free bot checker or the lookup API.
Which risk flag does SEBot-WA set?
Its addresses set risk.is_crawler in the lookup response. The risk flags come with every paid plan.
From the blog
Go deeper.
Related bots
Recognise SEBot-WA on every request.
is_ai, is_crawler and is_scanner in every lookup, on every paid plan, from 9,00 € a month (VAT included).