DotBot (Moz): what it is and how to allow or block it
Updated · checked against the operator's documentation on
DotBot is Moz's crawler that gathers web data for the Moz Link Index. Its robots.txt token is dotbot.
Facts
- Operator
- Moz
- Category
- SEO tool crawler
- robots.txt token
dotbot
- Honors robots.txt?
- Yes, per Moz. Moz says it always respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol and gives Crawl-delay: 10 as an example. Per Moz, DotBot reads robots.txt only the first time it meets a site during a new index crawl, so changes may not be seen until the next one.
- User-agent example
- Contains
dotbot(the operator documents no full example string)
- Official source
- Moz: DotBot
- Compared with the source
What it is used for
Moz says it gathers web data for the Moz Link Index, which feeds Link Explorer, Moz Pro and the Moz Links API. It is separate from Rogerbot, which runs Moz Pro site audits.
Crawls the web for a marketing or SEO tool, mostly to build a backlink or site database. It does not decide whether you rank, and blocking it only removes you from that tool's data.
What happens if you block it
Moz stops adding your pages to the Moz Link Index, so new links to and from your site stop appearing in Link Explorer, Moz Pro and the Moz Links API. Search rankings are not affected.
Moz's page was last modified on 2025-05-05 according to its own metadata and shows no full user-agent string. We did not see DotBot in our logs.
Is it really DotBot?
Anyone can send DotBot as a user agent, and Moz publishes no IP list or reverse-DNS method that we could find, so a log line cannot prove a request is real. Check whether it fetched /robots.txt and whether the address belongs to the operator's network.
- We did not find an IP list or a reverse-DNS method in the official source we compared on 2026-10-25, so the user agent alone cannot show that a request is genuine. Check the operator's page for updates.
- Paste any user agent from your logs into the user-agent lookup, or follow the scripts in Fake Googlebots and PHP scanners.
How to allow or block DotBot
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
User-agent: dotbot Allow: /
User-agent: dotbot Disallow: /
Does your site allow DotBot today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site
What we see on our own sites
No request identifying as DotBot has been recorded in the last 30 days, so there is nothing to show yet. We never fill this in with estimates.
Counts come from the websites we operate; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.
Questions about DotBot
What is DotBot?
Moz's crawler that gathers web data for the Moz Link Index. Moz says it gathers web data for the Moz Link Index, which feeds Link Explorer, Moz Pro and the Moz Links API. It is separate from Rogerbot, which runs Moz Pro site audits.
Is DotBot safe and legitimate?
The real DotBot is an SEO tool crawler run by Moz. A user-agent string is only a claim, though, so anyone can send it. We did not find an IP list or reverse-DNS method in the official source we compared on 2026-10-25, so the user agent alone cannot prove a request is real.
Does DotBot obey robots.txt?
Yes, per Moz. Moz says it always respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol and gives Crawl-delay: 10 as an example. Per Moz, DotBot reads robots.txt only the first time it meets a site during a new index crawl, so changes may not be seen until the next one.
How do I block DotBot?
Add a group to the robots.txt at the root of your domain: User-agent: dotbot followed by Disallow: /. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
Will blocking DotBot hurt my Google rankings or AI visibility?
Not for Google rankings. SEO tool crawlers do not decide whether you rank; blocking one only removes you from that tool's data. Moz stops adding your pages to the Moz Link Index, so new links to and from your site stop appearing in Link Explorer, Moz Pro and the Moz Links API. Search rankings are not affected.
Related bots
Other SEO tool crawlers
- AhrefsBot AhrefsThe crawler of Ahrefs, a marketing intelligence platform.
- SemrushBot SemrushSemrush's crawler for data behind tools such as Backlink Analytics and Site Audit.
- MJ12bot MajesticMajestic's crawler that maps link relationships between websites for its search engine and backlink index.
- serpstatbot SerpstatSerpstat's crawler that collects links for its backlink database.
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