What is AhrefsBot?

AhrefsBot (also known as Ahrefs robot or Ahrefs crawler) is the web crawler operated by Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool company. It crawls the web to build Ahrefs’ massive backlink index and provide competitive intelligence data to their users.

What is AhrefsBot For?

AhrefsBot is for building and maintaining Ahrefs’ backlink database — one of the largest in the SEO industry. The data collected by AhrefsBot powers several Ahrefs tools:

  • Site Explorer — analyze any website’s backlink profile
  • Content Explorer — find popular content in any niche
  • Keyword Explorer — research keywords and search volumes
  • Site Audit — crawl your site for SEO issues
  • Rank Tracker — monitor keyword rankings

Without AhrefsBot crawling websites, these tools wouldn’t have fresh data to provide.

How AhrefsBot Works

AhrefsBot continuously crawls billions of web pages to:

  • Discover and map backlinks
  • Index web content
  • Track changes to pages
  • Monitor link profiles
  • Build search index for Ahrefs’ tools

User Agent

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)

Is AhrefsBot Malicious?

No, AhrefsBot is not malicious. It’s a legitimate commercial crawler operated by Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., a well-known SEO company. Here’s why AhrefsBot is considered safe:

  • Respects robots.txt — follows your crawling rules
  • Identifies itself — uses clear User-Agent string
  • Verifiable IPs — can be verified via reverse DNS
  • Has official documentation — ahrefs.com/robot
  • Provides opt-out — you can block it anytime

However, AhrefsBot is aggressive and can consume significant bandwidth. This isn’t malicious behavior — it’s just how the bot operates to maintain fresh data.

Is AhrefsBot Good or Bad?

Pros:

  • Helps SEO professionals understand backlink profiles
  • Respects robots.txt
  • Provides useful competitive data
  • Generally well-behaved crawler
  • Legitimate and verifiable

Cons:

  • Can consume significant bandwidth
  • Crawls frequently
  • Provides data to your competitors
  • Not a search engine (won’t help rankings)

Should You Block AhrefsBot?

This depends on your priorities:

Allow if:

  • You want your backlinks visible in Ahrefs
  • You use Ahrefs for your own SEO research
  • Bandwidth isn’t a major concern
  • You want maximum visibility

Block if:

  • You have limited server resources
  • You want to hide your link profile from competitors
  • You prefer to keep your SEO strategy private
  • You don’t use Ahrefs tools

How to Get AhrefsBot to Crawl Your Site

If you want AhrefsBot to crawl your site (to appear in Ahrefs’ backlink index), here’s what you need to do:

1. Don’t block it in robots.txt

Make sure your robots.txt doesn’t have these rules:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

2. Submit your site to Ahrefs

You can request a crawl through Ahrefs Webmaster Tools:

3. Build backlinks

AhrefsBot discovers new sites by following links. If other sites link to you, AhrefsBot will eventually find and crawl your site.

4. Wait

AhrefsBot crawls billions of pages. New sites may take time to be discovered and fully indexed. Typically it takes a few days to a few weeks.

How to Block AhrefsBot

Add to your robots.txt:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

Or block specific sections:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /

How to Limit AhrefsBot Crawl Rate

AhrefsBot is one of the most aggressive crawlers. It can:

  • Make thousands of requests per day
  • Crawl sites very frequently
  • Consume significant bandwidth

If you want to allow AhrefsBot but limit its impact, here are your options:

1. Use robots.txt crawl-delay

Note: AhrefsBot doesn’t officially support Crawl-delay directive, but you can try:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Crawl-delay: 10

2. Rate limit at server level

Using nginx:

limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=ahrefsbot:10m rate=1r/s;

if ($http_user_agent ~* "AhrefsBot") {
    limit_req zone=ahrefsbot burst=5;
}

3. Contact Ahrefs support

Email support@ahrefs.com to request a lower crawl rate for your domain.

4. Block specific sections

Allow AhrefsBot but block heavy/unimportant sections:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /search/
Allow: /

Detecting AhrefsBot

Check server logs for:

  • User agent containing “AhrefsBot”
  • IPs from Ahrefs IP ranges
  • High frequency requests

Verify legitimacy with reverse DNS lookup - should resolve to *.ahrefs.com

Alternatives

Other similar SEO crawler bots:

  • SemrushBot - Semrush’s crawler
  • Moz DotBot - Moz’s crawler
  • Majestic - MJ12bot crawler

Many sites block these crawlers to conserve resources and maintain competitive privacy while allowing only search engine bots like Googlebot.

Impact on Performance

A typical website might see:

  • 1000-5000+ requests per day from AhrefsBot
  • 100-500MB+ bandwidth usage
  • Potential server load during peak crawl times

Monitor your server logs to assess actual impact on your site.

Conclusion

AhrefsBot is a legitimate but aggressive crawler. Your decision to allow or block it should balance the value of appearing in Ahrefs’ index against the server resources it consumes. Many sites choose to block third-party SEO crawlers and allow only search engine bots.

Test AhrefsBot Access to Your Site

Use our SEO Tools Bot Checker to verify if AhrefsBot can access your website. This free tool tests robots.txt rules and actual bot access for Ahrefs and other SEO analytics crawlers.

Related SEO Tool Bots:

  • MJ12bot - Majestic backlink analysis crawler
  • SemrushBot - SEMrush competitive analysis bot
  • DotBot - Moz domain authority crawler

For comprehensive bot testing across all categories, explore our free bot detection tools.