AhrefsBot

What Is AhrefsBot?

AhrefsBot is a web crawler used by the SEO tool Ahrefs. It travels across the internet, visits web pages, and collects data that Ahrefs shows in its reports.

Definition

AhrefsBot is the software robot, also called a bot or spider, that Ahrefs uses to:

• Find new web pages
• Check links between pages
• Measure how strong a website looks online
• Update Ahrefs tools like Site Explorer and Backlink reports

In your server logs the user agent usually looks like AhrefsBot.

Why AhrefsBot Matters

AhrefsBot matters for website owners and SEO specialists because it:

• Helps you see who links to your site
• Provides SEO metrics like Domain Rating and URL Rating
• Shows which pages and keywords bring traffic
• Can use your server resources when crawling many pages

Understanding AhrefsBot helps you manage crawl activity and get better value from Ahrefs data.

How AhrefsBot Works

AhrefsBot follows a simple process:

1. Starts from a list of known URLs
2. Checks if the site allows crawling in the robots.txt file
3. Downloads allowed pages
4. Reads links and finds new pages to crawl next
5. Sends the collected data to Ahrefs servers for analysis

If your robots.txt blocks AhrefsBot, it will not crawl those blocked pages.

AhrefsBot vs Related Terms

• AhrefsBot vs Googlebot
  Googlebot is the crawler for Google Search. It uses data to rank pages in search results. AhrefsBot is only for Ahrefs tools and does not control rankings.
• AhrefsBot vs other SEO crawlers
  Other tools like SemrushBot or Moz crawler do a similar job for their own SEO platforms. Each bot powers its own set of metrics and reports.

Example of AhrefsBot

Here is a simple example of a log entry where AhrefsBot visits a page:

66.249.64.1 - - [12/Jan/2025:10:15:23 +0000] "GET /blog/seo-guide/ HTTP/1.1" 200 15432 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 compatible. AhrefsBot/7.0.1"

This shows the time of the visit, the page it crawled, and the user agent that includes AhrefsBot.

FAQs

Is AhrefsBot safe?
Yes. It only crawls public pages and follows the rules in your robots.txt file. It does not try to hack or change your site.

Can I block AhrefsBot?
Yes. You can block it in your robots.txt file with:

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

Why is AhrefsBot using my server resources?
Because it is crawling many pages of your site. If this is a problem, you can slow it down or block it using robots.txt or rate limits.

Do I need AhrefsBot for SEO rankings?
No. Your search rankings come from bots like Googlebot. AhrefsBot only affects the data and metrics you see inside Ahrefs.