Pandalytics bot

What is Pandalytics?

Pandalytics is a specialized intelligence-gathering web crawler operated by DomainsBot, a company focused on domain name analytics and market intelligence. This bot functions as a data collection tool designed to gather and analyze information related to domain registration trends, DNS configurations, and market dynamics within the domain industry.

The crawler identifies itself in server logs with standardized user-agent strings that follow this format: Pandalytics/2.0 (https://domainsbot.com/pandalytics/) for the current version, or Pandalytics/1.0 (https://domainsbot.com/pandalytics/) for the older version. These strings adhere to standard HTTP user-agent conventions and include a reference URL that provides transparency about the bot's origin.

Pandalytics exhibits distinctive crawling behaviors optimized for business intelligence gathering. It employs selective crawling that prioritizes websites related to domain registration services, hosting providers, and digital infrastructure platforms. The crawler adjusts its visit frequency based on a website's relevance to DomainsBot's clients, with more active or relevant sites receiving more frequent visits.

Why is Pandalytics crawling my site?

Pandalytics is likely crawling your site to collect data for domain industry intelligence. If your website is related to domain registration, hosting services, or digital infrastructure, you may see more frequent visits as these are high-priority targets for this crawler.

The bot specifically targets content related to domain pricing, availability policies, and transfer terms. It's particularly interested in HTML elements containing this information, which helps DomainsBot build comprehensive market intelligence for its clients. The crawler may also be collecting information about your content management system, DNS configuration, and SSL certificate details.

Pandalytics operates as a legitimate crawler that generally respects standard web protocols. Its crawling is not unauthorized in the sense that it follows robots.txt directives, but the specific data collection may occur without explicit permission from website owners.

What is the purpose of Pandalytics?

Pandalytics serves as a data collection tool for DomainsBot's business intelligence services. The primary purpose is to gather comprehensive information about the domain name industry to provide insights into competitor strategies and market positioning.

The data collected by Pandalytics enables competitive pricing analysis, market share estimation through DNS record aggregation, and trend forecasting via SSL certificate issuance patterns. This information helps domain registrars and other industry players respond more quickly to market shifts and develop more effective business strategies.

While the crawler primarily benefits DomainsBot and its clients, website owners in the domain industry may indirectly benefit from the market intelligence that helps create a more competitive landscape. However, some website owners may have concerns about the aggregation of their pricing strategies and business data for competitive analysis.

How do I block Pandalytics?

If you wish to restrict Pandalytics from crawling your website, you can do so using your robots.txt file. Pandalytics generally respects standard robots.txt directives, making this the most straightforward method for controlling access. To completely block Pandalytics from your entire site, add these lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: Pandalytics
Disallow: /

This directive specifically targets the Pandalytics crawler and prevents it from accessing any part of your website. If you want to allow Pandalytics to access certain sections while restricting others, you can modify the Disallow directive accordingly. For example, to allow access to your public pages but block access to pricing information, you might use:

User-agent: Pandalytics
Disallow: /pricing/
Allow: /

Keep in mind that blocking Pandalytics may reduce your visibility in domain industry analytics, which could be disadvantageous if you operate in this sector. However, if you're concerned about competitive intelligence gathering or server resource usage, blocking may be appropriate. To verify whether Pandalytics is respecting your robots.txt directives, you can monitor your server logs for continued access attempts after implementing the restrictions.