What is Yahoo! Slurp?

Yahoo! Slurp is the primary web crawler for Yahoo's search engine infrastructure. Operated by Yahoo (now part of Verizon Media), this automated bot systematically browses the internet to discover, index, and analyze web content for inclusion in Yahoo Search results. Yahoo! Slurp has been active since the early days of Yahoo's search operations, evolving through various iterations.

As a dedicated web crawler, Yahoo! Slurp traverses links between web pages to map the structure of interconnected resources across the internet. When visiting your site, it identifies itself with a user agent string that typically appears in your server logs as: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp). Newer versions may show as Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp/3.0; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp).

Yahoo! Slurp operates using a dynamic IP pool and focuses primarily on static content retrieval rather than processing JavaScript or dynamic content. It follows HTTP/1.1 specifications and is designed to minimize bandwidth usage through conditional GET requests and compressed transfers.

Why is Yahoo! Slurp crawling my site?

Yahoo! Slurp visits your website to index your content for inclusion in Yahoo Search results. The crawler discovers your pages either through links from other sites or from previous crawling sessions. It's particularly interested in your text content, metadata (like titles and descriptions), and link structure, which helps Yahoo determine your site's relevance for various search queries.

The frequency of visits depends on several factors including your site's popularity, how often you update content, and your server's response times. High-traffic sites with regularly updated content typically receive more frequent visits from Yahoo! Slurp. New content or changes to existing pages may trigger additional crawling activity as Yahoo works to keep its search index current.

Yahoo! Slurp's crawling is generally considered authorized as part of the standard operation of search engines, though website owners can control access through various methods.

What is the purpose of Yahoo! Slurp?

Yahoo! Slurp exists to power Yahoo Search and related services by collecting and indexing web content. The data gathered helps Yahoo build and maintain its searchable database, enabling users to find relevant results when they search on Yahoo's platform. The crawler also supports specialized Yahoo verticals like Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance that rely on content aggregation.

For website owners, having content properly indexed by Yahoo! Slurp can drive organic traffic from Yahoo Search to your site. While Yahoo's market share is smaller than Google's, it still represents a potential source of visitors, particularly in regions or demographics where Yahoo maintains stronger popularity.

The crawler helps Yahoo assess factors like content relevance, freshness, and site structure—all elements that influence how and where your content appears in search results.

How do I block Yahoo! Slurp?

Yahoo! Slurp is designed to respect the robots.txt protocol, which provides a standard way to communicate with web crawlers. To control Yahoo! Slurp's access to your site, you can add specific directives to your robots.txt file. For example, to completely block Yahoo! Slurp from your entire site, add these lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Disallow: /

To block access to specific directories or files while allowing access to the rest of your site:

User-agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /members/

You can also slow down the crawler's activity on your site by adding a crawl-delay directive:

User-agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Crawl-delay: 10

This instructs Yahoo! Slurp to wait 10 seconds between requests, reducing server load. Be aware that completely blocking Yahoo! Slurp will result in your content being removed from Yahoo Search results within approximately 14-21 days, potentially reducing visibility and traffic from Yahoo's platforms. For most websites, allowing controlled access rather than complete blocking provides the best balance between resource management and search visibility.

Yahoo! Slurp