YandexAdditionalBot

What is YandexAdditionalBot?

YandexAdditionalBot is a specialized web crawler operated by Yandex, the Russian technology company behind one of the world's largest search engines. This bot is part of the broader Yandex crawler family that includes YandexBot, YandexImages, and other specialized crawlers. As a supplementary crawler to the main YandexBot, it performs additional crawling tasks to enhance Yandex's search and web services.

The bot identifies itself in server logs with user agent strings that typically follow this format: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexAdditionalBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots). This identification allows website administrators to recognize when this specific Yandex crawler is accessing their content. Like other Yandex crawlers, it operates from IP addresses within Yandex's network infrastructure, primarily from Russian IP ranges.

YandexAdditionalBot behaves similarly to other search engine crawlers - it follows links, analyzes page content, and reports back to Yandex's servers. However, as its name suggests, it performs supplementary crawling tasks beyond what the main YandexBot handles, potentially focusing on specific types of content or performing specialized analysis.

Why is YandexAdditionalBot crawling my site?

YandexAdditionalBot visits websites to collect specific information that complements the data gathered by Yandex's primary crawlers. If you're seeing this bot in your logs, it likely means Yandex has identified your site as containing valuable content worth indexing for its search engine and other services.

The frequency of visits depends on several factors, including your site's popularity, how often your content changes, and its relevance to Yandex users. Newly published or updated content may trigger more frequent visits, as the bot works to keep Yandex's index current.

This crawler is an authorized agent of Yandex and is conducting legitimate crawling activities to support Yandex's search engine functionality. Its behavior should be predictable and non-aggressive, following standard crawler etiquette and respecting your site's crawl directives when properly configured.

What is the purpose of YandexAdditionalBot?

YandexAdditionalBot exists to support Yandex's search engine and related services by gathering specialized or supplementary information from websites. While the primary YandexBot handles the bulk of web crawling for general indexing purposes, YandexAdditionalBot performs more targeted crawling tasks.

The data collected by this bot helps Yandex improve its search results, enhance user experience, and provide more comprehensive and accurate information to its users. This may include gathering data for specific Yandex services beyond basic search, such as Yandex Images, Yandex Translate, or other specialized offerings.

For website owners, having content properly crawled by Yandex's bots, including YandexAdditionalBot, can increase visibility in Yandex search results, potentially driving more traffic from users of this search engine. This is particularly valuable for websites targeting audiences in Russia and other countries where Yandex has significant market share.

How do I block YandexAdditionalBot?

If you wish to control YandexAdditionalBot's access to your website, the most straightforward approach is through your site's robots.txt file. Yandex bots generally respect the robots.txt protocol, allowing you to specify which parts of your site should or shouldn't be crawled.

To completely block YandexAdditionalBot from your entire site, add the following directives to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /

If you only want to block access to specific directories or pages, you can be more selective:

User-agent: YandexAdditionalBot
Disallow: /private-directory/
Disallow: /sensitive-page.html

You can also block all Yandex bots, including YandexAdditionalBot, with this directive:

User-agent: Yandex
Disallow: /

Keep in mind that blocking Yandex's crawlers will result in your content not appearing in Yandex search results, which could reduce visibility to users of this search engine. This impact is most significant for websites targeting Russian-speaking audiences or markets where Yandex has a strong presence. Before implementing complete blocking, consider whether selective restrictions might better serve your needs while maintaining some visibility in Yandex services.