YandexOntoDB bot

What is YandexOntoDB?

YandexOntoDB is a specialized web crawler developed and operated by Yandex, one of Russia's largest technology companies and search engine providers. This crawler functions as part of Yandex's broader ecosystem of automated tools designed to interact with web resources for specific data acquisition and indexing objectives. You can learn more about Yandex's bots at their official documentation page.

The crawler identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexOntoDB/1.0; +http://yandex.com/bots). This format follows standard conventions, indicating compatibility with Mozilla-based rendering while specifying its name and version.

YandexOntoDB is primarily focused on ontology-driven data extraction. While Yandex hasn't published detailed technical specifications, the name suggests it specializes in collecting structured data to build and enhance knowledge graphs. Unlike general-purpose crawlers, YandexOntoDB appears to target specific types of structured information on websites, particularly those using standardized formats like JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.

A distinctive characteristic of YandexOntoDB is its adherence to robots.txt directives, demonstrating Yandex's commitment to respecting webmaster control over crawling behavior.

Why is YandexOntoDB crawling my site?

YandexOntoDB is likely visiting your website to extract structured data that enhances Yandex's knowledge graph and semantic search capabilities. If your site contains rich structured data, schema markup, or other forms of organized information, you're more likely to see this crawler actively indexing your content.

The crawler typically looks for:

• Structured data in formats like JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa
• Entity relationships (like product specifications, business information, or content categorization)
• Metadata that helps establish connections between concepts

Crawling frequency varies based on several factors, including your site's authority, content freshness, and the amount of structured data available. Sites with regularly updated structured information may experience more frequent visits.

This crawling is generally authorized as part of normal search engine operations, similar to how Google and other search engines index the web. The data collected helps Yandex provide more relevant search results to its users.

What is the purpose of YandexOntoDB?

YandexOntoDB's primary purpose is to support Yandex's search engine and related services by building and maintaining a comprehensive knowledge graph. This knowledge graph enables Yandex to understand relationships between entities and concepts rather than just matching keywords.

The crawler collects structured data to:

• Enhance search result accuracy and relevance
• Power rich snippets and direct answers in search results
• Improve understanding of content context and meaning
• Build connections between related entities across the web

For website owners, having your structured data properly indexed by YandexOntoDB can potentially improve your visibility in Yandex search results, particularly for queries where semantic understanding is important. Sites with well-implemented schema markup may benefit from enhanced display in search results, including rich snippets that can improve click-through rates.

The data collected ultimately serves Yandex users by providing more informative, contextual search experiences, especially for complex or ambiguous queries where understanding relationships between concepts is crucial.

How do I block YandexOntoDB?

YandexOntoDB respects standard robots.txt directives, making it relatively straightforward to control its access to your site. If you wish to block this crawler completely, you can add the following to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: YandexOntoDB
Disallow: /

This will instruct YandexOntoDB not to crawl any part of your website. If you only want to block access to specific sections, you can specify particular directories:

User-agent: YandexOntoDB
Disallow: /private-directory/
Disallow: /members-only/

You can also use the Crawl-delay parameter to limit the crawler's rate:

User-agent: YandexOntoDB
Crawl-delay: 10

This sets a 10-second delay between requests, reducing server load.

Before blocking YandexOntoDB completely, consider the potential impact on your visibility in Yandex search results. If Yandex is a significant traffic source for your website, especially in Russian-speaking regions, blocking this crawler might reduce your visibility in search results that rely on semantic understanding and structured data.

For most legitimate websites, allowing controlled access is generally beneficial unless you have specific concerns about server load or content you don't want indexed. If you're experiencing excessive crawling that impacts server performance, using the Crawl-delay directive is often a better first step than blocking the crawler entirely.