YandexVerticals bot

What is YandexVerticals?

YandexVerticals is a specialized web crawler operated by Yandex, Russia's leading search engine company. It functions as a dedicated indexing bot designed specifically for Yandex's vertical search services, which focus on niche content categories such as automotive listings (Auto.ru), real estate (Yandex.Realty), job postings (Yandex.Job), and product reviews. Unlike Yandex's general-purpose crawler (YandexBot), YandexVerticals targets structured data within specific industry verticals to enhance the relevance of Yandex's specialized search offerings.

The crawler identifies itself in server logs with the user agent string: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexVerticals/1.0; +http://yandex.com/bots). This string includes a link to Yandex's official bot documentation where webmasters can verify its authenticity and learn more about managing its access.

YandexVerticals exhibits distinctive crawling patterns tailored to vertical-specific content. It prioritizes pages with structured data markup (Schema.org), focuses on extracting industry-specific metadata, and tends to revisit pages containing time-sensitive information (like property listings or job postings) more frequently than general web crawlers.

Why is YandexVerticals crawling my site?

If YandexVerticals is visiting your website, it's likely because your content falls within one of Yandex's vertical search categories. The crawler is particularly interested in:

• Structured data about products, services, or listings
• Industry-specific information that would appear in specialized search results
• Content with Schema.org markup that clearly identifies vertical-relevant information
• Websites in industries like automotive, real estate, employment, or e-commerce

The frequency of visits depends on your content's relevance to Yandex's vertical search services and how often your content changes. Sites with frequently updated listings (like real estate portals or job boards) may see more regular visits as the crawler works to keep Yandex's vertical search results current and accurate.

YandexVerticals' crawling is generally considered authorized as part of normal search engine indexing activities, particularly for websites targeting Russian-speaking markets or operating in industries covered by Yandex's vertical search products.

What is the purpose of YandexVerticals?

YandexVerticals exists to power Yandex's specialized vertical search services by collecting and indexing niche content. While general search engines provide broad results across many topics, vertical search focuses on specific industries or content types to deliver more targeted and relevant results.

The data collected by YandexVerticals helps Yandex create rich, specialized search experiences where users can find detailed information about products, properties, jobs, and other category-specific content. For example, when someone searches for apartments in Moscow on Yandex.Realty, the results come from data indexed by YandexVerticals.

For website owners, being included in these vertical search results can provide significant value through increased visibility within highly targeted search contexts. Sites with well-structured data that appears in vertical search results often receive qualified traffic from users with specific interests related to their content or offerings.

How do I block YandexVerticals?

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

User-agent: YandexVerticals
Disallow: /

This configuration prevents YandexVerticals from accessing any part of your site while allowing other Yandex crawlers (like YandexBot) to continue indexing your content.

For more selective control, you can block access to specific directories while allowing access to others:

User-agent: YandexVerticals
Allow: /public-listings/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private-content/

Keep in mind that blocking YandexVerticals will remove your content from Yandex's vertical search services. If you operate in markets where Yandex has significant search market share (particularly Russia and CIS countries), this could reduce your visibility to potential customers searching within these specialized verticals. Consider this impact before implementing complete blocking directives.

For websites targeting Russian-speaking audiences or operating in industries with dedicated Yandex vertical search services, allowing controlled access may be beneficial for maintaining visibility in these specialized search contexts.