How to Check if Google, Bing and AI Bots Can Crawl Your Website

1. Understand the Different Types of Website Crawlers

Not every bot visiting a website serves the same purpose. Search engines and AI platforms use different crawlers, and each may follow different access rules.

Googlebot

Googlebot is Google's web crawler for discovering and processing pages for Google Search. Google primarily uses its smartphone crawler for indexing, so websites should make sure their content and important resources are accessible on mobile devices.

Googlebot follows the applicable robots.txt rules, but permission to crawl does not guarantee that a page will be indexed. Google also evaluates factors such as content, canonicalization, and indexing directives.

Robots.txt user-agent: Googlebot

Bingbot

Bingbot is Microsoft's crawler for discovering and processing website content for Bing. Website owners can use Bing Webmaster Tools to inspect URLs, test live page access, and investigate crawling or indexing issues.

Robots.txt user-agent: bingbot

AI crawlers

AI-related bots can serve different purposes, including collecting content for model training, discovering pages for AI search, or retrieving content in response to a user's request.

These user agents should not be treated as interchangeable. For example, allowing an AI search crawler does not necessarily mean that a website owner also wants to allow model-training crawlers.

A crawler's presence in robots.txt also does not prove that it has visited the website. It only shows the site's published access instructions.

2. Check Your Website's Robots.txt File

The first step in checking crawler access is to review your website's robots.txt file. This file is normally located in the root directory of your domain.

For example: https://www.example.com/robots.txt

Open the URL in a browser and check whether the file loads successfully. Review the rules to see which paths are allowed or disallowed for each crawler.

A basic robots.txt file might look like this:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

The User-agent: * directive applies to crawlers that do not have a more specific group in the file. The Allow: / directive permits crawling of all paths covered by that group. The sitemap declaration identifies a location where crawlers can discover the website's declared URLs.

Look for rules that block crawlers

A robots.txt file can have different instructions for different user agents.

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /admin/

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

In this example:

• Googlebot is blocked from crawling URLs under /private/.
• Bingbot is blocked from crawling URLs under /admin/.
• GPTBot is blocked from crawling the entire site.
• Other compliant crawlers are allowed to crawl all paths unless another applicable rule restricts them.

A common mistake is assuming that a general Allow: / rule overrides all specific restrictions. When a specific user-agent group exists, the crawler follows the rules applicable to that group.

Test a specific URL against robots.txt

When a robots.txt file contains many directives, manually checking whether a particular URL is allowed can be difficult.

For Bing, use the Bing Webmaster Tools Robots.txt Tester. Enter a URL, select the relevant user agent, and review whether the URL is allowed or blocked.

For Google, use Google Search Console and its URL Inspection tool to examine individual pages and test their current accessibility.

For AI crawlers, inspect the relevant user-agent group in your live robots.txt file. If using a third-party robots.txt tester, verify its interpretation against the actual file and the crawler's documentation.

A robots.txt rule that allows a bot only means that the file does not prohibit it from crawling the specified URL. The crawler can still be unable to retrieve the page because of a firewall, server error, authentication requirement, or other access restriction.

3. Check SiteAuditLint's robots.txt Configuration

SiteAuditLint's robots.txt file is a real-world example of explicitly allowing general crawlers and several AI-related user agents.

Live file: https://www.siteauditlint.com/robots.txt

The published configuration is:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

# AI crawlers are welcome
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.siteauditlint.com/sitemap.xml

What does this configuration mean?

The general User-agent: * group allows compliant crawlers to access all paths. SiteAuditLint also explicitly lists the AI-related user agents and allows each one to access all paths.

The sitemap declaration is:

https://www.siteauditlint.com/sitemap.xml

This tells compliant crawlers where to find SiteAuditLint's XML sitemap, which can help them discover the URLs listed there.

Does this mean all these bots are crawling SiteAuditLint?

No. The rules show that SiteAuditLint's published robots.txt permits the listed user agents to access the website. They do not prove that each crawler has visited, successfully fetched, or used the site's content.

There are also important distinctions between some of these crawlers and control tokens:

• Googlebot and Google-Extended: Googlebot is the crawler used for Google Search. Google-Extended is a control token for certain uses of content in Google's AI systems, not a separate crawler that needs to visit the website.
• OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot: OpenAI uses these for different purposes. OAI-SearchBot supports ChatGPT search discovery, while GPTBot is associated with potential model training. Allowing one does not automatically permit the other.
• ChatGPT-User: This user agent is associated with certain user-initiated retrieval requests. Its access rules are distinct from those for search discovery and model training.

To confirm actual access, SiteAuditLint should also test important pages using search engine inspection tools, review HTTP responses, and monitor verified crawler requests in its server logs.

4. Check HTTP Status Codes and Server Responses

Even when a crawler is permitted by robots.txt, it still needs to retrieve the page from your server.

HTTP status codes indicate what happened when a request was made. They help identify technical problems that can interfere with crawling.

A successful 200 response is useful evidence that a request succeeded, but it does not prove that the crawler can read all the content or that the page is eligible for indexing.

How to check HTTP status codes

You can use browser developer tools, an online HTTP status checker, or a command-line tool.

On Windows PowerShell, use:

curl.exe -I https://www.example.com/

The -I option requests the response headers. Look for the HTTP status line and any Location header that indicates a redirect.

To follow redirects and inspect the final response:

curl.exe -IL https://www.example.com/

To display the final HTTP status code after following redirects:

curl.exe -L -o NUL -s -w "HTTP status: %{http_code}\n" https://www.example.com/

Replace the example URL with the page you want to test.

These commands test a normal command-line request. They do not verify that Googlebot, Bingbot, or an AI crawler receives the same response.

What if a page returns a successful status but bots still cannot crawl it?

A page may return 200 OK to a normal browser while returning an error to a crawler. This can happen when a CDN, firewall, bot protection system, or hosting provider handles automated traffic differently.

Check server logs and security settings for rejected requests. If you suspect crawler-specific blocking, use the relevant search engine's inspection tools and compare their results with a normal browser request.

5. Use Google Search Console to Test Googlebot Access

Google Search Console provides a URL Inspection tool that lets website owners examine Google's indexed version of a page and run a live test to check whether the current page can be fetched and is potentially indexable.

Open Google Search Console and select your website property.

Steps to inspect a page

1. Enter the full URL of the page you want to inspect in the search bar.
2. Review the indexed URL report to see the last crawl date, indexing status, and any reported issues.
3. Click Test Live URL to check the current version of the page.
4. Review the crawl and indexing information, including whether crawling is allowed and whether Google successfully fetched the page.
5. If the test succeeds, inspect the rendered page and loaded resources to see whether Google can access the content and supporting files.

Understand the test results

• Crawl allowed? Indicates whether robots.txt permits Google to crawl the page.
• Page fetch: Indicates whether Google could retrieve the page from your server.
• Indexing allowed? Shows whether an indexing restriction, such as a noindex directive, prevents the page from being indexed.
• Last crawl: Shows when Google last crawled the indexed version of the page.
• Crawled as: Identifies the Google crawler type used.

If the live test is successful, Google can fetch and parse the page at the time of the test. It does not guarantee that the page will be indexed or appear in search results. Indexing also depends on other factors, including content, canonicalization, and Google's indexing systems.

Check Google's rendered page

A page can be accessible to Googlebot but still have problems with its rendered content. This is particularly relevant for websites that rely heavily on JavaScript.

Use the live test's rendered screenshot and loaded-resource information to check whether:

• Main content appears correctly.
• Important headings and text are present.
• Navigation links and internal links are accessible.
• JavaScript and CSS resources load without errors.
• Important page elements are not hidden behind a client-side interaction.

If the rendered page is missing important content, investigate JavaScript rendering, blocked resources, or errors in the application.

6. Use Bing Webmaster Tools to Check Bingbot

Bing Webmaster Tools provides a URL Inspection feature for examining URLs and identifying crawling, indexing, and SEO issues.

Open Bing Webmaster Tools and select your website.

Steps to test a page

1. Navigate to the URL Inspection tool.
2. Enter the page URL you want to check.
3. Review the URL's indexing information and reported errors.
4. Use the Live URL feature to request a fresh fetch and inspect the response.
5. Review the HTML and HTTP response details to identify problems with crawling or page delivery.

Bing's live URL feature helps you see what Bingbot can retrieve at test time. It can also report crawling restrictions and other issues that prevent a page from being fetched.

What to do when Bingbot cannot access a page

If Bing Webmaster Tools reports that the page cannot be crawled, check the following:

• The robots.txt file does not disallow the URL for Bingbot.
• The page returns a valid HTTP response rather than a persistent server or access error.
• The hosting provider or firewall does not block Bingbot.
• The URL does not require authentication.
• Redirects lead to the intended destination.
• Important content is available to the crawler in the rendered page.

If you have fixed a crawling issue, run the live test again to verify whether the page can now be fetched. You can also request indexing where the tool provides that option, subject to its available submission quota.

7. Check Whether AI Crawlers Can Access Your Website

Unlike Google and Bing, AI platforms do not all offer website owners the same kind of live URL inspection tools. A practical way to begin checking access is to review your robots.txt rules for the specific AI crawler user agents you want to allow or block.

The relevant crawlers depend on the AI service and its intended use of your content.

AI crawler access checklist

Test access rules for each AI bot

Create a list of important URLs and test each one against the user-agent groups in your robots.txt file.

For example, a website might have:

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

This configuration is an illustration of how different access policies can be specified. It is not a universal recommendation to allow or block any particular crawler.

If a crawler is disallowed, decide whether that is intentional before changing the rule. Some website owners want their content available to search crawlers while restricting access for model-training crawlers. Others may want a different policy for retrieval bots.

Distinguish between crawling and AI visibility

Allowing an AI crawler does not guarantee that your content will be included in an AI-generated answer or cited as a source.

Several separate processes may be involved:

1. Crawling: The bot can request and retrieve your page.
2. Processing: The platform can interpret the content it retrieves.
3. Retrieval: The platform may select the page for a particular user query.
4. Citation or display: The platform may choose to cite or display the page in its response.

These stages are not guaranteed to happen simply because the website permits crawling. The platform may also use other data sources, ranking systems, and eligibility rules.

For this reason, a robots.txt review should be combined with technical checks and monitoring of actual referral traffic or platform-specific reporting where available.

8. Review Server Logs to Confirm Actual Bot Visits

Robots.txt and inspection tools show whether crawling is permitted or whether a test request succeeds. Server logs provide another important piece of evidence: they can show which requests actually reached your website.

Most hosting platforms, web servers, and CDNs provide access logs or traffic analytics. Depending on your setup, these may include:

• Request timestamp
• Requested URL
• HTTP response code
• User-agent string
• Source IP address
• Response size
• Request duration

Identify crawler requests

Look for requests with user-agent strings associated with the bots you want to monitor, such as Googlebot, bingbot, GPTBot, or PerplexityBot.

However, a user-agent string alone is not proof that a request came from a legitimate crawler. Other bots can imitate it.

Google recommends verifying suspected Googlebot requests using reverse DNS lookups or by checking the source IP against Google's published crawler IP ranges. For other platforms, consult their published crawler verification guidance where available.

Look for crawling errors

When reviewing your logs, pay attention to patterns such as:

• Repeated 403 responses for important pages.
• 429 responses that suggest rate limiting.
• Persistent 5xx responses that may indicate server instability.
• Frequent requests for nonexistent URLs returning 404.
• Repeated requests for redirecting URLs rather than their final destinations.
• Important pages that receive no verified crawler visits over an extended period.

An absence of bot requests in a short log sample does not prove that a crawler cannot access your site. Crawling frequency depends on factors such as URL discovery, site demand, and the crawler's own scheduling.

9. Check JavaScript Rendering and Page Content

Some websites deliver their main content through JavaScript. While modern search crawlers can render JavaScript, rendering introduces additional requirements and potential failure points.

A page might return 200 OK while the main content remains unavailable to a crawler because it depends on a script that fails to load, a blocked resource, or a client-side process that never completes.

How to identify rendering problems

Check your website using the live inspection tools for Google and Bing, and compare the rendered page with what a visitor sees in a normal browser.

Look for:

1. Main page text missing from the rendered version.
2. Headings and links that appear only after user interaction.
3. Important content that requires a login or session.
4. JavaScript errors that prevent the page from displaying.
5. CSS or JavaScript resources blocked by robots.txt or server rules.
6. Internal links that are generated in ways crawlers cannot easily discover.

For critical pages, consider server-side rendering or static rendering where practical. These approaches can make important content available in the initial HTML response and reduce dependence on client-side execution.

Also make sure important content is represented in accessible HTML and that internal navigation uses crawlable links.

10. Check Indexing Directives Separately from Crawl Access

One of the most common mistakes in technical SEO is treating crawling and indexing as the same process.

They are different.

A crawler may be allowed to visit a page, but a noindex directive can still prevent that page from appearing in search results. Conversely, a page blocked by robots.txt may still have its URL discovered and potentially shown in search results without a description.

Check the page's HTML for a robots meta tag:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Also check the HTTP response headers for an X-Robots-Tag directive:

X-Robots-Tag: noindex

If you want a page to be eligible for indexing, ensure that it does not have an unintended noindex directive and that the relevant search crawler can access it.

Remember that removing noindex alone does not guarantee indexing. The page must still meet the search engine's other requirements.

11. Verify Your XML Sitemap and Internal Links

A sitemap helps search engines discover important URLs, but submitting one does not guarantee that all its URLs will be crawled or indexed.

Check that your XML sitemap:

• Returns a successful HTTP response.
• Contains the intended canonical URLs.
• Does not list pages that have been removed or should not be indexed.
• Uses valid XML syntax.
• Is referenced in robots.txt where appropriate.
• Has been submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, if applicable.

You can inspect your sitemap at a URL such as https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml.

Next, check whether important pages are linked from other crawlable pages on your site. Search engines use links to discover URLs, so important pages should not depend exclusively on sitemap submission.

12. Fix Common Website Crawling Problems

Once you've tested the different crawlers, group the problems according to their underlying causes. This makes it easier to identify which changes need to be made in your website, hosting environment, or crawler access policies.

Do not automatically remove every crawler restriction. Some pages, such as private account areas or internal search results, should remain restricted. The objective is to make the pages you intend to expose accessible to the appropriate crawlers.

Review related technical SEO problems

Crawl access is only one part of a website's technical health. If your audit reveals other problems, these SiteAuditLint articles provide additional troubleshooting steps:

13. Create a Regular Crawler Access Audit

Crawlability is not a one-time task. Changes to website code, hosting, firewall settings, and robots.txt can introduce new access problems.

A recurring audit can help you catch issues before they affect important pages.

For websites that publish content frequently, it is useful to recheck crawler access after significant deployments, migrations, redesigns, or changes to security settings. A periodic review of important pages can also reveal problems that were introduced without an obvious site-wide error.

Frequently Asked Questions