YandexSitelinks user agent
Operated by Yandex
YandexSitelinks is the Yandex robot that checks pages used as sitelinks in search results.
The YandexSitelinks bot at a glance
- YandexSitelinks is operated by Yandex and crawls web pages for a search engine index.
- The robots.txt token for YandexSitelinks is YandexSitelinks.
- Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results.
- YandexSitelinks robots.txt support: Yes.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is YandexSitelinks?
It confirms sitelink targets still load.
Yandex lists this robot on its official page of Yandex robots.
Should you block YandexSitelinks?
Allow YandexSitelinks unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages. |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow YandexSitelinks
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token YandexSitelinks is matched case-insensitively.
robots.txt: block
# Block YandexSitelinks
User-agent: YandexSitelinks
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow YandexSitelinks
User-agent: YandexSitelinks
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep YandexSitelinks out of private areas only
User-agent: YandexSitelinks
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to YandexSitelinks
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(YandexSitelinks)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to YandexSitelinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (YandexSitelinks) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "YandexSitelinks")How to verify real YandexSitelinks traffic
Reverse DNS check: look up the request IP, confirm the hostname ends in yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com, then look up that hostname and confirm it returns the same IP.
# 1. Reverse lookup: the hostname must end in yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com
host REQUEST_IP
# 2. Forward lookup: must return the same REQUEST_IP
host HOSTNAME_FROM_STEP_1How to find YandexSitelinks in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts YandexSitelinks requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "YandexSitelinks" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
YandexSitelinks user agent string
The full user agent Yandex publishes for YandexSitelinks. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexSitelinks; Dyatel; +http://yandex.com/bots)YandexSitelinks FAQ
YandexSitelinks identifies itself with the robots.txt token "YandexSitelinks". A typical request header reads: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexSitelinks; Dyatel; +http://yandex.com/bots)
Yes. Yandex states that YandexSitelinks follows robots.txt rules written for the "YandexSitelinks" token.
Blocking a search engine crawler removes your pages from that search engine's results. AI features built on that search index, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode on top of Googlebot, also lose access to your pages.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: YandexSitelinks" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Yes. Run a reverse DNS lookup on the request IP; a real YandexSitelinks request resolves to yandex.ru, yandex.net, yandex.com, and a forward lookup of that hostname returns the same IP.
Search your server access log for "YandexSitelinks", for example with: grep -i "YandexSitelinks" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Yandex crawler documentation. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
