AASA-Bot

Preview Bot

Last updated:

Allow

Generates link previews when your URLs are shared socially.

Recommended action: Allow access. Blocking breaks social sharing previews.

Category

Preview Bot

Primary use case

Social media link previews

Trust level

Review recommended

robots.txt

Unknown

AASA-Bot Traffic (Last 90 Days)

Not enough network data yet.

Track this bot on your site

What is AASA-Bot?

Fetcher bot

What AASA-Bot means for your site

Every visit from AASA-Bot means someone shared your URL on a social platform. The bot fetches your page to generate the link preview card (title, image, description) that appears in the conversation or feed. These are valuable visibility signals that traditional analytics miss entirely. High preview bot activity indicates your content is being shared and discussed.

What should you do?

  • Allow AASA-Bot, blocking breaks link previews
  • Ensure Open Graph meta tags (og:title, og:description, og:image) are set on key pages
  • Monitor share patterns to identify which content resonates
  • Use BotSights to track social shares that Google Analytics misses

See AASA-Bot on your own site

BotSights tracks every AASA-Bot visit in real time, including which pages it crawls, how often, and from where.

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How to identify AASA-Bot

AASA-Bot uses the user-agent "aasa-bot". It robots.txt compliance unconfirmed.

aasa-botAASA-Bot

How to block AASA-Bot

Three robots.txt options below. Pick the one that matches your goal. Each snippet lists every known AASA-Bot user-agent pattern so the rules apply regardless of which one the bot announces. Compliance with robots.txt is unconfirmed for AASA-Bot, so verify with crawl logs after deploying.

Edit robots.txt with care

A single misplaced line can de-index your entire site. Common mistake: pasting User-agent: * followed by Disallow: / blocks every bot, not just AASA-Bot, including Googlebot. Always paste the snippet between existing rules (not over them), keep the User-agent line scoped to AASA-Bot's patterns, and verify with Google's robots.txt tester before deploying. If you are not sure, ask a developer first.

Option 1: Block all access

Tells AASA-Bot not to crawl any URL on your site. Use this when you want the bot completely off your content.

User-agent: aasa-bot
User-agent: AASA-Bot
Disallow: /

Option 2: Block specific paths only

Keep public content crawlable but exclude sensitive or non-public sections. Add one Disallow: line per path. Replace the example paths with your own.

User-agent: aasa-bot
User-agent: AASA-Bot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /checkout/

Option 3: Slow down with a crawl delay

Crawl-delay is a voluntary directive that asks the bot to wait the given number of seconds between requests. Useful when AASA-Bot is hammering your origin and slowing the site down for real visitors, but you do not want to block it outright. The value is in seconds, so 10 means at most one request every ten seconds. Not all bots honour this directive (Googlebot ignores it; Bingbot, Yandex, and many AI crawlers do respect it).

User-agent: aasa-bot
User-agent: AASA-Bot
Crawl-delay: 10

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the User-Agent for AASA-Bot?

AASA-Bot identifies itself with the User-Agent string "aasa-bot" (alternate forms: AASA-Bot). This is the signature you will see in server logs when someone shares one of your URLs.

Does a visit from AASA-Bot mean my link was shared?

Yes. Each visit represents a share event on this platform — someone either sent your URL in a private chat or posted it publicly. This is real share-volume data that traditional analytics like Google Analytics never see, because the visit happens server-to-server.

Should I block AASA-Bot?

No. Blocking prevents link preview cards from rendering when your URLs are shared on this platform. Shared links without preview cards look broken and get fewer clicks. Always allow preview bots.

How do I improve how my link preview looks on this platform?

Add Open Graph meta tags to your pages: og:title (max ~60 chars), og:description (max ~155 chars), og:image (recommended 1200×630px PNG/JPEG). For X/Twitter add the twitter:* equivalents. Test with Facebook's Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn Post Inspector.

What image dimensions work best for AASA-Bot?

1200×630 pixels (1.91:1 ratio) is the safest size that renders well on most platforms. Keep file size under 5MB and use PNG or JPEG. Avoid text near the edges since some platforms crop.

Why does my link preview show the wrong image?

Most preview platforms cache previews aggressively. After updating og:image, use the operator's debugger tool (e.g. Facebook Sharing Debugger, LinkedIn Post Inspector, X Cards Validator) to force a re-fetch, or add a query string to bust the cache.

Does AASA-Bot respect robots.txt?

Compliance with robots.txt is unconfirmed. Most preview bots ignore it by design.

Detect social shares that analytics tools miss

Every visit from AASA-Bot means someone shared your link. BotSights tracks these invisible shares so you know which content resonates.

  • See when your links are shared on social platforms
  • Track which pages get shared most
  • Discover social traffic your analytics can't see
Track social shares

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