AllAfrica

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

AllAfrica Traffic (Last 90 Days)

Not enough network data yet.

Track this bot on your site

What is AllAfrica?

Fetcher bot

What AllAfrica means for your site

Every visit from AllAfrica 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 AllAfrica, 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 AllAfrica on your own site

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

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How to identify AllAfrica

AllAfrica uses the user-agent "allafrica". It robots.txt compliance unconfirmed.

allafricaAllAfrica

How to block AllAfrica

Three robots.txt options below. Pick the one that matches your goal. Each snippet lists every known AllAfrica user-agent pattern so the rules apply regardless of which one the bot announces. Compliance with robots.txt is unconfirmed for AllAfrica, 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 AllAfrica, including Googlebot. Always paste the snippet between existing rules (not over them), keep the User-agent line scoped to AllAfrica'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 AllAfrica not to crawl any URL on your site. Use this when you want the bot completely off your content.

User-agent: allafrica
User-agent: AllAfrica
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: allafrica
User-agent: AllAfrica
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 AllAfrica 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: allafrica
User-agent: AllAfrica
Crawl-delay: 10

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the User-Agent for AllAfrica?

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

Does a visit from AllAfrica 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 AllAfrica?

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 AllAfrica?

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 AllAfrica 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 AllAfrica 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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