Feedfetcher-Google

Search Engine

Operated by Google

Last updated:

Allow

Essential for organic search visibility.

Recommended action: Allow access and monitor crawl consistency.

Category

Search Engine

Primary use case

Web search indexing

Trust level

Review recommended

robots.txt

Unknown

Feedfetcher-Google Traffic (Last 90 Days)

Not enough network data yet.

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What is Feedfetcher-Google?

Search Engine Crawler bot

What Feedfetcher-Google means for your site

Feedfetcher-Google is how your pages get discovered and ranked in Google search results. Regular crawling means your content is being indexed and updated. Crawl frequency often reflects how search engines perceive your site's authority and freshness. A drop in crawling can signal technical problems, while consistent activity indicates a healthy site.

What should you do?

  • Allow Feedfetcher-Google full access to your site
  • Check robots.txt to ensure important pages are not blocked
  • Monitor crawl frequency trends in BotSights
  • Investigate if crawl activity drops unexpectedly
  • Ensure your sitemap is accessible and up-to-date

See Feedfetcher-Google on your own site

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

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How to identify Feedfetcher-Google

Feedfetcher-Google uses the user-agent "Feedfetcher-Google" and robots.txt compliance unconfirmed. You can verify real Googlebot traffic via reverse DNS lookup: the hostname should end in .google.com or .googlebot.com.

Feedfetcher-Googlefeedfetcher-google

How to block Feedfetcher-Google

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

User-agent: Feedfetcher-Google
User-agent: feedfetcher-google
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: Feedfetcher-Google
User-agent: feedfetcher-google
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 Feedfetcher-Google 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: Feedfetcher-Google
User-agent: feedfetcher-google
Crawl-delay: 10

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the User-Agent for Feedfetcher-Google?

Feedfetcher-Google identifies itself with the User-Agent string "Feedfetcher-Google" (alternate forms: feedfetcher-google). Google uses several variants for different products — see developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/overview-google-crawlers for the full list.

Should I block Feedfetcher-Google?

No. Blocking Feedfetcher-Google removes your pages from Google search results and directly hurts your organic traffic. The only legitimate use case for blocking is on staging or development environments where you do not want indexing.

Should I block Feedfetcher-Google on my staging or dev site?

Yes — staging environments should not be indexed. Use robots.txt with "User-agent: Feedfetcher-Google / Disallow: /" or apply HTTP basic auth. Better: use a noindex meta tag plus a different hostname (staging.example.com) so production is unaffected.

Why has Feedfetcher-Google stopped visiting my site?

Common causes: robots.txt misconfiguration (accidental Disallow), server errors (5xx responses cause crawl-rate to drop), slow page load, soft 404s, or natural crawl budget adjustment. Check Search Console (or equivalent) for crawl errors first.

How does Feedfetcher-Google decide which pages to crawl?

Feedfetcher-Google prioritizes based on perceived page importance (links, freshness, content quality), site authority, and crawl budget. Submit a sitemap and ensure your most important pages are reachable from the homepage in 2-3 clicks for best coverage.

How can I tell if Feedfetcher-Google traffic is real and not spoofed?

User-Agent strings can be faked by scrapers pretending to be Feedfetcher-Google. For Googlebot, do reverse DNS: the hostname must end in .googlebot.com or .google.com, then forward DNS back to the same IP. BotSights flags spoofed traffic automatically and shows a verified badge per visit.

Does Feedfetcher-Google respect Crawl-delay?

No. Googlebot ignores Crawl-delay. Use Search Console's crawl rate setting instead, or return 503 Service Unavailable temporarily if your server is overloaded.

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