Published on 2025-08-07T06:18:08Z

MuckRack bot

The MuckRack bot is a specialized web crawler for Muck Rack, a public relations software platform. Its purpose is to scan news outlets, blogs, and other media sites to collect information about journalists and their published work. This data powers Muck Rack's extensive journalist database and media monitoring services, which are used by PR professionals to find media contacts and track press coverage.

What is the MuckRack bot?

The MuckRack bot is the web crawler for the PR software platform Muck Rack. It functions as a data aggregation tool that scans media-focused websites to gather information about journalists and their published content. The bot identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MuckRack/1.0; +https://muckrack.com). It operates with a 'politeness policy,' adjusting its crawl rate to minimize server impact while collecting the intelligence that powers Muck Rack's platform.

Why is the MuckRack bot crawling my site?

The MuckRack bot is visiting your site to collect information about your published content, especially if your site contains news articles, press releases, or bylined work from journalists. The bot prioritizes media outlets and journalist portfolios to gather data for its database. The frequency of its visits depends on how often you update your content and its relevance to Muck Rack's services. News sites are likely to be crawled more frequently than corporate websites.

What is the purpose of the MuckRack bot?

The purpose of the MuckRack bot is to gather the data that powers the Muck Rack PR platform. The information it collects helps build and maintain comprehensive journalist profiles, including their publication history and areas of coverage. This allows PR professionals to identify relevant media contacts for story pitches. Additionally, the bot supports Muck Rack's media monitoring services, which help PR teams track coverage of their brands. For media publishers, being included in this database can increase visibility to PR professionals seeking expert sources.

How do I block the MuckRack bot?

To prevent the MuckRack bot from accessing your website, you can add a specific disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This is the standard method for managing access for legitimate web crawlers.

Add the following lines to your robots.txt file to block the MuckRack bot:

User-agent: MuckRack
Disallow: /

How to verify the authenticity of the user-agent operated by MuckRack?

Reverse IP lookup technique

To verify user-agent authenticity, you can use host linux command two times with the IP address of the requester.
  1. > host IPAddressOfRequest
    This command returns the reverse lookup hostname (e.g., 4.4.8.8.in-addr.arpa.). 
  2. > host ReverseDNSFromTheOutputOfFirstRequest
If the output matches the original IP address and the domain is associated with a trusted operator (e.g., MuckRack), the user-agent can be considered legitimate.

IP list lookup technique

Some operators provide a public list of IP addresses used by their crawlers. This list can be cross-referenced to verify a user-agent's authenticity. However, both operators and website owners may find it challenging to maintain an up-to-date list, so use this method with caution and in conjunction with other verification techniques.