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

Sogou web spider

Sogou web spider is the official web crawler for Sogou, one of China's largest search engine companies. Its purpose is to discover and index public web content to build the database for Sogou's search results. For website owners, particularly those targeting the Chinese market, being indexed by this bot is important for gaining visibility and organic traffic from a significant online audience.

What is Sogou web spider?

Sogou web spider is the web crawler for Sogou Inc., a major Chinese search engine company. It is a conventional web crawler that systematically browses the internet to discover and index content for Sogou's search database. The bot identifies itself in server logs with a user-agent string such as Sogou web spider/4.0(+http://www.sogou.com/docs/help/webmasters.htm#07). It operates from IP addresses primarily located in China and is designed to follow standard crawling protocols.

Why is Sogou web spider crawling my site?

Sogou web spider is crawling your website to evaluate its content for inclusion in Sogou's search index, particularly if your site has Chinese-language content or targets audiences in China. The crawler prioritizes HTML text and hyperlinks. The frequency of its visits depends on your site's popularity and update schedule. This crawling is a standard part of how search engines operate and is generally considered authorized.

What is the purpose of Sogou web spider?

The purpose of Sogou web spider is to support the Sogou search engine by building and maintaining a comprehensive index of web content. The data it collects is used to determine page rankings and provide relevant search results to Sogou's millions of users, who are primarily in China. For website owners, having your content indexed by Sogou can increase your visibility in the Chinese market. However, the bot has limited capabilities for processing JavaScript, which may affect how dynamic content appears in its search results.

How do I block Sogou web spider?

If your target audience is outside of China and you wish to prevent Sogou web spider from accessing your site, you can add a disallow rule to your robots.txt file.

To block this bot, add the following lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: Sogou web spider
Disallow: /

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

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., Sogou), 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.