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

YandexAccessibilityBot

YandexAccessibilityBot is a specialized web crawler from the Russian search engine company Yandex. Its purpose is to evaluate websites for their compliance with web accessibility standards. The data it collects helps Yandex understand how accessible a site is for users with disabilities, which may be factored into its search rankings. For website owners, the bot's activity encourages better accessibility practices.

What is YandexAccessibilityBot?

YandexAccessibilityBot is a web crawler from Yandex that is designed to evaluate websites for accessibility. The bot focuses on checking for compliance with accessibility standards to understand how well a site can be used by people with disabilities. It identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexAccessibilityBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots). The bot analyzes structural elements of HTML that impact accessibility and does not process dynamic content like JavaScript.

Why is YandexAccessibilityBot crawling my site?

YandexAccessibilityBot is visiting your site to evaluate its accessibility features. It examines elements like alt text for images, proper heading structures, and ARIA attributes. The frequency of visits depends on your site's visibility in Yandex search and its relevance to Yandex's user base, which is primarily in Russia and Eastern Europe. This is an authorized and standard activity for a search engine that is increasingly focused on user experience.

What is the purpose of YandexAccessibilityBot?

The purpose of YandexAccessibilityBot is to help Yandex evaluate and potentially rank websites based on their accessibility. This information allows Yandex to factor accessibility into its search rankings, rewarding sites that follow best practices. For website owners, the bot's activity is beneficial as it encourages better accessibility, and a site that performs well in these evaluations may receive better visibility in Yandex search results.

How do I block YandexAccessibilityBot?

To prevent YandexAccessibilityBot from accessing your website, you can add a specific disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This is the standard method for managing crawler access.

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

User-agent: YandexAccessibilityBot
Disallow: /

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

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., Yandex), 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.