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

YandexMobileBot

YandexMobileBot is the specialized web crawler from the Russian search engine Yandex for indexing web content as it appears on mobile devices. It is crucial for a site's performance in Yandex's mobile search results, particularly for audiences in Russia and Eastern Europe. The bot simulates a mobile browser to evaluate a site's responsive design and mobile user experience.

What is YandexMobileBot?

YandexMobileBot is the dedicated mobile crawler for the Russian search engine Yandex. It is designed to crawl and index websites as they appear on mobile devices. The bot helps Yandex understand how sites render and perform on smartphones, which is crucial for its mobile search rankings. It identifies itself with a user-agent string that simulates an iPhone, such as Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; ...) (compatible; YandexMobileBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots). The bot evaluates mobile-specific elements like responsive design and touch-friendly navigation.

Why is YandexMobileBot crawling my site?

YandexMobileBot is visiting your site to understand how it functions and appears on mobile devices for its mobile search results. The bot is interested in your site's mobile rendering, page speed, and mobile-friendly navigation. The frequency of visits depends on your site's popularity in regions where Yandex is prominent, especially Russia and Eastern Europe. This is an authorized and standard activity for a major search engine.

What is the purpose of YandexMobileBot?

The purpose of YandexMobileBot is to improve the mobile search experience for Yandex users. As mobile internet usage has grown, Yandex needs to understand how websites perform on mobile devices to deliver relevant results. The data it collects helps Yandex rank websites appropriately in its mobile search results and identify mobile-friendly sites. For website owners, the bot's crawling is beneficial as it ensures your mobile site is properly represented in Yandex search, which is important for visibility to mobile users in its key markets.

How do I block YandexMobileBot?

To prevent YandexMobileBot from accessing your website, you can add a specific disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This will prevent your pages from being indexed in Yandex's mobile search results.

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

User-agent: YandexMobileBot
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.