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Guides/check/is claude searchbot blocked

Is Claude-SearchBot Blocked on Your Site? | SEO AEO Specialist SEO & AEO Specialist

In short

To check, open your robots.txt and look for a Disallow rule under User-agent: Claude-SearchBot. If it disallows /, this crawler is blocked — and blocking it removes your pages from Claude's search and answer features, so Claude won't retrieve or cite them.

Claude-SearchBot is Anthropic's search crawler. It retrieves live web content that powers Claude's search and answer features, letting Claude surface and cite up-to-date sources. It is a search/answer crawler, not a training crawler, so it directly affects whether you appear in Claude's cited results.

If you want Claude to find and cite your content, Claude-SearchBot must be allowed. Blocking it removes you from Claude's search results.

How to check and control it

To check, look in your robots.txt for a rule targeting this user-agent. To allow or block it:

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /        # blocks it — remove or set "Allow: /" to permit

For an instant check across your whole site, use SEO AEO Specialist's free AI crawler checker, and see the llms.txt & AI crawler guide.

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FAQ

What's the difference between Claude-SearchBot and ClaudeBot?

Claude-SearchBot retrieves live content for Claude's search and answer features, while ClaudeBot collects data for model training. Blocking Claude-SearchBot removes you from Claude search results; blocking ClaudeBot only opts you out of training. They use separate robots.txt rules.

Will blocking Claude-SearchBot hurt my visibility?

Yes, inside Claude. If Claude-SearchBot cannot crawl your pages, Claude's search can't retrieve or cite them, so you lose that answer-engine exposure. SEO AEO Specialist diagnoses whether you're accidentally blocking it and helps you fix the rule, not just monitor it.

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