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1. Find out what is generating the traffic
Before changing a rate limit or blocking rule, compare your web server or CDN access logs with Google Search Console’s Crawl Stats report. Look for the requesting client, host, URL, response status, request rate and timing. Google recommends checking both sources when investigating a crawl-rate change.
Separate verified Googlebot activity from other crawlers and high-volume clients. Then check whether the increase is concentrated in a newly published section, newly accessible URLs, query-string variations, a costly API path or a particular action such as downloads. A site change can raise crawl activity without indicating an attack; a short burst alone does not establish abuse.
Google says most sites should not see Googlebot access more than once every few seconds on average, although delays can make short bursts appear faster. Treat that as diagnostic context, not a universal safe limit: your capacity and the cost of each endpoint determine what your site can handle. See Google’s crawl budget guidance for common reasons crawl activity can change.
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2. Verify Googlebot before writing exceptions
Do not trust a request simply because its user-agent says Googlebot. User-agent text is supplied by the requester and can be copied. Follow Google’s crawler verification guidance to confirm that a client is Googlebot, and configure your CDN, WAF and origin rules so verified Google crawler traffic does not accidentally inherit a scraper limit, challenge or block.
Cloudflare’s crawler troubleshooting guidance likewise warns against blocking Google crawler IPs, user agents or rate-limited traffic. It says: “Do not block Google User-Agents in your .htaccess file, server configuration, robots.txt, or web application.” Read its troubleshooting guidance before adding crawler rules.
Keep exceptions narrow and based on verified identity. A broad exemption for any request carrying a Googlebot label would give a scraper an easy way to bypass your controls.
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3. Put the limit where the cost occurs
Prefer a limit on a costly endpoint or action over a blunt ceiling for the whole hostname. For example, if repeated price lookups strain an API, rate-limit that API route rather than all page requests. If downloads are the problem, scope the rule to the download path or resource.
Choose a counting key that matches the endpoint and how legitimate users access it:
- Authenticated API: count by account, API token or session where appropriate, so one client cannot consume the entire shared allowance.
- Per-resource action: count by path or resource when requests to particular downloads or lookups are the expensive behavior.
- Unauthenticated traffic: use available request characteristics carefully; shared networks can make an IP-only limit affect multiple legitimate visitors.
Set thresholds from observed request volume, endpoint cost and available capacity; there is no universally safe request threshold in the guidance. Cloudflare documents endpoint- and request-characteristic-based rate limiting, with rates informed by traffic or API Discovery where available. See its rate limiting rules documentation for scope and configuration options.
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Choose the response deliberately. A rate-limit response can slow excessive requests; a block or challenge may be appropriate for traffic you have identified as unwanted. Test the rule against real logs, and ensure it does not challenge verified search crawlers or users who share an address or session characteristic.
4. Use robots.txt for crawl directives, not as a traffic firewall
A robots.txt rule can tell compliant crawlers which URLs they should not fetch, but it is not a complete way to control scraper traffic. The available guidance does not establish that every scraper obeys robots.txt. For other clients, enforce targeted limits at the CDN/WAF or application layer.
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5. If Googlebot itself is overwhelming the site
When verified Googlebot is the actual source of an urgent capacity problem, Google documents temporary 500, 503 or 429 responses as emergency relief. This is not a routine scraper filter: Google says these responses reduce crawl across the whole hostname, not just the URL returning the error.
Keep emergency responses brief. Google warns against leaving them in place longer than 1–2 days; repeated errors on a URL over multiple days may cause it to drop from the index, and sustained errors can harm how URLs appear in Google products. Once crawl activity adapts, restore normal responses. Google’s troubleshooting guidance suggests removing temporary blocks or responses after two or three days when the crawl rate has adjusted.
If returning errors is infeasible, Google provides a special request path for exceptional crawl-rate concerns. Evaluation may take several days, so it is not an immediate capacity fix. See Google’s current crawl rate guidance for the available options and conditions.
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6. Check that the change worked
After deploying a rule, compare origin load, response codes, request patterns and Google Search Console crawl reports with the period before the change. Confirm that expensive or abusive requests have fallen, while verified Google crawlers still receive successful responses and important pages remain crawlable.
- Review logs at both the edge and origin, including the original client IP when available, so proxying does not obscure who made the request.
- Watch for legitimate traffic caught by the same path, session or address-based rule.
- Check for unintended challenges, 429s, 5xx responses or drops in crawling of important URLs.
- Tighten, narrow or roll back a rule if it harms availability or blocks verified search crawlers.
Cloudflare recommends monitoring site performance and availability and checking the original client IP in logs. Its AI crawler controls also distinguish Search, Agent and Training behaviors, which can help apply policy by purpose rather than treating every AI-related crawler as one category. Cloudflare describes AI Crawl Control allow/block actions; its documentation lists Pay per crawl as closed beta, so availability may depend on current access and can change.
Quick Recap
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