Googlebot User Agents: 2025 List of Google Crawlers and Fetchers

Understanding Googlebot user agents is essential for any SEO professional or digital marketer striving for optimal search engine visibility. Googlebot—Google’s web crawler—uses various user agents to interact with websites, depending on the type of content it’s analyzing. In 2025, staying updated with the latest Googlebot user agents and their strings is more critical than ever, especially with the increasing complexity of websites and the rise of new content formats like chat interfaces and Discord integrations.

This blog will serve as your comprehensive guide to Googlebot user agents, their purposes, and how to manage their interactions with your website.

What are Googlebot User Agents?

A Googlebot user agent is a string of text that identifies Google’s crawler when it accesses a website. Each user agent specifies which type of content Googlebot is fetching—whether it’s for desktop, mobile, images, ads, or other specialized formats.

Understanding the different user agents helps website owners:

• Ensure their content is crawled and indexed properly.
• Manage specific bot behaviors, such as cookies or caching.
• Troubleshoot issues related to crawling and indexing.

Why are Googlebot User Agents Important?

1. Optimizing for Mobile and Desktop Crawlers

Googlebot has separate user agents for desktop and mobile crawling. Given Google’s mobile-first indexing, ensuring mobile-friendly content is accessible to the Googlebot agent is crucial for maintaining high search rankings.

2. Managing Specialized Content

Googlebot also uses user agents to crawl specific types of content like images, videos, and ads. Understanding these agents ensures your multimedia content is indexed effectively.

3. Debugging and Testing

When troubleshooting crawling issues, knowing the specific Googlebot agent string can help pinpoint problems. For example, if your mobile pages are not indexed, you can test them using the mobile Googlebot agent.

Googlebot User Agents List 2025

Below is a detailed list of the most relevant Googlebot user agents and their agent strings as of 2025:

1. Googlebot Desktop

Purpose: Crawls desktop versions of websites.

User Agent String:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

2. Googlebot Smartphone

Purpose: Crawls mobile versions of websites.

User Agent String:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; Mobile) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/88.0.4324.93 Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

3. Googlebot Images

Purpose: Crawls image content for Google Images.

User Agent String:

Googlebot-Image/1.0

4. Googlebot Video

Purpose: Crawls video content for Google Video search results.

User Agent String:

Googlebot-Video/1.0

5. AdsBot-Google

Purpose: Crawls landing pages for Google Ads quality checks.

User Agent String:

AdsBot-Google (+http://www.google.com/adsbot.html)

6. Googlebot Chat

Purpose: Crawls conversational interfaces and chat platforms like Googlebot Discord integrations.

User Agent String:

Googlebot-Chat/1.0 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)

How to Manage Googlebot Interactions

1. Check Googlebot Crawling

Use Google Search Console to monitor how Googlebot interacts with your site:

• Navigate to the Crawl Stats report to view activity.
• Use the URL Inspection Tool to check how specific pages are crawled.

2. Handle Googlebot Cookies

Googlebot can now process cookies for certain types of content. Ensure your cookie consent banners don’t block essential content by:

• Allowing crawlers to bypass cookie walls.
• Using a robots.txt file to disallow unnecessary cookie-heavy pages.

3. Test Your Website as Googlebot

Simulate how Googlebot crawls your website using tools like:

• Fetch as Googlebot in Google Search Console.
• Third-party Googlebot simulators to identify rendering issues.

4. Block or Allow Specific Googlebot Agents

Using the robots.txt file, you can control which user agents access your website. For example:

To Block Googlebot Images:

User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /

To Allow Only Googlebot Desktop:

User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /
Disallow: /test-page/

Troubleshooting Common Issues with Googlebot User Agents

1. Pages Not Indexed

If certain pages are not appearing in search results:

• Verify if they are blocked in the robots.txt file or via meta tags.
• Check the Crawl Stats and use the correct Googlebot agent string for testing.

2. Crawling Errors

Errors like 404 or server errors can prevent Googlebot from crawling your site effectively. Resolve these by:

• Fixing broken links.
• Optimizing server response times.

3. Misconfigured Cookie Banners

Cookie banners that block Googlebot can prevent important pages from being crawled. Test these interactions using a Googlebot agent.

Best Practices for Googlebot User Agents

Keep Your Robots.txt Updated Regularly review your robots.txt file to ensure it aligns with your crawling goals.

Optimize for Mobile Given Google’s mobile-first indexing, ensure your mobile pages are fully optimized and accessible to the Googlebot Smartphone user agent.

Monitor Googlebot Activity Use Google Search Console and server logs to track how often Googlebot crawls your site and identify patterns in its behavior.

Leverage Structured Data Structured data helps Googlebot understand your content better, improving indexing efficiency.

Final Thoughts

Googlebot user agents are the backbone of how Google discovers and indexes your content. Staying informed about the latest Googlebot user agent strings and managing their interactions effectively is crucial for maintaining a strong SEO strategy.

Whether you’re optimizing for mobile, managing cookies, or testing how Googlebot crawls your site, these insights will empower you to make data-driven decisions. Keep your robots.txt file updated, monitor crawling activity, and ensure your website is accessible to the right user agents in 2025 and beyond.