Safe AI & LLM Bots

Andi Search

Operated by Andi

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
Andibot
Category:
AI & LLM Bots
Operator:
Andi
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
andisearch.com

What is Andi Search?

Andi Search is a dual-purpose AI crawler operated by Andi. It both indexes content for AI search answers and may retrieve pages on demand for user queries. Allowing it can improve your visibility inside Andi's AI answers.

Andi Search is a dual-purpose AI crawler operated by Andi. It both indexes content for AI search answers and may retrieve pages on demand for user queries. Allowing it can improve your visibility inside Andi's AI answers. Andi Search uses the user-agent token Andibot. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block Andi Search?

✅ **No SEO Impact** - Blocking Andi Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Andi Search is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block Andi Search with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: Andibot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: Andibot Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: Andibot Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: Andibot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Andi Search if ($http_user_agent ~* "Andibot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Andi Search SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Andibot" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Andi Search safe to allow?

Yes, Andi Search is a **safe and legitimate** crawler operated by Andi. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Andi Search requests resolve to Andi's domain.

What does Andi Search do?

Understanding Andi Search's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Indexes content for AI search answers
  • Retrieves pages on demand for user queries
  • Can surface your content as AI citations
  • Allowing it improves AI-answer visibility
  • Respects standard robots.txt directives

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Andi Search?
The official user-agent string for Andi Search is: Andibot. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Andi Search by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Andi Search safe?
Yes, Andi Search is a **safe and legitimate** crawler operated by Andi. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Andi Search hurt my SEO?
✅ **No SEO Impact** - Blocking Andi Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Andi Search is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
How do I block Andi Search in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: 
User-agent: Andibot
Disallow: /
This instructs Andi Search not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Andi Search respect robots.txt?
Andi Search is operated by Andi and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.
How do I verify if Andi Search is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string Andibot (case-insensitive: grep -i "Andibot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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