Blocking or Allowing Trellian SiteSpider — Best robots.txt RulesTrellian SiteSpider is a crawler operated by Trellian (a company known for web directories and SEO tools). Webmasters occasionally see it in server logs and must decide whether to allow, limit, or block it. This article explains what SiteSpider does, why you might care, how to detect it, and practical robots.txt rules (with examples) to block, allow, or tailor its access safely and effectively.
What is Trellian SiteSpider?
Trellian SiteSpider is a web crawler (bot) used by Trellian for indexing sites and gathering data for services such as web directories, SEO-related tools, and analytics. Like other crawlers, it makes HTTP requests for pages and resources to collect content and metadata.
Why it matters:
- Crawl traffic can affect server load. If you operate a large or resource-limited site, unwanted crawlers increase bandwidth and CPU use.
- Indexing and search visibility. Allowing reputable crawlers helps content reach search engines and directories; blocking may reduce visibility on services that rely on Trellian.
- Scraping concerns. Some site owners worry about content scraping or outdated copies showing in third-party services.
How to identify Trellian SiteSpider in logs
SiteSpider typically identifies itself via its User-Agent header. Common patterns include strings containing “Trellian” or “SiteSpider”. Example User-Agent values you might see:
- Trellian SiteSpider/1.0
- SiteSpider (Trellian)
However, User-Agent strings can be forged. To increase confidence:
- Check reverse DNS for the crawler IPs—look for hostnames under trellian.com or related subdomains.
- Compare multiple requests over time and cross-check with known Trellian IP ranges if available.
- Combine User-Agent checks with behavioral patterns (e.g., systematic crawling of pages, low request concurrency).
Deciding whether to block or allow SiteSpider
Consider these factors:
- Purpose: If Trellian provides directory listings or analytics you value, allow it.
- Server resources: If the bot causes high load, consider rate-limiting or blocking.
- Privacy and scraping: If you have sensitive content or dislike third‑party copies, block.
- SEO: Blocking a non-search-engine crawler usually won’t affect major search engines (Google, Bing). If Trellian drives meaningful referral traffic, that’s another reason to allow it.
In general:
- Allow it if you want inclusion in Trellian services.
- Block or limit it if it causes performance issues or you have privacy/scraping concerns.
robots.txt basics and how crawlers interpret it
robots.txt is a public, voluntary standard that instructs well-behaved crawlers which URLs they may or may not fetch. Key points:
- The file sits at https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
- Rules are grouped by User-Agent; a crawler follows the most specific matching record.
- Disallow blocks crawling of matching paths; Allow permits them.
- robots.txt cannot reliably block malicious crawlers that ignore the standard—use server rules (firewall, .htaccess) for enforcement.
Robots.txt example syntax:
User-agent: <name> Disallow: <path> Allow: <path> Crawl-delay: <seconds> # Not part of original standard but supported by some crawlers Best robots.txt rules for Trellian SiteSpider
Below are practical examples for common webmaster goals. Replace example.com with your domain and adjust paths as needed.
- Allow full access for Trellian SiteSpider
- Use this when you want Trellian to crawl everything.
User-agent: Trellian Disallow: Or to be more explicit:
User-agent: Trellian Allow: / - Block Trellian SiteSpider entirely
- Use this to prevent polite crawlers from indexing any pages.
User-agent: Trellian Disallow: / - Block Trellian but allow major search engines (Google, Bing)
- Good when you only want to restrict third-party crawlers.
User-agent: Trellian Disallow: / User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: User-agent: Bingbot Disallow: - Limit access to certain areas (example: block /private and /tmp, allow the rest)
- Useful to keep private or staging folders out of crawlers.
User-agent: Trellian Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /tmp/ Allow: / - Use Crawl-delay to slow down crawling (if Trellian honors it)
- Not all crawlers respect Crawl-delay; Trellian may or may not. If it does, this tells it to wait N seconds between requests.
User-agent: Trellian Crawl-delay: 10 - Multiple possible names — match variants
- The crawler might appear under slightly different UA strings; include variants.
User-agent: Trellian Disallow: / User-agent: "Trellian SiteSpider" Disallow: / Enforcing blocks when robots.txt is ignored
Robots.txt is advisory. To block crawlers that ignore it:
- Use IP blocking via firewall or server configuration (e.g., iptables, Cloudflare firewall rules).
- Implement .htaccess (Apache) or nginx rules to deny based on User-Agent — note UA spoofing risk.
- Rate-limit with tools like mod_evasive, fail2ban, or web-application firewalls.
- If you can identify IP ranges owned by Trellian (via reverse DNS and WHOIS), block or allow those ranges.
Example nginx snippet to block by User-Agent:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Trellian") { return 403; } Example Apache (.htaccess):
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Trellian" bad_bot <Limit GET POST> Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot </Limit> Testing your robots.txt and verifying behavior
- Use online robots.txt testers (search engine webmaster tools offer these) to confirm syntax and which rules apply to a user-agent.
- Inspect server logs after changes to see if the crawler respects rules.
- For crawlers that respect Crawl-delay, monitor request intervals.
- If blocking via server rules, verify the crawler receives ⁄403 responses and stops.
Recommended default policy
For most sites:
- Allow major search engines (Googlebot, Bingbot).
- If you neither need Trellian’s services nor see problematic crawl traffic, block Trellian with a simple Disallow.
- If you want Trellian but need to protect server load, set a Crawl-delay and disallow heavy or sensitive paths.
Example recommended robots.txt snippet:
User-agent: Trellian Crawl-delay: 10 Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /tmp/ User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: User-agent: Bingbot Disallow: Final notes and caveats
- User-Agent strings can be faked; rely on multiple signals (reverse DNS, IP ownership) for critical blocking decisions.
- robots.txt changes take effect immediately when fetched, but crawlers may not re-fetch the file before their next visit.
- Blocking directory crawlers may reduce visibility in services that source data from them; weigh trade-offs.
If you want, I can:
- Generate a ready-to-paste robots.txt for your domain and paths.
- Provide nginx/Apache rules tailored to your server.
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