Google Business Link Verification

Neutral Block: Depends Verified robots.txt: No

Verifies that Business Profile links are reachable, relevant, and return valid responses.

Key facts

Operator: Google
Family: Google
Purpose: User Triggered
User-Agent: Google-BusinessLinkVerification
Should you block it?: Depends
Verified: Yes
Respects robots.txt: No
Identity type: Official Documented
Confidence: High
Last verified: 2026-04-19
Last checked: 2026-04-19

Bot details

Identity

User-Agent: Google-BusinessLinkVerification
robots.txt token: Google-BusinessLinkVerification
HTTP user-agent: Google-BusinessLinkVerification
Aliases: google-businesslink-verification

Ownership

Operator: Google
Family: Google
Type: Unknown
Purpose: User Triggered

Verification and trust

Source type: Official
Confidence: High
Last verified: 2026-04-19
Last checked: 2026-04-19
Verification: Use the documented Google-BusinessLinkVerification user-agent. Google states these verification crawlers do not follow robots.txt.
Operator URL: https://support.google.com/business/answer/13769188?hl=en
Source URL: https://support.google.com/business/answer/13769188?hl=en
Spoofing risk: User-agent strings can be spoofed. For allow-listing or low-friction rules, pair the published identifier with operator documentation or cryptographic verification when available.

Blocking and detection

Robots

User-agent: Google-BusinessLinkVerification
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

(http.user_agent contains "Google-BusinessLinkVerification")

Advanced server rules

Apache

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Google\-BusinessLinkVerification [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [F,L]

Nginx

if ($http_user_agent ~* "Google-BusinessLinkVerification") { return 403; }

Notes

Known user-agent patterns: Google-BusinessLinkVerification Known user-agent strings: Google-BusinessLinkVerification Robots.txt handling in the directory: no.

Operator documentation: https://support.google.com/business/answer/13769188?hl=en

Evidence and source

Use the documented Google-BusinessLinkVerification user-agent. Google states these verification crawlers do not follow robots.txt.
Verifies that Business Profile links are reachable, relevant, and return valid responses.
User-agent strings can be spoofed. For allow-listing or low-friction rules, pair the published identifier with operator documentation or cryptographic verification when available.

https://support.google.com/business/answer/13769188?hl=en