Googlebot
Crawls pages for Google Search using desktop and smartphone variants.
Web searchUser-requested fetch
Google-Site-Verification
Fetches Search Console ownership-verification tokens.
Operated by Google
See your agent traffic PurposeUser-requested fetch
HTTP identifierGoogle-Site-Verification
IdentityVerify beyond the name
THE SIGNAL
What this visit tells you
A verification-file request may come from a site owner setting up Search Console.
Requested URLs
Response codes
Redirect chains
Your next move
Confirm that the verification file remains available at the expected path.
The technical details
MarkdownHow to identify it
Look for the Google-Site-Verification identifier in a request’s User-Agent. This is a name match, not identity verification. Version strings may change.
How to check identity
Use Google’s published IP ranges for this crawler class and its forward-confirmed reverse DNS procedure.
Access and robots.txt
This user-triggered fetcher may ignore robots.txt. Use server access controls for private content.
Seeing 403 or 404 responses?
403 means access was denied; 404 means the resource was not found. Compare the public path, request time, edge security event and origin response to find the cause.
Separate intended restrictions and secret-file probes from pages that should work. A User-Agent name alone does not justify allowing a request.
SourcesReviewed 2026-09-14
Identity and purpose are based on these sources. Analytics interpretation and suggested checks are Apostl guidance.
APOSTL PulseSee Google-Site-Verification in context
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Different bots, different intent
Google-Extended
Controls content use for Gemini training and grounding; it does not control Google Search inclusion.
Content-use policyPolicy control · no separate crawlerGooglebot-Image
Fetches images for Google’s visual search features.
Web search