How to block Google-Structured-Data-Testing
Operated by Google. bot validates structured data markup on web pages, helping developers ensure proper schema implementation for rich search results and SEO o… SEO Crawler Analyzes website structure and content to identify SEO improvement opportunities
robots.txt
What the agent asks to be told. It obeys this or it does not — nothing enforces it.
User-agent: Google-Structured-Data-Testing Disallow: /
nginx
In the server block, then reload.
# In the server block. 403 rather than 444: a closed connection tells the
# operator nothing, and an agent that gets a status code can log it.
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Google-Structured-Data-Testing)") {
return 403;
}
Apache
In .htaccess or the vhost.
BrowserMatchNoCase "Google-Structured-Data-Testing" bad_bot
<RequireAll>
Require all granted
Require not env bad_bot
</RequireAll>
Cloudflare
Security → WAF → Custom rules.
# Security → WAF → Custom rules, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "Google-Structured-Data-Testing")
WordPress
A child theme's functions.php, or a small plugin.
// functions.php of a child theme, or a small plugin. Runs before WordPress
// builds the page, so a blocked agent costs one PHP process and no queries.
add_action('init', function () {
$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
foreach (['Google-Structured-Data-Testing'] as $needle) {
if (stripos($agent, $needle) !== false) {
status_header(403);
exit('Blocked: Google-Structured-Data-Testing');
}
}
});
robots.txt is a request. The rules below it are the wall.
Google-Structured-Data-Testing publishes a token, so the directive above will work for as long as it keeps honouring it — and nothing except its own good manners makes it. The server rules match on a header the requester sets, which stops the agent that says who it is and not the one that copies somebody else's name. Botscope verifies identity against DNS and published address ranges, records which check decided each request, and shows you the ones that lied.