facebookexternalhit

Builds the link preview when someone shares your page in one of Meta's apps.

Follows robots.txt

User agent token: facebookexternalhit
Operator: Meta
Verification: None published
Source: Meta documentation

What a bot for ads, link previews or SEO tools does

These bots work for a specific product: checking an ad's landing page, drawing the preview when a link is shared, or collecting data for an SEO tool. Some only visit because the site owner asked them to.

Meta may skip robots.txt for security checks, such as scanning a shared link for malware.

Block or allow facebookexternalhit in robots.txt

Add one of these to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. Crawlers read it before they fetch anything else.

Block facebookexternalhit

User-agent: facebookexternalhit
Disallow: /

Allow facebookexternalhit

User-agent: facebookexternalhit
Allow: /

More from Meta

meta-externalagentCrawls pages to train Meta's AI models and to improve its products. meta-webindexerReads pages to improve the search results in Meta AI. meta-externalfetcherFetches a link when a person asks Meta AI to open it. meta-externaladsCrawls pages to improve Meta's advertising and business products.

Browse all 66 crawlersAI and search bots from 16 companies, with the rules to block or allow each one.

Questions, answered.

facebookexternalhit is a bot for ads, link previews or SEO tools run by Meta. Builds the link preview when someone shares your page in one of Meta's apps.

Yes. Meta says facebookexternalhit follows robots.txt. Meta may skip robots.txt for security checks, such as scanning a shared link for malware.

Add "User-agent: facebookexternalhit" and "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt.

Meta publishes no IP list for facebookexternalhit, so it can only be recognised by its user agent, which other bots can copy.

No. facebookexternalhit works for one product, such as ad checks, link previews or SEO data, rather than bringing visitors.

Only if you don't use the product it works for. Blocking facebookexternalhit is safe for your search rankings.

In its own documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers. Every fact on this page comes from there.

Still have questions? We're happy to help.

Read the docs Contact support

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