A guide to identifying web crawlers for search engine optimization with the help of Express

I have been on the lookout for npm packages to assist me in detecting crawlers, but all I find are outdated and unmaintained ones that rely on obsolete user-agent databases. Is there a dependable and current package available that can aid me in this task? Particularly in identifying crawlers from Google, Facebook, and other platforms for SEO purposes. If no such packages exist, would it be feasible for me to develop one myself utilizing an updated user-agent database?

Just to clarify, my goal is to create an isomorphic/universal React website that will be searchable by search engines and have its title/meta data accessible to platforms like Facebook. However, I want to avoid pre-rendering on every standard request to prevent server overload. My proposed solution is to selectively pre-render only for crawler requests.

npmweb-crawleruser-agent

Answer №1

I recently came across the isbot module which includes a convenient built-in function called isbot(). It appears that the developers of this package are diligent in maintaining it and ensuring that everything stays current.

DIRECTIONS:

const isBot = require('isbot');

...

isBot(req.get('user-agent'));

Module Link: https://www.npmjs.com/package/isbot

Answer №2

My go-to solution for this is the useragent library, which simplifies the process like so:

var useragent = require('useragent');
// use this line for an actual request: useragent.parse(req.headers['user-agent']);
var agent = useragent.parse('Googlebot-News');

// will return true
console.log(agent.device.toJSON().family === 'Spider')

This library is both efficient and regularly updated, making it a reliable choice. Test out the script above in your browser: runkit

Answer №3

When it comes to finding npm packages, unfortunately I don't have any additional insights to offer. However, if you are in need of an up-to-date user agent database for building your own package, I highly recommend checking out ua.theafh.net

Currently, this database is updated until November 2014 and boasts a collection of over 5.4 million agents, making it the largest search engine for user agents that I am aware of.

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