Direct IP Access by Googlebot

Thumbnail image for Direct IP Access by Googlebot

This page displays all recorded instances where Googlebot accessed this website directly via its IP address.

The exact reasons for this behavior are not publicly confirmed; however, several of my hypotheses are outlined below.

Why Googlebot May Request /robots.txt via IP

As observed in the data below, Googlebot sometimes requests a website's resources-such as /robots.txt-using the site's IP address rather than its hostname (domain name). While Google has not publicly confirmed the exact purpose of this behavior, it is allegedly associated with several possible technical and verification-related checks:

DNS Resolution Verification (alleged)

Googlebot may use direct IP access to verify that the DNS records for the hostname correctly resolve to the intended server. This could help detect potential misconfigurations, such as incorrect DNS entries, hijacking, or cases where the DNS directs traffic to a different server than the one actually serving the content.

Consistency and Duplicate Detection (alleged)

Accessing content via raw IP might allow Google to check whether the same material is delivered regardless of whether a request is made by domain name or IP. Such behavior could help with canonicalization (deciding which URL should be treated as the authoritative version) and reducing duplicate indexing.

Server and Network Diagnostics (alleged)

By bypassing DNS, direct IP requests may provide insight into how a server responds at the network level. This could highlight issues like firewall misconfigurations, unusual proxy behavior, or hosting irregularities.

Security and Authenticity Checks (alleged)

Since robots.txt defines crawl permissions, Googlebot may allegedly compare the response when accessed by domain versus IP to identify discrepancies. Such a method could expose attempts at cloaking (serving different instructions or content depending on access method), which violates Google's guidelines.

Load Balancing and Infrastructure Verification (alleged)

In large-scale hosting environments, multiple servers are often deployed behind load balancers. Direct IP access may allegedly allow Googlebot to verify whether different nodes in the infrastructure deliver consistent responses.

Instances of Googlebot Accessing the IP Directly

Visit Time: September 26th, 2025 6:53 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.79.6

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-79-6.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 19th, 2025 4:17 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.70.37

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-70-37.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 19th, 2025 2:03 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.70.36

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-70-36.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 17th, 2025 3:15 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.75.75

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-75-75.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 17th, 2025 3:30 AM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.75.74

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-75-74.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 15th, 2025 3:55 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.74.130

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-74-130.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 12th, 2025 4:05 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.79.5

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-79-5.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 5th, 2025 5:13 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.74.128

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-74-128.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 5th, 2025 1:12 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.74.129

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-74-129.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

Visit Time: September 4th, 2025 10:01 PM

Visited Page URL: https://198.54.114.122/robots.txt

Bot IP: 66.249.74.129

Bot User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Bot Hostname: crawl-66-249-74-129.googlebot.com

Page Status: 200

12 3...9 Next »

Ever since building my first website in 2002, I've been hooked on web development. I now manage my own network of eCommerce/content websites full-time. I'm also building a cabin inside a old ghost town. This is my personal blog, where I discuss web development, SEO, eCommerce, cabin building, and other personal musings.

Recent Comments:

Avi : Was the plugin officially approved in the Wordpress repo ?

Posted on: August 29, 2024

Brett : Very cool to get the back story and will be neat to watch the progress. Hoping eventually to so do something the similar on the west coast of Canada somewhere. Amazing that in 2006 I first found your site for it's myspace page information and how to build PHP site header/footers for resale. How times change hah. Anyways, keep up the great posts, looking forward to the updates.

Posted on: April 11, 2024