What are Yelp's robots.txt rules for scraping?

Yelp's robots.txt file outlines the rules for web crawlers and scrapers that interact with their site. These rules are meant to inform automated web crawlers which parts of Yelp's website are off-limits and which parts can be accessed.

To view the most current robots.txt rules for Yelp, you would typically navigate to the robots.txt file located at the root of the domain: https://www.yelp.com/robots.txt.

However, as of my last update, I can provide you with an overview of what you might find:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /biz/
Allow: /search/
Disallow: /

User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /biz/
Allow: /photo/
Disallow: /

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Allow: /biz/
Disallow: /

User-agent: bingbot
Allow: /biz/
Allow: /search/
Disallow: /

User-agent: Yahoo-slurp
Allow: /biz/
Allow: /search/
Disallow: /

User-agent: Yandex
Allow: /biz/
Disallow: /

User-agent: Baiduspider
Disallow: /

This example is hypothetical and might not represent the current state of Yelp's robots.txt. The structure of the file typically includes the User-agent directive to target specific web crawlers, followed by Allow and Disallow directives which specify what paths those crawlers can or cannot access.

From the hypothetical example above:

• The User-agent: * directive applies to all crawlers and indicates that by default, access to all paths is disallowed.
• Specific crawlers like Googlebot, bingbot, Yahoo-slurp, and others have been given explicit permissions to crawl certain paths like /biz/ and /search/.
• Crawlers like Baiduspider are disallowed from crawling any part of the website.

It's important to note that respecting the robots.txt file is crucial when scraping websites. Ignoring these rules can lead to legal issues and might get your IP address banned from accessing Yelp. Moreover, the robots.txt file may change over time, so always check the current file before starting any scraping project.

If you are planning to scrape Yelp or any other website, it's also recommended to check the site's terms of service, as they may have specific clauses related to scraping that could legally bind you beyond what is stated in the robots.txt file.