IsMyStoreVisible

For site owners

IsMyStoreVisibleBot

What IsMyStoreVisibleBot is, exactly what it fetches from a site when someone scans it, how it obeys robots.txt, and how to block it if you would rather it did not visit.

2 min read·Updated

If you found IsMyStoreVisibleBot in your server logs, someone pasted an address on your site into the free checker at IsMyStoreVisible, which tests whether AI assistants can find and read an online store. It is not a crawler: it never follows links, never visits on its own schedule, and never comes back unless someone runs another check.

How it identifies itself

Every request carries this User-Agent header:

IsMyStoreVisibleBot/1.0 (+https://ismystorevisible.online/bot)

What it fetches, and nothing else

  1. /robots.txt, first — to find out what it is allowed to open.
  2. The single page address the person entered, if robots.txt allows it.
  3. /sitemap.xml then /sitemap_index.xml, only if robots.txt does not already name a sitemap.
  4. Up to 3 returns, delivery or policy pages linked from that page, to confirm the links work.

That is at most 7 documents per check, each with a 8-second timeout. If robots.txt or the page stalls without answering, it sends one backup request for it and uses whichever answers first. It stops following a redirect chain after 10 hops, never runs JavaScript from your site, never submits forms, and never stores what it reads — the result exists only for the length of the request.

It obeys robots.txt

It follows the rules in your robots.txt for IsMyStoreVisibleBot, and for * when it is not named. If your rules disallow a page, it does not request that page — the person running the check is told your site asked it not to.

If your robots.txt cannot be read — a server error, a timeout, or a “too many requests” reply — it treats everything as off limits, as the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309) asks, and opens only the single address the person entered.

How to block it

Add this to your robots.txt:

User-agent: IsMyStoreVisibleBot
Disallow: /

It takes effect on the next check — the bot reads robots.txt fresh every time and keeps nothing between runs.

Questions or concerns

Email info@ismystorevisible.online. The checker is built and run by Websthan. The full technical detail of what it checks is on how it works.