NGINX to block bad bots. (add Twenga|TwengaBot if you want to exclude them too)

server.badbots

if ($http_user_agent ~* (360Spider|80legs.com|Abonti|AcoonBot|Acunetix|adbeat_bot|AddThis.com|adidxbot|ADmantX|AhrefsBot|AngloINFO|Antelope|Applebot|BaiduSpider|BeetleBot|billigerbot|binlar|bitlybot|BlackWidow|BLP_bbot|BoardReader|Bolt\ 0|BOT\ for\ JCE|Bot\ mailto\:craftbot@yahoo\.com|casper|CazoodleBot|CCBot|checkprivacy|ChinaClaw|chromeframe|Clerkbot|Cliqzbot|clshttp|CommonCrawler|comodo|CPython|crawler4j|Crawlera|CRAZYWEBCRAWLER|Curious|Curl|Custo|CWS_proxy|Default\ Browser\ 0|diavol|DigExt|Digincore|DIIbot|discobot|DISCo|DoCoMo|DotBot|Download\ Demon|DTS.Agent|EasouSpider|eCatch|ecxi|EirGrabber|Elmer|EmailCollector|EmailSiphon|EmailWolf|Exabot|ExaleadCloudView|ExpertSearchSpider|ExpertSearch|Express\ WebPictures|ExtractorPro|extract|EyeNetIE|Ezooms|F2S|FastSeek|feedfinder|FeedlyBot|FHscan|finbot|Flamingo_SearchEngine|FlappyBot|FlashGet|flicky|Flipboard|g00g1e|Genieo|genieo|GetRight|GetWeb\!|GigablastOpenSource|GozaikBot|Go\!Zilla|Go\-Ahead\-Got\-It|GrabNet|grab|Grafula|GrapeshotCrawler|GTB5|GT\:\:WWW|Guzzle|harvest|heritrix|HMView|HomePageBot|HTTP\:\:Lite|HTTrack|HubSpot|ia_archiver|icarus6|IDBot|id\-search|IlseBot|Image\ Stripper|Image\ Sucker|Indigonet|Indy\ Library|integromedb|InterGET|InternetSeer\.com|Internet\ Ninja|IRLbot|ISC\ Systems\ iRc\ Search\ 2\.1|jakarta|Java|JetCar|JobdiggerSpider|JOC\ Web\ Spider|Jooblebot|kanagawa|KINGSpider|kmccrew|larbin|LeechFTP|libwww|Lingewoud|LinkChecker|linkdexbot|LinksCrawler|LinksManager\.com_bot|linkwalker|LinqiaRSSBot|LivelapBot|ltx71|LubbersBot|lwp\-trivial|Mail.RU_Bot|masscan|Mass\ Downloader|maverick|Maxthon$|Mediatoolkitbot|MegaIndex|MegaIndex|megaindex|MFC_Tear_Sample|Microsoft\ URL\ Control|microsoft\.url|MIDown\ tool|miner|Missigua\ Locator|Mister\ PiX|mj12bot|Mozilla.*Indy|Mozilla.*NEWT|MSFrontPage|msnbot|Navroad|NearSite|NetAnts|netEstate|NetSpider|NetZIP|Net\ Vampire|NextGenSearchBot|nutch|Octopus|Offline\ Explorer|Offline\ Navigator|OpenindexSpider|OpenWebSpider|OrangeBot|Owlin|PageGrabber|PagesInventory|panopta|panscient\.com|Papa\ Foto|pavuk|pcBrowser|PECL\:\:HTTP|PeoplePal|Photon|PHPCrawl|planetwork|PleaseCrawl|PNAMAIN.EXE|PodcastPartyBot|prijsbest|proximic|psbot|purebot|pycurl|QuerySeekerSpider|R6_CommentReader|R6_FeedFetcher|RealDownload|ReGet|Riddler|Rippers\ 0|rogerbot|RSSingBot|rv\:1.9.1|RyzeCrawler|SafeSearch|SBIder|Scrapy|Scrapy|Screaming|SeaMonkey$|search.goo.ne.jp|SearchmetricsBot|search_robot|SemrushBot|Semrush|SentiBot|SEOkicks|SeznamBot|ShowyouBot|SightupBot|SISTRIX|sitecheck\.internetseer\.com|siteexplorer.info|SiteSnagger|skygrid|Slackbot|Slurp|SmartDownload|Snoopy|Sogou|Sosospider|spaumbot|Steeler|sucker|SuperBot|Superfeedr|SuperHTTP|SurdotlyBot|Surfbot|tAkeOut|Teleport\ Pro|TinEye-bot|TinEye|Toata\ dragostea\ mea\ pentru\ diavola|Toplistbot|trendictionbot|TurnitinBot|turnit|Twitterbot|URI\:\:Fetch|urllib|Vagabondo|Vagabondo|vikspider|VoidEYE|VoilaBot|WBSearchBot|webalta|WebAuto|WebBandit|WebCollage|WebCopier|WebFetch|WebGo\ IS|WebLeacher|WebReaper|WebSauger|Website\ eXtractor|Website\ Quester|WebStripper|WebWhacker|WebZIP|Web\ Image\ Collector|Web\ Sucker|Wells\ Search\ II|WEP\ Search|WeSEE|Wget|Widow|WinInet|woobot|woopingbot|worldwebheritage.org|Wotbox|WPScan|WWWOFFLE|WWW\-Mechanize|Xaldon\ WebSpider|XoviBot|yacybot|Yahoo|YandexBot|Yandex|YisouSpider|zermelo|Zeus|zh-CN|ZmEu|ZumBot|ZyBorg) ) {
    return 410;
}

Still giving this "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MJ12bot/v1.4.8; http://mj12bot.com/) in my access.log

access_log off;
return 444;

If it says:

nginx: [emerg] "access_log" directive is not allowed here

Put the if block inside your location directive, as per https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_log_module.html#access_log:

Context: http, server, location, if in location, limit_except

Hey Guys, How about a piece of code that allows the bots listed in the .htaccess file to allow crawling my website and blocks all other bots that are not listed in the file. Is that even possible?

@Small-Being change to logical if-statement to check if-not-in-list, instead of if-in-list

@hans2103 Thanks for the solution, it would be great if you could type in the piece of code i should apply in my WP .htaccess file. TIA 👍

This gist is about nginx . If your WordPress instance makes use of .htaccess files, that's a different technology called Apache HTTP Server, sorry.

Here are some I block. Some may be duplicates of what you already have.

A lot of homebrew crawlers running on EC2 and other cloud hosts use HeadlessChrome.

SummalyBot, Mastodon, and Misskey are used to create a link preview when a user posts a link on a Mastodon instance. That wouldn't be so bad, except they send 200+ bots at the same time to verify one link.

facebookexternalhit is used for the same thing. I'm banned from Faecesbook, so I block their bot. 🤷

ByteSpider may be a legit search engine, but also the largest AI firm in China. These firms scrape websites for content to train AIs, which is IP theft IMO.

'HeadlessChrome',
'trendiction.de',
'Bytespider',
'ahrefs',
'okhttp',
'SemrushBot',
'cpp-httplib',
'aiohttp',
'Go-http-client',
'Ruby',
'curl',
'python-requests',
'facebookexternalhit',
'DataForSeoBot',
'Python',
'Mastodon',
'SummalyBot',
'got',
'Misskey',
'IonCrawl',
't3versions',
'Dataprovider.com'