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Apple SEO: how to be found in Siri, Spotlight, Safari and Apple Maps

Applebot decides what Siri, Spotlight and Safari can show, Applebot-Extended decides model training, and your Apple Maps place card now lives in Apple Business; all read on Apple's own pages on 22 October 2026.

Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 21 October 2026

Apple SEO means getting your business found in the places Apple controls: Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestions, Apple Maps, and, for apps, the App Store. Apple has no ranking guide like Google's, but it does publish how its crawler works, and it gives businesses a free tool for their Maps listing. Get two things right, let Applebot read your site and claim your place card in Apple Business, and you have covered most of it.

Everything below was read from Apple's own pages on 22 October 2026: the "About Applebot" support article and business.apple.com.

The four Apple surfaces, and what feeds each one

SurfaceWhat decides whether you appearWhere you control it
Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestionsPages crawled by ApplebotYour robots.txt, meta tags and site rendering
Siri and Search answers built with AIApplebot content used as context, with links to sourcesApplebot access plus the nosnippet tag
Apple Maps place cardsYour business details in Apple Businessbusiness.apple.com
App Store searchYour app's listingApp Store Connect

The first three are what most people mean by "Apple SEO". App Store search is a separate field, usually called app store optimisation. Our guide to app store optimisation and what the stores let you test covers that side.

Applebot: Apple's web crawler

Apple says the data Applebot crawls powers the search built into Spotlight, Siri and Safari, and that allowing Applebot in robots.txt lets your content appear in those results for Apple users worldwide. Here is what its documentation says, in plain terms.

It follows Googlebot rules if you do not name it

If your robots.txt does not mention Applebot but does mention Googlebot, Applebot follows the Googlebot rules. That is useful, and a trap: a block meant only for Google also blocks Apple. If you want Apple treated differently, give it its own group:

User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /
Disallow: /private/

Applebot does not follow crawl-delay. Apple says its crawl rate adjusts on its own when a site slows down or returns errors.

It renders pages like a browser

Applebot may render your page. If JavaScript, CSS or XHR requests are blocked in robots.txt, it may not see the content properly. Apple's advice is to let it load everything a person needs to see the page, or make sure the page still reads cleanly without those files.

It reads robots meta tags and the X-Robots-Tag header

  • noindex: the page will not appear in Spotlight or Siri Suggestions.
  • nosnippet: no description or web answer is generated, and Apple will not use the page as context for AI-generated output.
  • nofollow: links on the page are not followed.

You can address Applebot alone with a meta tag named "applebot", or with the header X-Robots-Tag: applebot: nosnippet for PDFs and images.

How to confirm a visit is really Applebot

Apple says genuine Applebot traffic resolves by reverse DNS to a host in the applebot.apple.com domain, and it publishes a JSON file of Applebot IP ranges. The user agent contains "Applebot" and a link to apple.com/go/applebot. Use reverse DNS before you allowlist anything in a firewall, because user agents are easy to fake.

Applebot-Extended and Apple Intelligence

Apple runs a second token, Applebot-Extended. Disallowing it opts your content out of training Apple's foundation models, which power Apple Intelligence and other features. Apple's page is clear on what it does not do: even with Applebot-Extended disallowed and nosnippet applied, Applebot can still crawl your pages, and your content stays discoverable in Spotlight, Siri and Safari.

There is a second, separate control. Apple says Applebot data may be used as up-to-date context when AI models write answers in Siri and Search, for example to broad world-knowledge questions, and those answers may link to the sources used. The nosnippet tag is the way to opt specific content out of that. So the decision for most businesses looks like this:

  • Want to appear in Siri, Spotlight and Safari? Allow Applebot.
  • Want to be quoted and linked in Siri's AI-written answers? Allow Applebot and do not use nosnippet on those pages.
  • Do not want your content used to train Apple's models? Disallow Applebot-Extended. That choice does not remove you from search.

Apple also reads the schema.org property isAccessibleForFree. Pages marked false can still appear in results, but Apple will not use them as context for AI output.

Apple Maps: claim your place card in Apple Business

Apple's business tools have moved. The old Apple Business Connect address, businessconnect.apple.com, now redirects to business.apple.com, which Apple calls Apple Business. Its "Grow" section lists what a local business can manage there:

  • Place cards: your business details as they show in Apple Maps.
  • Photos: the gallery on your place card.
  • Showcases: seasonal items, offers and events.
  • Custom Actions: buttons that let people book, order or schedule in one tap.
  • Insights: how customers search for you, what they tap, and benchmarks against others.
  • Ads on Apple Maps: paid placement on Maps; Apple's support guide has a section on moving these campaigns to Apple Ads.

Apple also offers a "Virtual Business" registration for an online store or a taco truck, so a business without a fixed shopfront can still register. Feature availability varies by country. Apple's availability page lists brand and location management and ads on Maps for the United States and Canada; check your own country on the same page.

What to fill in first

  1. Claim and verify the place card. Check that the name, address, phone, hours and website match your Google Business Profile and your own site exactly.
  2. Pick the most precise category Apple offers.
  3. Add real photos of the premises, the team and the work.
  4. Add a Custom Action if customers can book or order online.
  5. Open Insights after a month to see which searches find you.

A short Apple SEO checklist for your website

  • Open your robots.txt. Is Applebot allowed, either by name or through your Googlebot rules?
  • Is any CDN or firewall rule challenging Applebot? Check logs for the applebot.apple.com host.
  • Do key pages render without blocked scripts or stylesheets?
  • Are noindex and nosnippet used only where you mean them?
  • Is Applebot-Extended set the way you decided, rather than by a default from your host or CDN?
  • Are your name, address and phone the same on your site, your Apple place card and your Google profile?

Siri now answers, and it cites somebody

The interesting change on Apple's side is not Maps. Apple says Siri and Search can now write answers to broad questions using Applebot content, and those answers may link to the sites behind them. Buyers ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the narrower question too: which firm, which clinic, which tool to choose. Those answers name a few businesses, and yours is either among them or it is not. AI Knows Us checks whether those assistants name your business when buyers ask, and which sources they relied on, which is the part no crawler log will show you.

Questions about Apple SEO

Does Apple have its own search engine?

Apple runs search inside Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestions, powered by Applebot. It is built into Apple devices rather than offered as a separate search website.

Is Apple Business Connect still available?

Its tools now sit in Apple Business at business.apple.com. On 22 October 2026 the old businessconnect.apple.com address redirected there.

Will blocking Applebot-Extended remove me from Siri?

No. Apple says your content remains discoverable in Spotlight, Siri and Safari. Applebot-Extended only controls use for training Apple's foundation models.

How do I stop Siri using my page in AI answers?

Apply the nosnippet meta tag to that content. Apple says it will not then use the page as context for AI-generated output, and suggestions will show only the page title.

Does Apple Maps use my Google Business Profile?

Apple's pages do not say so. Manage your place card directly in Apple Business, and keep the details identical to your Google profile.

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