Why can a Hostinger country block prevent a search crawler from reaching a site?

Definition: A country block is a CDN access rule that denies requests according to the country associated with the request source IP address. It can prevent a search crawler from receiving a page when the crawler's published source locations fall inside a blocked country.

Key facts

• Hostinger's CDN crawler documentation says its CDN verifies crawlers with operator-published IP address lists and reverse DNS checks.
• The same documentation says Googlebot crawls primarily from IP addresses in the United States, so blocking the United States in the Traffic blocking tab also blocks Googlebot.
• Google's crawler overview says Google primarily egresses from United States IP addresses and may attempt other countries when it detects that United States requests are blocked.
• Google's crawlers identify themselves through the HTTP user-agent header, source IP address and reverse DNS hostname.
• Hostinger says a successful live test confirms that the crawler reaches the website through Hostinger CDN.

Why does the country rule affect a crawler?

Hostinger lists country blocking as one of four common reasons a search engine crawler receives errors through its CDN. The rule evaluates the country associated with the request source location. If the request comes from a country covered by a block, the CDN can return an error before the crawler receives the page. Hostinger specifically gives United States blocking as the Googlebot example and says an allow-only configuration has the same effect when it omits the crawler's country.

Hostinger's crawler verification and country restrictions are separate parts of the access path. The CDN uses official crawler IP lists and reverse DNS checks, and verified crawlers normally avoid the browser verification page. That verification result does not remove a country restriction. Hostinger tells site owners to compare their country rules with the published locations used by search crawlers.

Why does Google's source location matter?

Google's crawler overview says its crawlers run simultaneously from thousands of machines distributed across many datacenters, so server logs can contain several source IP addresses. It also states that Google egresses primarily from IP addresses in the United States. A United States country block can therefore affect the primary source location that Google uses for crawling.

Google says it may attempt to crawl from IP addresses in other countries when it detects that requests from the United States are blocked. That fallback still depends on the site's country rules. An allow-only rule must include the country associated with the request that the CDN receives, and a block covering the locations used by the crawler continues to return an access error.

How can you check whether the country rule is involved?

Start with the source IP in the CDN or server log and compare its country with the Hostinger country-blocking rules. A user-agent string alone is insufficient for identity checks because Google documents three request properties: the HTTP user-agent header, the source IP address and the reverse DNS hostname.

Google's verification procedure starts with a reverse DNS lookup, checks that the resulting hostname belongs to a Google domain, and then performs a forward lookup to confirm the original IP address. Its example is:

host 66.249.66.1
1.66.249.66.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer crawl-66-249-66-1.googlebot.com.

host crawl-66-249-66-1.googlebot.com
crawl-66-249-66-1.googlebot.com has address 66.249.66.1

After reviewing the rule, use Google Search Console's URL Inspection and select Test live URL. Hostinger also points to the Crawl stats response distribution in Search Console and URL Inspection in Bing Webmaster Tools. A successful live test confirms access through Hostinger CDN. If the test continues to fail, record the exact response and the request source location before changing other crawler settings.

Related terms

• Does Hostinger CDN's Under Attack mode challenge search engine crawlers?
• Can an explicit Hostinger CDN bot rule block a verified search crawler?
• How can a crawler rate-limit response be traced to Hostinger CDN?
• Googlebot
• Reverse DNS bot verification

FAQ

Does a verified Googlebot identity override a country block?

Hostinger documents crawler verification and country blocking as separate access controls. A verified identity can avoid the browser verification page under normal settings, while a country rule can still cover the request source location.

Can Google try another country after a United States block?

Yes. Google's crawler overview says Google may attempt IP addresses in other countries when it detects that requests from the United States are blocked. Hostinger recommends comparing country rules with the crawler locations published by search engines.

Which response codes help separate the causes?

Hostinger documents 403 for bots explicitly blocked in CDN settings and 429 for bursts that reach crawl-rate limits. A country restriction is one of the separate causes to review when a crawler receives errors through the CDN.

Sources

1. Hostinger, "Hostinger CDN: Search engine crawlers and SEO", undated
2. Google, "Overview of Google crawlers and fetchers (user agents)", updated 12 June 2026
3. Google, "Verify requests from Google crawlers and fetchers", updated 20 March 2026

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