Feed reader user agents
Feed readers and aggregators such as Feedly fetch your RSS or Atom feed on a schedule so subscribers see new posts. They identify themselves with a recognisable token and sometimes report how many subscribers they poll on behalf of. This page explains the pattern and why feed-reader hits are automation, not visits.
How feed readers fetch your feed
RSS and Atom readers and aggregators poll your feed URL on a schedule to pick up new items for their subscribers. Services like Feedly identify themselves with a recognisable token, and some include an aggregate subscriber count in the user agent to indicate how many readers they fetch on behalf of.
The hallmark is regular requests to your feed endpoint specifically, rather than ordinary page browsing.
- Scheduled polling of your RSS/Atom feed URL
- Self-identifying token (e.g. a Feedly identifier)
- May report an aggregate subscriber count
Why feed polls are not page views
A feed fetch represents the aggregator updating its copy of your content, not a person reading a page on your site. Counting feed polls as visits inflates metrics, especially on feed URLs that are hit on a fixed cadence.
Match on the documented reader token rather than a full version string, and consult each aggregator's documentation for specifics, since tokens and any reported counts vary by service.
How it appears in analytics and logs
A user agent naming a feed reader (such as a Feedly token) fetching your feed URL is a scheduled aggregator poll, not a human visit. A steady cadence to feed endpoints is the signature.
Diagnostic use case
Recognise feed-reader and aggregator polling by its tokens so feed fetches are counted as automation rather than human page views.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID recognises common feed-reader tokens server-side and classifies them as automation, separate from human analytics, so feed polling is visible without being mistaken for audience.
Common mistakes
- Counting feed polls as human page views.
- Reading an aggregate subscriber count as individual visitors.
- Hard-coding a reader token that varies by service and version.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Feed-reader user agents name an aggregator service, not an individual; any subscriber count is aggregate. WebmasterID records these as bot events, never as human profiles.
Related pages
- Uptime monitor user agents
Uptime and synthetic monitoring tools repeatedly request your site to check availability and response time. Tools such as UptimeRobot and Pingdom usually identify themselves in the user agent. Their traffic is expected, periodic, and automated. This page explains how to recognise it and keep it out of human analytics.
- Social preview bot user agents
When someone pastes your link into a social or messaging app, a preview bot fetches the page to build a card from your Open Graph and Twitter Card tags. Bots like facebookexternalhit, Twitterbot, Slackbot, Discordbot, and LinkedInBot identify themselves by token. This page covers what they are and why they hit you.
- Bot intelligence
See aggregators, monitors, and crawlers categorised separately from people.
Sources and verification notes
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.