The Mid-Scrape Trap: Why Checking robots.txt Once Costs You IP Bans

⚡ Key Takeaways

• Sites update robots.txt dynamically mid-scrape; checking only at startup leaves you vulnerable to IP bans 𝕏
• Smaller ecommerce platforms change robots.txt reactively when traffic spikes, often mid-overnight scraping jobs 𝕏
• Refreshing robots.txt every 5 minutes catches changes before your scraper violates new rules and triggers a ban 𝕏