Your managed WordPress might be blocking AI bots and you can't see it

It looks like you've provided a detailed analysis of how certain managed hosting providers, particularly WP Engine, handle AI crawler bots and their impact on AI citation presence. Here’s a summary and some key takeaways:

Summary:

• WP Engine's Approach: WP Engine blocks certain AI crawler bots (like GPTBot, ClaudeBot) by default to protect customers from unwanted traffic.
• Impact on Citations: This blocking can significantly reduce the chances of your content being cited in AI-generated responses.
• Diagnostic Steps:
  • Use curl commands to test if specific bot user-agents are receiving HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) responses.
  • Open a support ticket with WP Engine to escalate the issue and request an exception for your site.

Key Points:

1. Crawl Access vs. Citations:

   • There is a strong correlation between crawl access and citation presence in AI-generated content.
   • For example, Googlebot has nearly full access (100%) and results in higher citation rates compared to bots that are partially or fully blocked.

2. Diagnostic Steps:

   • Use curl commands to test if specific bot user-agents receive HTTP 42

Read the full article at Search Engine Land

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