AI companies use crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and others) to gather content for training and answering. Whether to allow them is a real strategic decision with SEO and visibility consequences.
Why It Matters
If you block AI crawlers, your content cannot be used in AI answers — meaning zero AI visibility. If you allow them, your content may be cited (good) but also used for training (a trade-off some publishers dislike).
The Trade-Off
- Allow: potential citations, brand mentions and referral traffic from AI engines.
- Block: more control over your content, but invisibility in AI answers.
How to Control It
Use robots.txt directives for each bot. For most businesses that want visibility, allowing citation-focused crawlers (like PerplexityBot) makes sense.
Recommendation
If your goal is growth and visibility, allow AI crawlers that drive citations. If you sell premium original content, weigh the training trade-off carefully.
SEOBOTX audits check your robots.txt and AI-crawler accessibility.