Connect a WordPress site to AI Crawlers

This guide connects a WordPress site to AI Crawlers with a small plugin, so you can see which AI bots read it. There is no DNS to change and nothing to set up outside WordPress. Read it all before you start.

Before you start

• You need: WordPress admin access, so you can install a plugin.
• WordPress: version 5.8 or later, with PHP 7.4 or later.
• Cost: Free.
• Your site key: you create it in AI Peekaboo at the start of setup. It is shown once.
• The plugin file: ai-peekaboo-crawler-analytics-1.3.0.zip. Your setup screen offers it as a download. If it doesn't, ask your AI Peekaboo contact for it.
• If someone else runs your WordPress site, choose Copy steps for a teammate on the setup screen, and send them the key over a private channel such as a password manager, never email or chat.

The plugin runs inside WordPress and records requests whose name looks like a bot's. WordPress sends them on in the background.

1. Choose WordPress and create your key

1. Open AI Crawlers in the sidebar and pick your brand in the header. If the page says Set your site URL first, add your site address in Settings.
2. Under "How is your site served?", choose WordPress.
3. Choose Create key and start setup. Copy the key right away: we can't show it again. Keep it somewhere safe, such as your password manager, until step 4.

2. Get the plugin

Choose Download plugin (.zip) on the setup screen. If your screen says to download the plugin from your Peekaboo contact, ask us for the file instead.

3. Upload and activate

In WordPress, open Plugins, choose Add Plugin (older WordPress: Add New), then Upload Plugin. Choose the file, then Install Now, then Activate Plugin.

4. Paste your key, tick Enabled, save

1. Open the Peekaboo Crawlers page under Settings.
2. Paste your key in Site key.
3. Tick Enabled, then select Save settings.

Lost your key? Use New key on the AI Crawlers page, then paste the new key here and save. The plugin sends nothing we accept until it has the new key.

5. Check it works

A new key takes about a minute to start working.

1. In WordPress, press Send test event. "Connected" means the plugin works. The test itself isn't counted.
2. In AI Crawlers, press Check now. Reads show here once a bot reads a page your cache didn't serve.

If the plugin says Key refused, wait a minute and press Send test event again.

The test is not a bot visit, so it does not open your data. AI Crawlers explains what happens next.

What is sent

The plugin sends only these:

• Only requests whose name looks like a bot's
• Address, method, status, time, bot name, request id, linking site
• No visitor IPs, cookies or query strings

The plugin skips WordPress's own admin and login addresses.

Known limits

• Counts are a minimum: cached pages never reach WordPress. If a caching plugin, your host or a CDN answers a request, the plugin never sees it.
• One address per key. On a WordPress multisite, each site needs its own key.
• Other language or alias addresses of your site aren't counted.
• The plugin sends when WordPress's scheduler runs, and WordPress runs it when your site gets a request. A site with no traffic sends nothing until its next request.

If your site runs through Cloudflare, connecting with Cloudflare instead counts every visit, cached or not. See AI Crawlers.

Updating the plugin

To update, download the new zip, upload it, then choose Replace current with uploaded.

Undo

1. In WordPress, untick Enabled and save, or deactivate the plugin. Either one deletes what the plugin still has queued.
2. To remove it completely, delete the plugin. Uninstalling removes its data and settings from WordPress.

Disconnecting in AI Crawlers revokes your key, but the plugin keeps recording, and its sends are refused, until you untick Enabled or deactivate it. To connect again you will need a new key.

Nothing arriving?

• Plugin says Key refused? Wait a minute, press Send test event again.
• The Site Address (URL) in WordPress's General Settings must be the address you connected.
• Enabled must be ticked and saved.
• Your host may block outgoing requests.

Still nothing after a few days? Write to team@aipeekaboo.com or see Contact support. Tell us which step you were on.