Crawler Analytics
Track and analyze AI training crawler activity on your website. See which pages AI companies are scraping for training data and optimize your content strategy accordingly.
Crawler analytics is available to users on all plans. Head to the plans page to learn more.
Crawler Analytics gives you unprecedented visibility into how AI companies are interacting with your website. Track when major AI training crawlers visit your site, which pages they’re most interested in, and how their activity changes over time. This insight helps you understand which of your content AI companies find most valuable for training their models.
Unlike traditional website analytics that focus on human visitors, Crawler Analytics specifically monitors the automated systems that AI companies use to collect training data from across the web.
Setting Up Crawler Analytics
Getting started with crawler tracking requires adding a simple tracking script to your website.
Installation
Copy the provided JavaScript code and paste it into the <head> section of every page you want to track.
The tracking code includes two parts:
- Analytics tracking script: Captures crawler visits and sends data to Trakkr
- CDN script: Loads the Trakkr client library for processing crawler data
Installation steps:
- Copy the complete code snippet from your Trakkr dashboard
- Paste it into your website’s
<head>tag - Deploy the changes to your live site
- Crawler data will begin appearing within 24 hours
The tracking code is specific to your brand and includes your unique tracking ID. Make sure to use the exact code provided in your dashboard.
What Gets Tracked
The system automatically detects and tracks visits from major AI training crawlers. Commonly seen examples are:
- GPTBot: OpenAI’s web crawler for ChatGPT and GPT models
- ClaudeBot: Anthropic’s crawler for Claude AI training
- Bytespider: ByteDance/TikTok’s crawler for their AI systems
- Meta-ExternalFetcher: Meta’s crawler for Facebook and Instagram AI features
The tracking captures:
- Page URLs that crawlers visit
- Timestamp of each visit
- Crawler type making the request
- Visit frequency and patterns over time
Understanding Your Crawler Dashboard
Daily Crawler Activity
The main chart shows crawler visits over time, with different colors representing each crawler type.
What you’re seeing: A stacked bar chart showing daily crawler activity, with each segment representing a different AI company’s crawlers.
What it means:
- Taller bars: More overall crawler interest in your content
- Color distribution: Which AI companies are most active on your site
- Trends over time: Whether crawler activity is increasing or decreasing
Why it matters: Consistent crawler activity indicates your content is valuable for AI training. Spikes often correlate with new content publication or increased online visibility.
Most Crawled Pages
See which specific pages on your site receive the most attention from AI crawlers.
What you’re seeing: A ranked list of your pages ordered by total crawler visits.
What it means: These are the pages AI companies find most valuable for training their models. High-ranking pages typically contain:
- Comprehensive information on specific topics
- Well-structured content that’s easy for crawlers to parse
- Unique insights or data not available elsewhere
- Regularly updated information
Why it matters: Understanding which content attracts crawlers helps you:
- Optimize high-value pages for better crawler accessibility
- Create similar content that follows successful patterns
- Prioritize updates for pages that AI companies actively monitor
Recent Crawls
A real-time log of crawler activity showing the most recent visits to your site.
What you’re seeing: Individual crawler visits with timestamps, including:
- Crawler name (which AI company)
- Timestamp of the visit
- Page path that was accessed
What it means: This gives you immediate visibility into ongoing crawler activity and helps you understand crawling patterns.
Why it matters:
- Monitor new content to see how quickly crawlers discover updates
- Track crawler behavior around content launches or site changes
- Identify crawling patterns to optimize your content publication schedule
Date Range Filtering
Use the date picker to analyze crawler activity for specific time periods.
Available filters:
- Custom date ranges to focus on specific periods
- Recent activity for real-time monitoring
- Historical analysis to identify long-term trends
Strategic applications:
- Campaign correlation: See if marketing campaigns increase crawler interest
- Content impact: Measure crawler response to new content or site changes
- Seasonal patterns: Identify when AI companies are most active in your industry
Strategic Applications
Content Optimization
The most immediate value from crawler analytics comes from understanding what content patterns attract AI companies. By analyzing your most-crawled pages, you can identify common characteristics that make content valuable for AI training. Look for patterns in content length, structure, topic depth, and multimedia usage, then apply these insights to new content creation.
Improving crawler accessibility should be a priority for your highest-value content. Ensure that your most important pages use clear heading structures, semantic HTML, and descriptive text. Avoid hiding critical information behind JavaScript or complex interactions that might prevent crawlers from accessing it effectively.
Developing a content freshness strategy becomes easier when you can monitor how quickly crawlers discover new content. Use this data to optimize your publication timing based on observed crawler patterns, and prioritize keeping high-value pages updated to maintain ongoing crawler interest.
Competitive Intelligence
Crawler analytics provides unique competitive intelligence opportunities that traditional analytics can’t offer. You can benchmark your crawler activity levels against industry expectations to determine whether you’re receiving appropriate attention from AI companies. This helps identify whether you’re missing opportunities or if shifts in AI training priorities are affecting your industry.
Content gap analysis becomes more sophisticated when you can see which pages receive little crawler attention. Compare low-crawled content with high-crawled content to understand the differences, and consider whether content gaps exist that AI companies are seeking elsewhere. This insight can guide your content strategy to fill valuable niches.
SEO and Discovery Strategy
Building an AI-first content strategy requires thinking beyond traditional SEO. Focus on creating comprehensive, authoritative content that crawlers prefer, and consider how your content might influence AI model outputs about your industry. This long-term approach positions your brand as a trusted source in AI training data.
Technical optimization for crawlers often differs from human-focused SEO. Monitor crawler activity after technical changes or site updates to ensure your architecture supports efficient crawling. Use crawler data to validate that important pages remain discoverable as your site evolves.
Business Intelligence
High crawler activity often indicates that your content is becoming authoritative in your space. Track which topics generate the most crawler interest to guide your content strategy and thought leadership efforts. This data provides unique insights into what AI companies consider valuable knowledge in your industry.
Measuring content ROI takes on new dimensions when you can track sustained crawler interest over time. Identify which content types provide the best return on creation investment, and use these insights to guide resource allocation for future content development.
Best Practices
Interpreting Crawler Data
Success with crawler analytics requires focusing on patterns rather than individual visits. Look for trends over weeks and months rather than day-to-day fluctuations, as crawler activity can vary significantly based on AI companies’ training schedules and priorities. Sustained interest over time provides much more meaningful insights than temporary spikes.
External factors play a major role in crawler behavior that you should consider when interpreting your data. Major industry news or events can influence crawler activity, and algorithm updates or new model releases may change crawling patterns entirely. Seasonal trends also affect which content types crawlers prioritize, so context matters when analyzing your data.
Cross-referencing crawler data with your traditional website analytics reveals valuable insights about content performance. Look for correlations between human traffic and crawler interest, and use both datasets together to understand complete content performance rather than relying on either metric alone.
Optimization Strategies
Content structure optimization for crawlers emphasizes clarity and logical organization. Use descriptive headings and subheadings that clearly communicate your content’s structure, organize information logically with proper HTML structure, and include comprehensive information that stands alone without requiring external context to understand.
Technical considerations for crawler optimization often differ from human user optimization. Ensure that important content loads quickly and doesn’t require JavaScript to display, use standard HTML elements rather than complex custom components, and provide text alternatives for multimedia content so crawlers can understand all your information.
Update frequency strategies should balance freshness with stability. Regularly update high-value pages to maintain crawler interest, but consider adding new information to existing comprehensive pages rather than creating entirely new ones. Monitor how quickly crawlers detect and revisit updated content to optimize your update timing.
Privacy and Compliance
Transparency about crawler tracking helps build trust with your audience. Consider whether to mention AI crawler tracking in your privacy policy, be prepared to explain your data collection practices if users inquire, and ensure you follow your organization’s data governance policies when implementing tracking.
Content control remains important even when welcoming crawlers. Remember that crawler activity indicates your content is being used for AI training, so consider whether all your content should be available for this purpose. Use robots.txt or other technical means to restrict crawler access to sensitive or proprietary information if needed.
Understanding Scores
Learn about Visibility and Presence scores and how they complement crawler insights
The Intelligence Dashboard
Explore comprehensive competitive analysis and market positioning insights