Sign inStart free trial

GEO · Crawler readiness

A page that ranks can still be invisible to an AI crawler.

Surgbly checks whether GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, and Google-Extended can actually reach your pages — robots.txt rules, HTTP status, redirects, canonical targets, and blocked resources, by crawler.

Check my crawler accessSee raw vs. rendered HTML

Where server or CDN logs are connected, checks are verified against real crawler requests, not synthetic tests alone.

Search-engine-friendly isn't the same as AI-crawler-friendly.

A site can pass a standard SEO crawl and still block the exact bot an AI answer engine uses to read it. Crawler behavior differs bot to bot, and most access issues are invisible until a citation never shows up.

One crawler blocked, others fine

A robots.txt rule or WAF setting can block PerplexityBot while Googlebot passes through without issue.

Synthetic tests miss real behavior

A test request doesn’t always match what a live crawler actually experiences hitting the page.

Important pages, never reached

A page can sit unreached by any AI crawler for months without anyone noticing.

Bot-specific errors, buried

403s, 429s, and empty responses for one specific bot rarely show up in a standard analytics view.

How this feature works

From a synthetic check to verified crawler access.

01

Check every crawler against robots.txt

GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, and Google-Extended are each checked against the live robots.txt rules. Training crawlers and search/retrieval crawlers get read separately, since a site can allow one and block the other.

Training crawler and search-crawler recommendations stay separate — never treated as one policy.

Crawlers checked6
Rules found4

6 crawlers checked

Robots.txt checkRunning
Crawlers checked6
Rules found4
Search crawlers allowed6 of 6
Training crawlers allowed4 of 6
Last checkedToday, 6:00 AM
02

Test HTTP status and redirects

Status code, redirect chains, canonical target, and noindex/nofollow signals are tested per crawler user agent. A redirect chain or canonical mismatch can block a crawler just as effectively as a hard 403.

Every finding records the tested URL, user agent, status code, and timestamp — not just pass or fail.

Googlebot200 OK
PerplexityBot403 Forbidden

PerplexityBot blocked

Access test1 blocked
Googlebot200 OK
PerplexityBot403 Forbidden
ClaudeBot200 OK
GPTBot200 OK
Tested at6:04 AM
03

Verify against real logs, where connected

If server, CDN, or edge logs are connected, actual crawler requests confirm or override the synthetic test result. Zero real hits over a full week is stronger evidence than any synthetic test alone.

Log verification either confirms or overrides the synthetic result — it never gets ignored.

PerplexityBot (7d)0
Googlebot (7d)1,204

Confirmed in logs

Log verificationConfirmed
PerplexityBot requests (7d)0
Googlebot requests (7d)1,204
GPTBot requests (7d)86
  • No PerplexityBot hits reached this template in 7 days.
04

Check blocked resources and WAF behavior

Blocked scripts, stylesheets, and bot-management or WAF rules that silently reject a crawler are flagged directly. The exact rule is named, not just reported as "access failed."

A WAF rule can block one bot while every other crawler passes clean — the block is named specifically.

CauseWAF bot-protection
AffectsPerplexityBot only

WAF rule found

Blocking causeFound
CauseWAF bot-protection rule
Rule IDwaf-rule-2291
AffectsPerplexityBot only
Detected viaSynthetic test + log verification
05

Recommend and verify the fix

An allowlist or robots.txt change is recommended, then before-and-after crawler access is verified after it ships. The comparison uses the same crawler, same URL, same test — nothing else changes.

Access is rechecked after the fix ships — never assumed resolved from the recommendation alone.

FixWAF allowlist
StatusReady for review

Fix Pack ready

Fix Pack · WAF allowlistReady for review
Estimated fix time< 5 min
  • Allowlist PerplexityBot user agent
  • Recheck access after deployment
See Fix Packs
Robots.txt checkRunning
Crawlers checked6
Rules found4
Search crawlers allowed6 of 6
Training crawlers allowed4 of 6
Last checkedToday, 6:00 AM

Explore it yourself

Explore the crawler readiness workspace.

Crawler access
GooglebotAllowed
PerplexityBotBlocked (403)
GPTBotAllowed
ClaudeBotAllowed

Key capabilities

Everything a crawler access check needs.

Coverage

  • GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, Google-Extended
  • robots.txt, response headers, HTTP status, redirects, and canonical checks
  • Blocked resources and WAF/bot-protection detection
  • Training-crawler policy kept separate from answer/search retrieval access

Verification

  • Optional server, CDN, or edge log ingestion
  • Verified requests confirm or override synthetic tests
  • Never-reached pages flagged by template

Recovery

  • Safe robots.txt and allowlist recommendations
  • Routed as a Fix Pack for approval
  • Dynamic rendering treated as an exception with parity monitoring
  • Before-and-after access verified after deployment

Business outcomes

What changes once crawler access is checked per bot.

Know which crawler is actually blocked

Stop assuming one passing test means every AI crawler gets through.

Real traffic, not just a synthetic test

Confirm crawler behavior against actual log activity where it’s connected.

Blocking cause, named

Know whether it’s robots.txt, a redirect, or a WAF rule — not just that access failed.

A fix that gets verified

Access is rechecked after the fix ships, not assumed to be resolved.

Why Surgbly does it better

A named blocking cause instead of a passing checkmark.

Traditional

  1. 1A general SEO crawl test passes.
  2. 2No per-crawler breakdown for AI bots specifically.
  3. 3A WAF or robots.txt rule silently blocks one bot.
  4. 4Nobody notices until a citation never appears.

Surgbly

  1. 1Every tracked AI and search crawler checked individually.
  2. 2Synthetic tests confirmed or overridden by real log data.
  3. 3The exact blocking rule identified.
  4. 4Fix recommended and access reverified after it ships.

Use cases

Built for the moment a crawler goes quiet.

Crawler access blocked

Confirm exactly which bot is blocked, and why.

Raw vs. rendered HTML

Check whether the content a crawler can reach is actually readable.

AI answer gap analysis

Rule out crawler access before assuming a content problem.

Website migration

Catch new robots.txt or WAF rules that broke crawler access during a platform move.

Integrations

Checked across the crawlers that matter for AI visibility.

  • GPTBot
  • PerplexityBot
  • ClaudeBot
  • Googlebot
  • Google-Extended

Questions

Answers before you have to ask.

Which crawlers are checked?

GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, and Google-Extended, with more added as they become relevant.

What if I haven’t connected server logs?

Synthetic access tests still run and cover robots.txt, status, redirects, and blocked resources — log verification adds confirmed real-traffic evidence on top.

Can this fix a WAF or CDN block automatically?

A safe allowlist or robots.txt change is generated as a Fix Pack for your review — bot-management and WAF changes require explicit approval before deployment.

How is this different from a standard SEO crawl?

A standard crawl typically tests one user agent. This checks each AI and search crawler separately, since access can differ bot to bot.

Find out which crawler is actually blocked.

Run a crawler access check on your own site and see the first result.

Check my crawler accessSee a sample report