Should I block AI crawlers from indexing my site?

Blocking prevents citations but also traffic

If you block AI crawlers, your content won't be cited or appear in AI-generated responses. This means less visibility but also removes a traffic source. Decide based on whether citation presence helps or hurts your business goals.

Consider your content type

News sites, research publications, and knowledge bases often benefit from AI citations—they drive referral traffic and authority. Proprietary guides, premium content, or highly competitive information might benefit from blocking if you want to force users to visit directly.

Blocking doesn't guarantee copyright protection

Preventing crawlers reduces unauthorized use but doesn't eliminate it. AI systems can still cite your work if humans feed it to them or if they accessed it before blocking. It's not a copyright enforcement tool.

Most sites benefit from being indexed

For most businesses, being cited by AI systems is beneficial—it increases visibility without replacing traditional search. Unless you have specific reasons to restrict access, allow crawling. The referral traffic and citation authority typically outweigh concerns.

Check which crawlers to block

If blocking, use robots.txt to target specific AI crawlers rather than blocking all bots. This lets you control your presence selectively while maintaining indexing by major search engines.