WordPress

• Self-hosted WordPress with file access (SFTP, SSH, or your host's file manager).
• PHP with the cURL extension (enabled on almost every host).
• Your site token and website id from Bot traffic → Agent Analytics Setup in the app. The snippet there already has both filled in; the examples on this page use YOUR_SITE_TOKEN and YOUR_WEBSITE_ID. See the HTTP API reference for the full payload.

1. 1

   Create the plugin file

   In wp-content/, create a folder named mu-plugins if it does not exist, and a file inside it named rankealo-bot-traffic.php.
2. 2

   Paste the snippet

   Paste the snippet from Agent Analytics Setup (or the one below with your values) and save. Must-use plugins load automatically; there is nothing to activate.
3. 3

   Check it is loaded

   In the WordPress admin, Plugins → Must-Use lists the file.

<?php
add_action('template_redirect', function () {
  if (!in_array($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] ?? '', ['GET', 'HEAD'], true)) return;
  $ua = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
  if (!preg_match('/bot|crawler|spider|chatgpt|gptbot|claude|perplexity|bing|google/i', $ua)) return;
  $host = preg_replace('/:\d+$/', '', strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ?? ''));
  $path = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ?? '/', PHP_URL_PATH) ?: '/';
  $payload = json_encode([
    'websiteId' => 'YOUR_WEBSITE_ID',
    'domain' => $host,
    'href' => 'https://' . $host . $path,
    'ai' => [
      'userAgent' => $ua,
      'ip' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] ?? null,
      'statusCode' => http_response_code(),
      'source' => 'server_middleware',
    ],
  ]);
  $ch = curl_init('https://app.rankealo.ai/api/ai-visibility/crawler-hits/ingest');
  curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Content-Type: application/json', 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SITE_TOKEN'],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS => 800,
  ]);
  curl_exec($ch);
  curl_close($ch);
});

• URLHost and path. The query string is never sent.
• User agentUsed to identify the crawler.
• IPREMOTE_ADDR; hashed on arrival, never stored raw.
• Status codeThe response code WordPress is about to send.

• Cache hits are invisible (see above).
• The report is a blocking cURL call with an 800 ms timeout, and it only runs for crawler requests. Human visitors are never slowed down.
• Behind a reverse proxy, REMOTE_ADDRmay be the proxy's IP rather than the crawler's.
• WordPress.com sites cannot add mu-plugins. Use the Cloudflare Worker if the domain is on Cloudflare.

1. 1
   In Rankealo, open Bot traffic → Agent Analytics Setup.
2. 2
   Press Check now in step 3. Once a crawler has visited, it shows Receiving data with the time of the last hit.
3. 3
   Open the Bot traffic tab to see hits by crawler and by page.

The first hit depends on when a crawler next visits, which can take up to 24 hours. To test right away, request a page with a crawler user agent, for example curl -A "GPTBot/1.2" https://www.your-site.com/, then press Check now. A test like this is recorded as a claimed identity, like any hit without CDN verification.