Cloudflare

If your site is behind Cloudflare, you already have AI bot analytics built in - no log parsing, no code changes. Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control identifies crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot and shows you exactly which bots visit which pages.

You can use this data in two ways:

Read it manually in the Cloudflare dashboard - great for weekly check-ins
Connect API to Sitefire via API token - so we can pull the data automatically and combine it with your GEO visibility metrics

Cloudflare only sees traffic for hostnames it proxies. Records in your DNS settings show either an orange cloud (proxied through Cloudflare) or a grey cloud (DNS only - traffic bypasses Cloudflare). Only orange-clouded hostnames produce bot analytics.

If your marketing site, docs, or blog (www.example.com, docs.example.com) is grey-clouded or hosted somewhere else (e.g. Vercel, Netlify, an S3 site), Cloudflare can’t see AI crawlers visiting those pages and your dashboards will show near-zero data. Verify the right records are orange-clouded before troubleshooting elsewhere.

Read AI Traffic in Cloudflare

The Two Metrics That Matter

Metric	What it tells you	Where to find it
Allowed Requests by Operator	How often AI bots crawl your site, grouped by operator (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, etc.). This is your supply-side leading indicator - bots need to crawl your content before they can cite it.	Overview tab > “Crawlers grouped by operators”. For trends: Metrics tab > “Allowed requests”, group by Operator.
Referrals by Operator	How often humans click through from AI platforms to your site. The closest conversion metric for AI visibility. Unlike GA4, Cloudflare captures this server-side.	Metrics tab > “Referrals over time”, group by Operator.

Referral data requires a paid Cloudflare plan (Pro or above). On the free plan, use GA4 for referral tracking.

Free plan query limit: Cloudflare’s Analytics API caps single queries at a 1-day window on the free plan. Sitefire’s daily sync handles this transparently by querying one day at a time, so your dashboards still show full history. Paid plans support longer windows and faster backfills.

Export: On the Metrics tab, click Download CSV or Download image for your own reporting.

Connect API to Sitefire

For automated, continuous tracking, give Sitefire read-only access to your Cloudflare analytics via API token. We query the same data the dashboard shows and surface it alongside your visibility tracking and GEO Score.

You do this yourself in the Sitefire app. You do not need your Zone ID, and you do not need to send the token to anyone - Sitefire picks up the site list from the token and stores the token encrypted.

Time needed: ~2 minutes. Three steps: open the connector, create the token, pick your site.

Open the Cloudflare connector

In Sitefire, go to Bot Analytics > Connect CDN > Cloudflare. You can also reach it from Settings > Integrations.

Create the API token

Click Create token on Cloudflare. This opens Cloudflare’s token page with everything already filled in:

Setting	Value
Token name	`Sitefire Analytics`
Permissions	Zone > Analytics > Read
Permissions	Zone > Zone > Read
Zone Resources	Include > All zones

Click Continue to summary, then Create Token. Copy the token immediately - Cloudflare only shows it once.

Why “All zones”? The token needs to list your sites so Sitefire can show you a picker. “All zones” covers every Cloudflare account you belong to, which matters if you are a member of more than one. Both permissions are read-only. You choose the single site Sitefire actually reads in the next step.

Do not use your Global API Key. It grants unrestricted access to all zones and resources. API tokens are scoped, revocable, and the only method we support.

Pick your site

Paste the token into Sitefire and click Continue. Sitefire lists the sites the token can see. Select your domain and click Connect & Import. The first sync pulls the last 7 days.

If no sites appear

What you see	What it means
”This token can’t see any sites”	The token was created under a Cloudflare account that does not own your domain. This happens when you belong to several accounts. Create the token again with the in-app link, which sets Zone Resources to All zones.
”none are active on Cloudflare yet”	The site exists in Cloudflare but its nameservers have not moved over. Finish setup in Cloudflare first.
Your site is listed but data stays near zero	The hostname is probably grey-clouded. See the proxy note at the top of this page.