What this guide helps you decide
Benchmark public AI crawler eligibility without inventing crawler activity.
The questions behind the decision
- How should B2B AI-crawler access be benchmarked?
- Can robots.txt prove that a crawler visited?
- Which access failures should be classified?
What this page adds
This page turns the question "How should B2B AI-crawler access be benchmarked?" into a reproducible method for benchmark public ai crawler eligibility without inventing crawler activity, with required evidence and explicit failure conditions.
Define the sample before testing
Select the category, company size, geography and public URLs in advance. Avoid replacing failed or inconvenient sites after seeing results.
Test three layers
Record robots permission, HTTP or challenge response and content parity with a normal browser. Keep DNS, timeout, block, challenge, redirect and successful content states separate.
Verify identity carefully
A user-agent string can be spoofed. Log studies need provider-published IP verification where available; external probes can only test how a declared agent is treated.
Do not overstate the result
Eligibility does not prove discovery, retrieval or citation. A crawler hit does not prove understanding or recommendation.
Where this fits
The methods and published data behind Eli's measurements are on the research page. For how assistants find, cite and recommend a company, see AI search for B2B.
Questions buyers ask next
How should B2B AI-crawler access be benchmarked?
A credible crawler-access benchmark tests declared robots rules, live HTTP responses and delivery-layer parity for a fixed set of public B2B websites. It should distinguish permission from observed crawling and verified bot identity. The benchmark must publish its sample, user agents, dates, response classifications and limitations before reporting how many sites appear accessible.
Can robots.txt prove that a crawler visited?
Record robots permission, HTTP or challenge response and content parity with a normal browser. Keep DNS, timeout, block, challenge, redirect and successful content states separate.
Which access failures should be classified?
Eligibility does not prove discovery, retrieval or citation. A crawler hit does not prove understanding or recommendation.
Primary sources
Related guides
Check your own AI-search gap
Use the decision behind “How should B2B AI-crawler access be benchmarked?” as your starting point. Run the free AI Citation Gap Checker to inspect the current public evidence. To keep monitoring the question and prepare a supported website improvement, Eli Free covers one site and one diagnostic, with the findings kept, no card and no expiry. External rankings and AI recommendations are never guaranteed.