{ "studySlug": "crawler-behavior", "title": "When AI Comes to Your Website", "description": "Crawler share, entry patterns, revisit behavior, and bot-specific session styles. Answer pages, reference facts, and live trackers drawn from this study.", "lastUpdated": "2026-02-01", "sourceStudyTitle": "When AI Comes to Your Website", "sourceStudyUrl": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior", "stats": [ { "label": "Answers", "value": "12" }, { "label": "Facts", "value": "8" }, { "label": "Trackers", "value": "2" } ], "featuredAnswer": { "kind": "answer", "slug": "which-ai-crawler-shows-up-most-often", "title": "Which AI crawler shows up most often?", "description": "GPTBot shows up most often by a wide margin. It accounts for 57.2% of observed crawler visits in the study, far ahead of OAI-SearchBot at 15.1%.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/which-ai-crawler-shows-up-most-often" }, "sections": [ { "title": "Answer Pages", "description": "Narrow questions answered directly from the study.", "items": [ { "kind": "answer", "slug": "which-ai-crawler-shows-up-most-often", "title": "Which AI crawler shows up most often?", "description": "GPTBot shows up most often by a wide margin. It accounts for 57.2% of observed crawler visits in the study, far ahead of OAI-SearchBot at 15.1%.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/which-ai-crawler-shows-up-most-often" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "do-ai-crawlers-start-on-the-homepage", "title": "Do AI crawlers start on the homepage?", "description": "Usually no, especially for GPTBot. GPTBot hits the homepage only 2.75% of the time, while ClaudeBot is much more homepage-friendly at 19.18%.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/do-ai-crawlers-start-on-the-homepage" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "are-most-ai-crawler-visits-one-and-done", "title": "Are most AI crawler visits one and done?", "description": "Yes. 88.5% of observed crawler sessions were single-visit sessions, while only 0.3% reached 10 or more visits.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/are-most-ai-crawler-visits-one-and-done" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "does-gptbot-behave-differently-from-claudebot", "title": "Does GPTBot behave differently from ClaudeBot?", "description": "Yes, very differently. GPTBot dominates raw volume and rarely touches the homepage, while ClaudeBot is smaller but more homepage-oriented and behaviorally diverse.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/does-gptbot-behave-differently-from-claudebot" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "do-ai-crawlers-read-sites-deeply", "title": "Do AI crawlers read sites deeply?", "description": "Usually not. The study is dominated by shallow sessions, with 88.5% ending after one visit and only 0.3% reaching 10 or more requests.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/do-ai-crawlers-read-sites-deeply" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "are-weekend-patterns-real-for-ai-crawlers", "title": "Are weekend patterns real for AI crawlers?", "description": "Yes. GPTBot runs 1.29x hotter on weekends than weekdays, and OAI-SearchBot shows an even stronger 1.41x weekend lift.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/are-weekend-patterns-real-for-ai-crawlers" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "why-do-entry-pages-matter-so-much-for-ai-bots", "title": "Why do entry pages matter so much for AI bots?", "description": "Because most crawler sessions are shallow and many bots never see your homepage. The entry page often decides whether the bot finds a citeable explanation or leaves with nothing useful.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/why-do-entry-pages-matter-so-much-for-ai-bots" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "should-you-optimize-for-gptbot-and-oai-searchbot-separately", "title": "Should you optimize for GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot separately?", "description": "Yes. GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot differ in scale and reading pattern, so a page architecture that works for one does not automatically capture the other at the same efficiency.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/should-you-optimize-for-gptbot-and-oai-searchbot-separately" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "what-does-the-crawler-data-say-about-site-architecture", "title": "What does the crawler data say about site architecture?", "description": "It says AI crawlers are biased toward easy-to-hit pages and often do not traverse deeply enough to rescue weak structure. The architecture has to expose useful answers early.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/what-does-the-crawler-data-say-about-site-architecture" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "can-you-treat-ai-crawler-traffic-like-normal-seo-bot-traffic", "title": "Can you treat AI crawler traffic like normal SEO bot traffic?", "description": "Not safely. AI crawlers show different homepage preferences, session depths, and weekend patterns than classic search-engine assumptions would suggest.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/can-you-treat-ai-crawler-traffic-like-normal-seo-bot-traffic" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "what-is-the-main-operational-takeaway-from-the-crawler-study", "title": "What is the main operational takeaway from the crawler study?", "description": "Operational takeaways from the When AI Comes to Your Website crawler study.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/what-is-the-main-operational-takeaway-from-the-crawler-study" }, { "kind": "answer", "slug": "why-is-claudebot-worth-watching-even-though-its-share-is-smaller", "title": "Why is ClaudeBot worth watching even though its share is smaller?", "description": "Because its behavior is meaningfully different from the larger OpenAI bots. ClaudeBot hits the homepage far more often and explores a more diverse mix of page types despite only 3.8% share.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/answers/why-is-claudebot-worth-watching-even-though-its-share-is-smaller" } ] }, { "title": "Reference Facts", "description": "Short, quotable claims with metrics and methodology context.", "items": [ { "kind": "fact", "slug": "gptbot-controls-more-than-half-of-observed-ai-crawler-traffic", "title": "GPTBot controls more than half of observed AI crawler traffic", "description": "GPTBot is the largest crawler family in the observed dataset.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/gptbot-controls-more-than-half-of-observed-ai-crawler-traffic" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "oai-searchbot-is-the-second-largest-crawler-in-the-study", "title": "OAI-SearchBot is the second-largest crawler in the study", "description": "Search-oriented OpenAI traffic is substantial in its own right.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/oai-searchbot-is-the-second-largest-crawler-in-the-study" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "gptbot-rarely-uses-the-homepage-as-an-entry-point", "title": "GPTBot rarely uses the homepage as an entry point", "description": "GPTBot overwhelmingly lands deeper in the site.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/gptbot-rarely-uses-the-homepage-as-an-entry-point" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "claudebot-is-far-more-homepage-friendly-than-gptbot", "title": "ClaudeBot is far more homepage-friendly than GPTBot", "description": "A comparative analysis of AI crawler entry points based on the study When AI Comes to Your Website.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/claudebot-is-far-more-homepage-friendly-than-gptbot" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "single-visit-sessions-dominate-ai-crawler-behavior", "title": "Single-visit sessions dominate AI crawler behavior", "description": "AI crawlers are usually shallow readers.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/single-visit-sessions-dominate-ai-crawler-behavior" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "deep-repeat-sessions-are-extremely-rare", "title": "Deep repeat sessions are extremely rare", "description": "Deep session depth is the exception, not the rule.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/deep-repeat-sessions-are-extremely-rare" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "gptbot-and-searchbot-both-show-weekend-lift", "title": "GPTBot and SearchBot both show weekend lift", "description": "Observed crawler timing is not evenly distributed through the week.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/gptbot-and-searchbot-both-show-weekend-lift" }, { "kind": "fact", "slug": "the-study-tracks-more-than-three-hundred-thousand-unique-urls", "title": "The study tracks more than 300,000 unique URLs", "description": "The dataset is wide enough to capture real site-architecture differences.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/facts/the-study-tracks-more-than-three-hundred-thousand-unique-urls" } ] }, { "title": "Trackers", "description": "Live benchmark views built from the study’s most reusable dimensions.", "items": [ { "kind": "tracker", "slug": "crawler-share-tracker", "title": "AI crawler traffic share by bot", "description": "Observed crawler traffic share across major AI bot families.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/trackers/crawler-share-tracker" }, { "kind": "tracker", "slug": "crawler-depth-and-entry-tracker", "title": "Crawler depth and homepage entry benchmark", "description": "Research tracker page for the study When AI Comes to Your Website, detailing the crawler depth and homepage entry benchmark.", "path": "/trakkr-research/crawler-behavior/trackers/crawler-depth-and-entry-tracker" } ] } ] }