HTTP Headers & Server Analysis

What This Check Does

HTTP headers control how AI crawlers interact with your server. X-Robots-Tag headers can block indexing, CORS headers affect API accessibility, and response codes reveal server health. This check also detects cloaking, where different content is served to bots vs. users.

Why It Matters for AI Search

Server-level configuration can silently block AI indexing even when robots.txt allows access. X-Robots-Tag: noindex in headers overrides everything. Cloaking detection is critical because serving different content to AI bots damages trust and can lead to de-indexing.

How We Evaluate

1. 1Inspect X-Robots-Tag headers for noindex, nofollow directives
2. 2Check CORS headers for API-accessible content
3. 3Compare responses between user-agent strings to detect cloaking
4. 4Verify proper HTTP status codes (200, 301, 404 handling)

Optimization Tips

• Audit X-Robots-Tag headers to ensure AI crawlers are not blocked at the server level
• Never serve different content to AI bots vs. regular users (cloaking)
• Return proper 404 status codes for missing pages instead of soft 404s
• Use CORS headers strategically if you want AI systems to access your APIs

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