Should I allow or block AI bots on my site?

For most B2B companies it is wise to allow AI bots. If you block them, engines cannot retrieve your content and you disappear from the answers your buyers increasingly rely on. Only for sensitive or paid content can blocking make sense.

How do I allow or refuse AI bots?

You arrange that in your robots.txt, the file with which you instruct crawlers which parts of your site they may visit. In it you can grant or refuse access per bot, such as that of OpenAI or Google. It is not a watertight lock, but most respected crawlers abide by it. Alongside robots.txt, you can also use an llms-txt file to indicate which content is most relevant for engines.

What do I gain by allowing them?

Visibility. If your content is reachable, an engine can cite you when a buyer asks a question about your field. For B2B that is valuable, because decision-makers use AI engines to compare suppliers before they get in touch. If you block everything, you give that ground away to competitors who are visible. This connects to the broader logic of GEO: being present in the answers where your market is.

When is blocking wise after all?

If content sits behind a login, is paid, or is meant to stay exclusive, you can shield it. Also, if you really do not want your material to end up in training data, selective blocking is a choice. The difference between crawling for answers and crawling for training is important here, and not every bot does the same thing. We work out these trade-offs in the guide on blocking AI bots in robots.txt.

What does Customer Impact advise?

We choose per situation, not on the basis of fear. For most B2B sites we advise opening up, because visibility in AI engines can lead to enquiries. We work exclusively for B2B, with a small and fast team, and steer on customers and revenue, not on shielding content that you actually want found.