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[Resources](https://optiview.ai/resources/) [Implementation and operations](https://optiview.ai/resources/topics/implementation/)

Technical governance — October 30, 2026

# A Website Owner's Checklist for AI Crawler Access Policies

Before changing how AI crawlers access your website, decide which information should be public, which activities you want to permit and which resources require real access protection.

By Optiview · Sources checked October 30, 2026

[Download this article (.md)](https://optiview.ai/resources/ai-crawler-access-policy-checklist.md)

Website owners increasingly encounter crawler names associated with search, AI training and user-requested retrieval. It can be tempting to manage them all with one robots.txt rule. That approach overlooks important differences between crawler behavior, indexing and access authorization.

The [Robots Exclusion Protocol, RFC 9309](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309.html), describes a standardized way for sites to communicate crawler access preferences. It explicitly distinguishes those preferences from access authorization. A publicly visible robots.txt file cannot protect confidential information.

This checklist is an Optiview-recommended owner review. It is not a recommendation to allow every crawler, change security settings or bypass restrictions. No access-policy changes were made for this article.

## 1\. Classify the content you publish

| Content class | Owner decision | Control to investigate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Public marketing | Should this be discoverable? | Crawl and indexing configuration |
| Public documentation | Should automated clients access it? | Crawler policy and delivery behavior |
| Authenticated account | Who is authorized to view it? | Authentication and authorization |
| Private customer information | Should never be public without authorization | Access controls and data protection |
| Temporary staging | Should it be publicly accessible? | Deployment isolation and authentication |

Do not place confidential resource paths in robots.txt expecting secrecy. The file is public and can reveal paths that the organization would rather not advertise.

## 2\. Review crawler preferences

*   Confirm the robots.txt file belongs to the intended hostname and protocol scope.
*   Review user-agent groups and applicable Allow or Disallow rules.
*   Check whether important public routes are unintentionally disallowed.
*   Identify separate policies for different documented crawler categories.
*   Record who approved the policy and why.
*   Retain the previous configuration before proposing changes.

The [OpenAI crawler documentation](https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots) distinguishes documented crawlers and their purposes. Google's [crawler infrastructure documentation](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/verify-google-requests) also distinguishes ordinary crawlers, special-case crawlers and user-triggered fetchers. Do not assume all AI-related clients follow identical policies or execute JavaScript in the same way.

## 3\. Keep crawling, indexing and access separate

A crawler preference is not an indexing instruction, and an indexing instruction is not an access barrier. Google's [Googlebot guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/googlebot) explains the distinction between preventing crawling, discouraging indexing and protecting access through other means.

| Objective | Relevant mechanism | Important limitation |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Communicate crawler preferences | robots.txt | Not an authorization mechanism |
| Request exclusion from supported search indexes | Supported noindex directives | Requires provider-specific handling and access |
| Protect private content | Authentication and access controls | Must be enforced by the application |
| Describe public content | Normal pages and structured information | Does not guarantee discovery or citation |

## 4\. Produce an owner-approved policy record

1.  Inventory relevant public and protected content classes.
2.  Record current crawler and indexing directives.
3.  Compare those directives with documented business intentions.
4.  Identify uncertain provider behavior or unintended restrictions.
5.  Send proposed changes to the responsible security and website owners.
6.  Test only authorized configuration changes through existing release controls.

This is an advisory audit, not permission to bypass authentication, defeat bot protections or test resources the reviewer does not control.

## 5\. Keep publication verification separate

The finished work product is a policy register identifying each content class, intended audience, applicable directives, responsible owner, evidence and unresolved decision.

For a connected Optiview site, the [technical setup guide](https://optiview.ai/docs/setup/) explains ownership verification and supported public-page delivery checks. Those checks do not establish that a named AI crawler accessed the content or that the website's security policy is correct.

## Additional source context

Define your access intentions before editing crawler directives. Use robots.txt for applicable crawling preferences, indexing controls for supported search behavior and actual authentication for protected information.

Make your brand easier for AI to understand.

### Explore

[Website publishing](https://optiview.ai/products/publish/) · [Developer tools](https://optiview.ai/products/#developers) · [Pricing](https://optiview.ai/pricing/)

### Learn

[Guides](https://optiview.ai/resources/) · [Developer docs](https://optiview.ai/developers/) · [Research](https://optiview.ai/proof/) · [FAQ](https://optiview.ai/faq/)

### Company

[About Optiview](https://optiview.ai/about/) · [Agencies](https://optiview.ai/partners/) · [Contact](https://optiview.ai/#contact) · [Privacy](https://optiview.ai/privacy/) · [Billing terms](https://optiview.ai/billing-policy/)

## Additional page links

- [Does AI receive the page your visitors see?](https://optiview.ai/resources/website-platforms-ai-readability/) — Continue reading
- [Four files. Four different jobs.](https://optiview.ai/resources/four-discovery-files/) — Continue reading
- [How to convert HTML to Markdown for AI applications](https://optiview.ai/resources/html-to-markdown-api-guide/) — Continue reading
- [Preview a page](https://optiview.ai/demo/) — Continue reading
- [Read the setup guide](https://optiview.ai/docs/setup/) — Continue reading


---

# Published brand narrative

# Site-wide brand information

## Who we are

### Optiview — Parse, Retrieve and Publish for AI

Optiview helps businesses and developers make website information easier for AI to use. Parse converts supplied HTML into clean Markdown and source metadata. Retrieve fetches an eligible public HTTPS webpage and prepares its content. Publish helps a verified business prepare its own website content and make approved Narrative Graph context available through a supported connection.

Parse and Retrieve use application keys and a prepaid developer wallet. Publish has separate website setup, ownership checks and a subscription. Optiview does not control whether an outside AI service discovers, uses or cites the resulting content.

Applies to: Optiview

## Why we matter

### A clearer source, from website content to business context

Webpages mix useful information with navigation, layout and application code. Businesses may also have important qualifications, answers and context that are not clearly published.

Optiview gives developers a way to prepare source content for their applications, and gives businesses a way to publish the context their teams approve. Your application chooses how to use Parse and Retrieve results. Your business controls what it publishes through Publish.

Clearer publishing makes information available; it does not determine an AI system’s answer. Each outside service chooses its own retrieval, recommendations and citations.

## What we offer

### Three products, with separate jobs and clear pricing

- **Optiview Parse:** Supply complete HTML and a source URL. Receive clean Markdown, source and output hashes, parser details and processing warnings. Parse does not fetch the URL or execute JavaScript. A successful page uses 1 credit.
- **Optiview Retrieve:** Supply one eligible public HTTPS URL. Optiview checks supported access and publisher policies, fetches anonymous static HTML and parses it. It does not search the web, execute JavaScript, bypass a login or access private networks. A successful page uses 5 credits total, including parsing.
- **Developer credits:** USD $20 buys 20,000 credits shared by Parse and Retrieve. There is no developer subscription, automatic recharge or scheduled credit expiration. Failed jobs consume no credits. Applicable taxes and the total appear at checkout. Source size, quotas and retention limits apply.
- **Optiview Publish:** USD $99 per website per month plus applicable tax. Connect a verified website, review the prepared source and optionally maintain approved Narrative Graph context in Identity, Story, Offerings, Trust, Knowledge and Actions. Choose site-wide or exact-page scope. Saving drafts does not publish them. Eligible AI tools can receive prepared Markdown or HTML through supported delivery, while ordinary visitors keep the normal website.

Developer credits do not purchase Publish subscriptions. Parse and Retrieve do not add a customer’s private Narrative Graph to arbitrary third-party pages. See https://optiview.ai/pricing/ and https://optiview.ai/developers/ for the current offer and limits.

## Why trust us

### Inspect the output and understand what the evidence establishes

Developers can inspect the prepared Markdown, job status, source metadata, processing warnings and credit ledger. Retrieve records the public source response it observed; Parse identifies supplied HTML rather than claiming to verify the current origin.

Publish administrators can review parser output, the combined published-output preview, source checks and publication history. A preview is separate from a recorded live delivery. Saved edits remain separate from the active publication until explicitly published.

Our experiment pages contain selected first-party AI conversations and source comparisons. Delivery records establish what was served, not downstream ingestion, recommendations, citations or revenue. Observed language matches do not establish causation or a consistent visibility improvement. Explore the evidence and limitations at https://optiview.ai/proof/.

## Helpful knowledge

### Common questions about the three products

**Which product should I use?**
Use Parse when you already have HTML. Use Retrieve when you need Optiview to fetch one eligible public page first. Use Publish when your business wants to prepare its verified website and publish approved context.

**Do Parse and Retrieve require website ownership or DNS changes?**
No website connection is needed for these developer products. You remain responsible for source rights and permitted downstream use. Public availability does not grant a reuse license.

**How do developer accounts and keys work?**
Create a developer workspace and save the personal sign-in key and offline recovery code. Create scoped service keys for server-side applications. Email is an unverified contact identifier, not account-ownership proof or an email-only recovery method. Keep all credentials private.

**Can my agent use Optiview?**
The authenticated developer API returns prepared content for your application or model. A downloadable JavaScript client and local MCP adapter are available. Your host must authorize sources and any credit expenditure. Compatibility does not establish adoption or a partnership with an AI provider.

**Does the API include my private Narrative Graph?**
Parse and Retrieve are source-only. Verified website publishing and approved publisher context belong to the separate Publish workflow.

**Does Publish replace our website or CMS?**
No. Your website stays in its existing system. Your web team establishes and tests a supported connection. Your team reviews and explicitly publishes any Narrative Graph additions. Ordinary visitors retain the normal website experience.

**Does every AI tool get the prepared version?**
No. Delivery depends on the website connection, source eligibility and the request. Some tools explicitly request Markdown; supported AI requests may also receive prepared Markdown or HTML through eligible delivery paths. Traditional search crawlers retain the original website response. A claimed tool name does not prove the requester’s identity.

**Does the demo publish or save to our workspace?**
No. The public demo is a separate preview. Its AI-generated examples require review and do not transfer automatically into an approved publication.

**Will Optiview guarantee citations or recommendations?**
No. Optiview prepares and publishes sources. Outside AI services choose what to retrieve, use and cite.

## What to do next

### Choose your starting point

- [Compare Parse, Retrieve and Publish](https://optiview.ai/products/) to choose the right workflow.
- [Create a developer workspace](https://app.optiview.ai/developers) for self-service Parse and Retrieve, then add credits and create an application key.
- [Read the API quickstart and agent-tool setup](https://optiview.ai/developers/) for request examples, supported sources, errors, quotas and downloads.
- [Review pricing and terms](https://optiview.ai/pricing/) for prepaid credits and the separate Publish plan.
- [Preview your website](https://optiview.ai/demo/) to inspect prepared content and explore unapproved narrative examples without connecting or publishing.
- [Plan Publish setup](https://optiview.ai/onboarding/) with your web team. Publishing requires ownership checks, review and a supported connection; contact [hello@optiview.ai](mailto:hello@optiview.ai) for assisted setup.

Already using Publish? Review your Narrative Graph, publish approved changes explicitly, inspect the combined source in Markdown and check recorded delivery in Activity. Keep your existing visibility tools to study downstream AI answers.