Growth idea action plan
Disable Cloudflare AI Crawl Control so AI crawlers can see your site
If you're on Cloudflare, check AI Crawl Control and unblock the AI user agents you care about (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google-Extended), otherwise you can be invisible to answer engines even if robots.txt allows them.
Why this can grow a startup
Answer engines can only cite what they can fetch. If your infra silently blocks AI crawlers, you end up optimizing schema, llms.txt, and content for AEO but never get crawled. Unblocking the right bots turns AEO work into actual visibility and can create zero-click discovery that later shows up as direct traffic, internal shares, and brand recall.
Ian's take
From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. For SEO and AI search, I care less about clever keyword tricks and more about clarity. A buyer, crawler, or answer engine should quickly understand who this is for, why it works, what proof backs it, and what page deserves to be cited. For acquisition, I would keep the first test narrow enough that a clear yes or no is possible. Broad reach is not useful if the signal is muddy. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.
Action plan
- Define one narrow startup segment where disable cloudflare ai crawl control so ai crawlers can see your site can create a measurable lift.
- Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the AI Search and SEO channel.
- Use the evidence from reddit.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
- Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
- Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.
Source-backed example
r/SaaS founder: after ~3 weeks of infrastructure-only fixes, indexed pages climbed from ~35 to ~210 and they discovered Cloudflare AI Crawl Control was silently blocking ChatGPT/Claude/Perplexity despite robots.txt allowing them. Disabling it unlocked AI citations.
Source: reddit.com
Last checked: May 25, 2026
Want help turning this into a growth system?
If you want someone to pressure-test this against your real market, Ian works with founders on growth, market entry, and operator-led distribution.
Work with Ian on growth advisory