Connect your website and choose the right data collector

The visibility measurement shows what AI models say about you. With your website connected, you also see the other side: which AI bots read your pages, and which visitors arrive from AI search. You do this with CitationLab Analytics, which collects data from your website in one of several ways.

The short version: If you use WordPress, install our plugin. Then you see both visitors and AI bots. If you use another platform, add the tracking code. Use only one collector per website.

Where to set it up

Go to Analytics and Data Collection. The Tracking method page has four tabs that walk you through the choice: Choose method, Compare, Install and Verify. Also check that CitationLab Analytics is turned on under Project and Integrations.

Choose a collector

Tracking code (JavaScript)

A small script you add to every page. It works on any website and measures how people use your pages: page views, scroll depth, outbound link clicks, downloads, form submissions, Web Vitals and dataLayer events. It also provides the basis for heatmaps and A/B tests.

AI bots do not run JavaScript, so the tracking code does not capture them. It shows you visitors who arrive from AI search. If you also want to see the bots, you need a collector that records visits on the server.

How to install: copy the code from the Install tab and paste it before </head> on every page, or add it as a Custom HTML tag in Google Tag Manager.

WordPress plugin

If you use WordPress, the plugin is the best choice. It records visits on the server and therefore also captures AI bots such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's bots when they read your pages. It recognizes more than 50 different bots.

How to install:

• Download the plugin from the Install tab with Download Plugin (.zip).
• In WordPress, go to Plugins, Add New and Upload Plugin, and select the file.
• In Manager, click Generate Pairing Token.
• Paste the token in WordPress under CitationLab and Settings.
• Go to the Verify tab in Manager and check that data is coming in.

If the website uses page caching, visits served straight from the cache are not recorded by the plugin. That is worth knowing when you judge the numbers.

Other publishing platforms

Umbraco has its own package with tracking, bot logging and server-recorded page views. It must be turned on after installation. For other platforms, the Compare tab shows what is possible. If you are unsure, the tracking code is always a safe choice.

The integrations for Sanity, Contentful, HubSpot, Prepr and Webflow are about content and SEO. They let Manager read and update your content. You collect visit data with the tracking code.

Use only one collector per website

All the collectors measure the same thing. If you run two at the same time, for example both the WordPress plugin and the tracking code, visits are counted twice. Choose one, and remove any old installations.

What you get once data comes in

• Bots under AI + Agents: which AI bots visit the website, which pages they read, and whether they get error messages. Requires a collector that can see bots.
• Traffic and Landing Pages: how many people arrive from AI search, and which pages they land on.
• Cite Analytics under Analytics: the full overview of visits, sources and events.

Tips

• Check Bots after a few days. Are the AI bots reading your most important pages? If not, that is an early signal that something is blocking them.
• Look for pages where the bots get error messages. Those are quick wins.
• Compare the pages the AI bots read with the pages cited in the AI Monitor module.

Next guide

The CitationLab Chrome Extension and three ways to use it