How is this different from Google Analytics?

Google Analytics shows you traffic. Shadow shows you traffic, AI bot activity, what AI platforms say about your brand, AND tells you what to do about all of it. It's analytics + AI intelligence + action steps in one tool.

Do I need to install anything?

For basic monitoring (bot detection, AI perception, readiness score) — nope, just enter your URL. For full visitor analytics (clicks, behavior, sessions), add one script tag. One-click integrations for Vercel, Shopify, WordPress, and more.

Will it slow down my site?

No. The script is under 5KB and loads async. Zero impact on page speed or Core Web Vitals. External monitoring has literally no impact — it watches from the outside.

What AI bots does Shadow detect?

All of them. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Bytespider, Amazonbot, and dozens more. The Shadow Network means new bots get identified across all users instantly.

What do you mean by "actionable steps"?

Shadow doesn't just show you graphs. It says things like: "ChatGPT has your pricing wrong — add structured data to /pricing to fix it" or "Your bounce rate on /features is 68% — here's why and what to change." Specific, do-it-today recommendations.

Can Shadow block bots?

Shadow is a telescope, not a shield. It shows you who's visiting and what AI says about you. It generates block rules and robots.txt configs you can apply — but it doesn't intercept traffic.

Yes. Shadow never collects PII. IP addresses are hashed after classification. No cookies on your visitors. All Shadow Network data is anonymized. GDPR compliant by design.

How do I block DataForSeoBot?

Add this to your robots.txt file: User-agent: DataForSeoBot / Disallow: /

Does DataForSeoBot respect robots.txt?

Yes, DataForSeoBot by DataForSEO respects robots.txt directives.

SEO Respects robots.txt

DataForSeoBot

by DataForSEO First seen: 2018-01

About

DataForSEO's bulk web crawler used to power their SEO data API, which is consumed by hundreds of SEO tools, marketing platforms, and — increasingly — AI agents that perform competitive research and content analysis. When AI models use DataForSEO's API to gather competitive intelligence, your content may be processed and summarised without direct attribution. The bot is also used to populate AI training datasets by companies that license the data.

Purpose

SEO data collection and AI-powered marketing research

User Agent String

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DataForSeoBot/1.0; +https://dataforseo.com/dataforseo-bot)

How to Control in robots.txt

🚫 Block DataForSeoBot

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Disallow: /

✅ Allow DataForSeoBot

User-agent: DataForSeoBot
Allow: /

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