Smarter Strategies for AI Crawls: How Publishers Can Balance Access and Control
AI is already crawling your content.
AI is rewriting how readers find and consume information. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are already scraping publisher content to deliver answers, without always sending meaningful traffic back. For publishers, the question is no longer whether AI will crawl your content, but how to manage it.
This is where new approaches like Cloudflare’s “pay-per-crawl” and smarter content strategies come into play. Instead of treating AI like a binary choice (allow or block), publishers can start differentiating content types and aligning access with business goals.
A Smarter Framework: Acquisition vs. Engagement Content
Jacob Donnelly (A Media Operator) highlights a useful way to think about the future: splitting content into acquisition content and engagement content.
Acquisition Content
This is the content you’re comfortable with being crawled and cited. It’s designed to attract new readers and build visibility. Think of it as the public storefront: broad, evergreen, and optimized to capture interest even if it’s coming via an AI tool.Engagement Content
This is your gated, subscriber-only, or highly niche material. It’s the equivalent of the bank vault, exclusive insights that deepen loyalty and drive revenue. By protecting this content from AI scrapers, you preserve its premium value.
At Wellput, we help publishers strengthen both revenue streams and reader growth strategies. Want your newsletter model to stay resilient in the AI era? Let’s talk today.
Why This Matters
Traffic Quality > Traffic Quantity
While overall traffic from AI might shrink, the users who do click through are likely to be more intentional, seeking depth beyond what AI provides. That’s a higher-value visitor.Revenue Opportunities in Crawls
Pay-per-crawl experiments are still early, but they hint at a future where publishers can monetize AI access directly. Having clear categories for acquisition vs. engagement content makes it easier to set rules on what to allow, block, or charge for.Long-Term Growth via Citations
Being quoted in AI answers keeps your brand visible even as search declines. That visibility only matters if your acquisition content makes it easy for new readers to subscribe.
The Publisher’s Path Forward
The takeaway is clear: don’t lump all your content together. By designing intentional strategies for acquisition vs. engagement content, you’ll stay discoverable in AI-driven ecosystems while protecting your premium products.
Wellput helps publishers align sponsorships, archives, and growth strategies to thrive. If you’re ready to future-proof your newsletter, let’s build the roadmap together.
