HumanGate

FAQ

Will this break my SEO?

HumanGate includes a clear, top-level setting to “Block Search Engines” which adds noindex/nofollow meta tags. When this setting is enabled (default), your site will NOT appear in Google search results or any other search engine. If you want search engine indexing, disable the “Block Search Engines” setting. You can still block AI training crawlers independently using the enforcement modes. For maximum protection while allowing search engines, disable “Block Search Engines” and use Challenge or Block Mode with “Allow verified search engine bots” enabled. HumanGate uses reverse DNS verification to ensure only legitimate search engine bots (Google, Bing, etc.) are allowed, while blocking all other bots including AI training crawlers, scrapers, and data harvesters.

Does this work with Yoast SEO?

Yes! HumanGate automatically detects SEO plugins (Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, etc.) and appends its AI crawler blocks to your existing robots.txt file. Both plugins work together seamlessly—your SEO plugin manages the base robots.txt, and HumanGate adds AI crawler blocks.

Will this block legitimate users?

No. The bot challenge system is designed to be invisible to 99% of real users. It only triggers on suspicious bot-like patterns (like accessing 12+ pages in 5 seconds). If a legitimate user does see a challenge, it auto-completes in seconds without any interaction required—unlike CAPTCHAs. The system specifically targets bots (AI crawlers, scrapers, data harvesters) while allowing real human visitors.

What’s the performance impact?

Minimal. HumanGate uses WordPress transients (not database tables) for lightweight data storage. Search engine bot verification adds 100-500ms per verified request due to reverse DNS lookups, so it’s disabled by default. Only enable it if you’re using Block Mode and need search engine indexing.

Can I use this with other security plugins?

Yes, HumanGate is compatible with most security and caching plugins. It uses standard WordPress hooks and doesn’t interfere with other plugins’ functionality. If you’re using a firewall plugin, make sure it’s not blocking HumanGate’s challenge system.

What bots does this block?

HumanGate can block both AI training crawlers and other unauthorized bots. The bot challenge system works against all types of bots, not just AI crawlers—including scrapers, data harvesters, price monitoring bots, and more. For specific AI crawler blocking, HumanGate targets known AI training crawlers including GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, CCBot (Common Crawl), Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, and many others. See the plugin settings for the complete list of AI crawlers, and note that the challenge system catches all suspicious bot traffic regardless of user agent.

Can I selectively apply AI refusal to specific post types?

Yes! HumanGate includes granular content type control—you can select which post types (posts, pages, custom post types) should have AI blocking and/or search engine blocking applied. Both settings respect the same content type selection. You can also control this per individual post/page in the editor. For example, if you enable AI blocking but only select “posts” in content type control, it will only apply to posts, not to pages or other content types.

How does the bot challenge system work?

When suspicious bot traffic patterns are detected (regardless of whether it’s an AI crawler, scraper, or other bot), HumanGate serves a lightweight JavaScript challenge that runs automatically in the browser. It collects browser entropy (screen size, timezone, performance data) and verifies it server-side. Real browsers pass instantly; bots without JavaScript engines (like curl, wget, Python scrapers) stall or fail. This works against all types of bots, not just AI training crawlers.