The most common self-serve setup issues and how to fix them. Still stuck? Write to us — we usually reply within a day.
Almost always a copy-paste slip. Re-copy the Cloud URL, API key and HMAC secret from the Connection tab with no leading or trailing spaces, and make sure the store domain you registered matches the site you're testing from. If it still fails, your host or a firewall may be blocking outbound HTTPS to api.botmetria.com — allow it.
This is the #1 cause, and it's almost always a page cache. A caching plugin (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, W3TC) or Cloudflare serves AI bots a cached page that never reaches Botmetria, so those visits go uncounted. Exclude the AI-bot user-agents from your cache — the Connection tab in your dashboard has the exact steps and a copy-paste user-agent list. Quick self-test: curl -A GPTBot -I https://your-store/ should not return cache-hit headers.
That's expected right after setup: the green handshake confirms your keys work, but the cards only fill once a real AI bot visits — which can take hours or days. To see it work now, visit your store as a bot: curl -A GPTBot https://your-store/, then refresh the dashboard. The visit shows as unverified because it isn't from an official bot IP — that's correct.
The plugin buffers events locally and ships them in the background. On a low-traffic site WP-Cron fires rarely, so the buffer drains slowly. Set up a real server cron for WordPress — or just open any wp-admin page to flush it. The plugin's Status page shows the last successful send and the current buffer size.
Every bot visit is checked against the official IP ranges of OpenAI, Google, Perplexity and others, so "unverified" is a feature, not a bug — it flags scrapers that spoof a bot user-agent. If genuinely official bots show as unverified, a CDN or reverse proxy in front of your site is replacing the bot's IP with its own; make sure the real visitor IP reaches the plugin or worker (via the standard forwarded-for header).
The pixel (bm.js) counts people — AI bots don't run JavaScript, so the pixel can't see them. Bot visits are counted by the Cloudflare Worker. Confirm the Worker is deployed and its route runs on every request to your store. Unlike the plugin, the Worker sits in front of the cache, so it needs no cache-bypass rule.
Reports go out every Monday. Check your spam folder and confirm the report email address on your account. A brand-new store with little AI traffic still gets a report — just a short one. Add reports@botmetria.com to your contacts so future reports land in your inbox.
The 0–100 score on screen is instant; the detailed action plan arrives by email shortly after. A low score isn't something to hide — every check comes with a concrete fix. The most common score-killer is a robots.txt that blocks GPTBot or PerplexityBot, which hides your store from those assistants.
Email us your store address and a screenshot of the problem — we'll help you get connected: info@botmetria.com
