AI Referral Tracking: Recognized Visits from Assistants
The AI Referrals view records browser arrivals with a recognized AI referrer or UTM source. It shows a different signal from crawler requests.
Check tracking on your site
- Open Bot Analytics → AI Referrals.
- Inspect the diagnostics for the frontend tracking script and POST endpoint.
- Use a deliberate test arrival with a supported source on a non-sensitive page.
- Verify the local event, then distinguish test traffic from real visitor activity.
How the signal is collected
A lightweight frontend script submits the arrival signal to POST /wp-json/citelayer/v1/ai-referral. Browser GET requests to that path are not a valid tracking test. The endpoint validates the signal; it is not a public route for reading visitor data.
What will be missing
Assistants may strip referrers. A visit may arrive as direct traffic. Script blockers, browser settings, consent configuration and caching can affect collection. These totals therefore cover recognized signals, not all traffic influenced by AI.
Interpret changes
Compare periods, source breakdown and destinations. Keep crawler totals separate and do not infer a citation rate from referral totals. If using this in a sales report, measure conversion through the store’s own transaction data with an appropriate privacy setup. See crawler analytics.
Next step
Continue with the quick start checklist, or check the common questions. For a reproducible problem, send the plugin versions, affected URL, expected result and actual response through Support. Do not include passwords, license keys or customer details.
Reviewed 6 October 2026 against citelayer® Free 1.13.5, WooCommerce add-on 1.2.19 and EDD add-on 1.2.1. Features depend on the active components and settings on your site.