Noma Intel Crawl
WordPress plugin · Current release 1.5.2 · Updated August 2026
AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity learn about your business by crawling your website — but their crawlers don't run JavaScript, so ordinary analytics never see them. Noma Intel Crawl closes that gap: it passively detects crawler visits at the WordPress level and reports them to your Noma Intel dashboard, alongside your regular visitor analytics. It's the "AI is reading you" half of the picture that pairs with Noma Intel's "AI is sending you visitors" reporting.
Latest release
| Version | 1.5.2 |
|---|---|
| Released | August 2026 |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 or later |
| Tested up to | WordPress 6.8 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 or later |
| Licence | GPLv2 or later |
| Text domain | noma-intel-crawl |
What it does — and what it never does
What you'll see: which AI crawlers visit your site (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot and others), how often, and which pages they read. Crawler identity is worked out on Noma Intel's servers, so the plugin never needs an update when a new crawler appears.
What it never does:
- Track human visitors — only automated crawlers are reported.
- Set cookies or read personal data.
- Slow your site down — the report is fire-and-forget, off the page path.
- Run in your admin area.
Honest coverage note
If your host serves pages from an edge or page cache, some crawler visits are answered from cache and are invisible to any WordPress plugin. You'll always see which crawlers visit and what they read; total counts are a floor, not a ceiling. Your dashboard labels the data accordingly. This mirrors the "at least N" rule in The Noma Intel Way.
Getting the plugin
For security, the plugin is not published for open download and does not work without a key. You get the plugin file and your credentials one of two ways:
- From your agency. If your site is managed by an agency on Noma Intel, they supply the plugin ZIP and your Site ID and Site key.
- From your dashboard. Account holders can download the current plugin and find their Site ID and Site key after signing in at app.nomaintel.com.
Don't have an account yet? Contact us and we'll point you to the right agency or set you up directly.
Installation
- In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
and upload the
noma-intel-crawlZIP supplied by your agency or dashboard. Activate it. - Go to Settings → Noma Intel Crawl.
- Enter your Site ID and Site key. That's it — there's no other configuration.
The Site ID and Site key come from your welcome email, your agency, or your dashboard. Reporting begins immediately; crawler visits appear in the AI-visibility view of your Noma Intel dashboard.
Upgrading from "Meerkat Crawl"
Noma Intel Crawl is the same plugin as the earlier Meerkat Crawl, renamed. If you're moving across, activate Noma Intel Crawl first — it copies your existing settings over on activation — and only then remove the old Meerkat Crawl plugin. (On versions before 1.1.2, deleting Meerkat Crawl first erased the shared settings. If that happened and your settings page shows "Not configured", just re-enter your Site ID and Site key under Settings → Noma Intel Crawl.)
Version history
Newest first. We keep the plugin deliberately simple and stable — most of the intelligence lives on Noma Intel's servers, not in the plugin, so it rarely needs to change.
| 1.5.2 | Security hardening. Tightens how the plugin connects to Noma Intel, and the settings page now confirms at a glance that your site is reporting to the standard collector. No settings change is needed. Recommended for all sites. |
|---|---|
| 1.4.4 | Documentation only — the plugin file is unchanged from 1.4.3. Released as its own version because each download is published with a checksum, so one version number must always mean one exact file. Nothing to gain by updating if you are already on 1.4.3. |
| 1.4.3 | Completes the 1.4.1 caching fix, this time confirmed by measurement on live sites rather than by expectation. Some hosts and caching plugins ignore a request not to cache a response, which meant visitor recognition could quietly do nothing on those sites. The plugin no longer asks to bypass the cache — it now uses a request type that caches cannot store at all. Required on hosts with full-page caching, recommended everywhere. No settings change, and it works with every version of the analytics tag. |
| 1.4.2 | Added an admin setting to configure visitor-tracking durability directly from the plugin's settings page — previously adjustable only in code. On by default, so nothing changes unless you deliberately turn it off (see the FAQ). |
| 1.4.1 | Reliability improvements for visitor tracking on sites that use full-page caching. No settings change — update the plugin and the improvement applies. |
| 1.4.0 | Improved visitor-recognition durability, so returning visitors are recognised more reliably over longer periods. Uses a random identifier, reads no personal data, and can be turned off (see the FAQ). |
| 1.3.0 | Added a periodic status check-in so your dashboard can confirm the plugin is installed and running, even on quiet sites that see few crawlers. It sends only your site URL and the plugin version — no visitor data, no cookies — and can be turned off (see the FAQ). |
| 1.2.0 | Added a live status indicator to the settings page so you can confirm at a glance that the sensor is working, and spot a site that has gone quiet straight away. Read-only and never affects front-end page speed. |
| 1.1.2 | Improved how settings carry over when upgrading from the previous plugin, so an in-place upgrade no longer risks losing your configuration. Recommended for anyone upgrading from Meerkat Crawl. |
| 1.1.1 | Tidied the settings page. No change to how or where data is reported. |
| 1.1.0 | Rebrand: "Meerkat Crawl" became "Noma Intel Crawl". Upgrades in place with no reconfiguration needed. |
| 1.0.0 | First release (as "Meerkat Crawl"): crawler detection, settings page, and per-site key authentication. |
Frequently asked questions
Does this affect my page speed?
No. The check is a single pattern match, and the report is sent without waiting for a response. Human visitors trigger nothing at all.
Is this GDPR / privacy compliant?
The plugin reports automated crawler traffic only — no personal data, no cookies, no human tracking. Crawler network addresses are truncated before storage at Noma Intel. See our Privacy Policy.
Can I turn off the status check-in?
Yes. Since 1.3.0 the plugin sends a small periodic "still running"
check-in — just your site URL and the plugin version, no visitor data and
no cookies, at most a couple of times a day — so your dashboard can tell a
healthy sensor apart from a broken one. To disable it, add
define( 'NOMA_INTEL_CRAWL_DISABLE_HEARTBEAT', true ); to
wp-config.php, or return false from the
noma_intel_crawl_enable_heartbeat filter. Crawler reporting is
unaffected. Note that with the check-in off, a quiet site with no crawler
traffic may appear inactive in your dashboard.
Can I turn off durable visitor tracking?
Yes. This feature helps returning visitors be recognised more reliably over
longer periods. It uses a random identifier and reads no personal data, and
it's on by default. From 1.4.2 you can switch it off with a checkbox under
Settings → Noma Intel Crawl — no code required. If you
prefer to lock it off in code (which also greys out the checkbox), add
define( 'NOMA_INTEL_CRAWL_DISABLE_DURABLE_ID', true ); to
wp-config.php. Crawler reporting is unaffected either way.
Do I need to update it when new AI crawlers appear?
No. Identifying crawlers happens on Noma Intel's servers, which are updated continuously. The plugin itself is deliberately simple and stable.
Why isn't the download here?
Two reasons. It carries no security risk to describe the plugin publicly — without a valid key it reports nothing — but we still keep distribution close to the account so the file and key travel together, through your agency or your dashboard. That way there's a single, accountable route to the software and the credentials that make it work.