Cloudflare Bot Protection Setup

Step 1: Create Verified Bot Rule

Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → Security → WAF
Click Custom rules → Create rule
Rule name: Allow Verified Search Engines
Click Edit expression
Paste this expression:

(cf.client.bot) or (cf.verified_bot_category in {"AI Search" "AI Assistant" "Search Engine Crawler" "Advertising & Marketing"}) or (http.user_agent contains "OAI-SearchBot") or (http.user_agent contains "PerplexityBot") or (http.user_agent contains "ChatGPT-User") or (ip.src eq 118.179.207.90) or (ip.src.asnum in {63034 15169 36040})

Action: Select Skip
Check all boxes:
- ✅ All remaining custom rules
- ✅ All rate limiting rules
- ✅ All managed rules
- ✅ All Super Bot Fight Mode Rules
Place at: First
Click Save

Part 2: Cloudflare Cache Settings

Step 2: Set Browser Cache TTL

Go to Caching → Configuration
Find Browser Cache TTL
Set to 1 day (24 hours)
Click Save

Step 3: Create Static Assets Cache Rule

Go to Caching → Cache Rules
Click Create Rule
Rule name: Long Cache for Static Assets
Click Edit expression
Paste this expression:

(http.request.uri.path.extension in {"jpg" "jpeg" "png" "gif" "webp" "svg" "css" "js" "ico" "woff" "woff2" "ttf" "eot" "mp4"})

Set Browser Cache TTL: 1 month
Set Edge Cache TTL: 1 month
Click Save

Step 4: Purge Cache

Go to Caching → Configuration
Scroll down and click Purge Everything
Confirm

Part 3: Database Cleanup (phpMyAdmin)

Step 5: Clean Post Views Table

Open phpMyAdmin
Select your WordPress database
Click SQL tab
Run this query:

DELETE FROM wp_post_views WHERE period < DATE_FORMAT(DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY), '%Y%m%d');

Run this query:

OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_post_views;

Step 6: Clean Rank Math Analytics

Run this query:

DELETE FROM wp_rank_math_analytics_gsc WHERE created < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 60 DAY);

Run this query:

OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_rank_math_analytics_gsc;

Step 7: Clean Rank Math Inspections

Run this query:

DELETE FROM wp_rank_math_analytics_inspections WHERE created < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 60 DAY);

Run this query:

OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_rank_math_analytics_inspections;

Step 8: Check Your Results

Click Structure tab in phpMyAdmin
Scroll to bottom to see new total database size
Expected: 320-350 MB (from ~500 MB)

Part 4: WordPress Configuration

Step 9: Update wp-config.php

Go to your hosting control panel → File Manager
Navigate to /public_html/
Right-click wp-config.php → Edit
Add these lines before /* That’s all, stop editing! */:

// Disable post revisionsdefine('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

// Auto-delete trash after 7 days

define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 7);

Click Save

Step 10: Set Rank Math Data Retention

WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math → General Settings
Click Analytics tab
Find “Data Retention Period”
Set to 60 days
Click Save Changes

Part 5: Schedule Regular Maintenance

Step 11: Set Calendar Reminders

Set reminders to run these queries every 3 months:

Clean old post views (keep last 30 days)
DELETE FROM wp_post_views WHERE period < DATE_FORMAT(DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY), '%Y%m%d'); OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_post_views;

Clean old Rank Math data (keep last 60 days)

DELETE FROM wp_rank_math_analytics_gsc WHERE created < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 60 DAY); OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_rank_math_analytics_gsc;

DELETE FROM wp_rank_math_analytics_inspections WHERE created < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 60 DAY); OPTIMIZE TABLE wp_rank_math_analytics_inspections;

Expected Results

Database Size:

Before: 500+ MB
After: 320-350 MB
Saved: ~150-180 MB

Performance Improvements:

✅ Faster page loads
✅ Reduced MySQL connections
✅ Better server performance
✅ Improved AdSense bot crawling
✅ Better PageSpeed scores

Quick Reference – Cleanup Schedule

Task	Frequency
Database cleanup queries	Every 3 months
Check Cloudflare cache settings	Every 6 months
Review Rank Math data retention	When analytics grow large
Purge Cloudflare cache	After major site changes