Troubleshooting

DNS not propagating

DNS changes typically propagate within 15 minutes but can take up to 48 hours. Use a tool like dnschecker.org to verify propagation from multiple locations before troubleshooting further. Make sure the CNAME is set at the correct subdomain (www vs apex) matching how your site is accessed.

Sync failing or returning errors

If your site requires authentication, blocks non-browser user agents, or has aggressive rate limiting, the sync crawler may be blocked. Check that your robots.txt does not disallow Appear's crawler. If you have a WAF or bot protection, add Appear's edge IP ranges to your allowlist.

AI crawlers not appearing in analytics

If you have not seen any AI crawler visits after 48 hours, check that your robots.txt allows the crawler roles you care about, such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, and Googlebot. Also verify that traffic is actually routing through Appear's edge (check that the DNS CNAME resolves to Appear's target). Some AI crawlers visit less frequently on new domains. Allow one to two weeks for baseline data.

Human site looks different

If human visitors are seeing unexpected behavior, check that the CNAME is pointing to the correct Appear edge target for your account, and that your origin URL is configured correctly in the dashboard. Appear should proxy human traffic transparently with no visual changes.

SSL certificate errors

SSL certificates are provisioned automatically when you add a custom hostname. If you see certificate errors, the most common cause is a missing or incorrect CNAME record. Verify the CNAME is pointing to the correct Appear edge target. Certificate provisioning typically completes within minutes but can take up to an hour in edge cases.

Content not updating after sync

If AI crawlers are still seeing old content after a sync, check that the sync completed successfully in the dashboard. Edge cache propagation is near-instant but can occasionally take up to 60 seconds. If the issue persists, try triggering a fresh sync. The rate limit is 2 minutes between syncs per domain.