Optimize Cloudflare Bot Controls

I run a Canadian real-estate search engine and need a Cloudflare ruleset that finally keeps the bad bots out without locking good crawlers or genuine visitors. At the moment I’m seeing roughly 100 K automated requests a day; when I swing the settings too tight the site disappears from Google’s index, and when I loosen them the bounce-rate and server load shoot up again.

Here is the balance I need you to achieve:

• Block every non-search-engine and non-AI bot while still letting Google, Bing, Yahoo and reputable AI crawlers roam freely.
• Make sure anyone arriving from outside Canada or the U.S. passes a Captcha challenge before they can browse listings.
• Keep the site fully reachable for normal users in Canada and the U.S. with zero friction.
• Preserve clean analytics—no phantom traffic in Google Analytics once the rules are in place.

Please implement this directly inside my Cloudflare dashboard using Firewall Rules, Bot Management, WAF custom rules, and any necessary Rate Limiting. I’ll provide temporary access along with current settings.

Deliverables:
– A documented set of Cloudflare rules (export or screenshots) ready for audit and future edits
– A short hand-off note that explains how each rule works and how to tune thresholds if traffic patterns change
– Verification steps that prove Google, Bing, Yahoo and legitimate AI crawlers still fetch pages, while unwanted bots are dropped or Captcha-challenged

I’ll test indexing through Search Console and will sign off once bot traffic falls to an acceptable level without crawl errors.