How To Configure Cloudflare To Let SmarterQueue Scrape Your Website

If you use Cloudflare to protect your website from bots, Cloudflare may prevent SmarterQueue from generating a link preview for your website.

For most social platforms, this won't affect the final post when published, as they generate their own link preview (and those social platforms will be whitelisted by Cloudflare already). LinkedIn is different, as they don't generate their own link previews, but instead rely on SmarterQueue to provide a link preview image and title.

If you want to ensure SmarterQueue displays an accurate link preview in your Queue (and sends an accurate link preview to LinkedIn), you may need to whitelist SmarterQueue's servers in your Cloudflare configuration.


  • SmarterQueue's servers are hosted by Amazon AWS.
  • Our outbound IP address is currently 52.16.59.100 (note that this is subject to change).
  • The Amazon ASN for our servers is AS16509 (or ASN 16509). Learn more about ASN.

1. Log In to Cloudflare

  • Go to Cloudflare.com and sign in.
  • Select the domain you want to configure.

2. Access Firewall/WAF Settings

  • In the left navigation panel, click on Security (or Firewall if on a different plan).
  • In the submenu, open WAF or Firewall Rules (terminology may vary based on plan).

3. Create a New Firewall Rule

  • Click on Create Firewall Rule (or Add a new rule).
  • Name the rule something descriptive, like:
    • SmarterQueue - Allow Amazon AS16509
  • Under When incoming requests match…, you’ll want to set your Field to the ASN. Look for an expression field or a drop-down that references ip.geoip.asnum.
    • A typical expression might look like:
      • (ip.geoip.asnum eq 16509)
    • Some Cloudflare plans use a simple expression builder.
    • Others let you create advanced expressions.
  • Under the Action dropdown, select Allow.

4. Save and Deploy

  • Review your rule to ensure it’s correct.
  • Save or Deploy the firewall rule.
  • Test by creating a post in SmarterQueue with your website URL, and see how the link preview looks. You should see your link title and image, and not a Cloudflare warning or error.

5. Notes & Tips

  • Security Consideration: Allowlisting the entire ASN 16509 means letting in any traffic from Amazon’s IP range, not just SmarterQueue's specific IP. This includes all AWS IP addresses. If this feels too broad, you should consider whitelisting only our specific public IP address (e.g., 52.16.59.100). That’s generally safer.
  • Rate Limits: Even if the ASN is allowlisted, requests may still be rate-limited or challenged if you send an extremely high volume of requests.
  • Advanced Plan Differences: On some Cloudflare plans, you might see Firewall, WAF, or Security menus labeled differently. The concept is the same: you create a firewall rule that matches ASN 16509 and chooses an action of “Allow.”