Since Cloudflare is really too generous and most services are almost free, Cloudflare can be said to be a very good choice for those who want to deploy sites with global ultra-fast access.
Here is a beginner's domain configuration guide to avoid poor configuration affecting SEO and domain security.
Root domain redirect, to prevent www from diluting SEO weight. Configuration path "Domain - Rules - Overview - Templates - Redirect from WWW to root":
- Define "Rule name" yourself
- "Request URL": no need to change when the www subdomain is not defined
- Check "Preserve query string" so URL parameters can be carried directly during the redirect
- After selecting, click "Deploy". If www has not been resolved, a prompt will pop up at this point
- Select "Create new proxy DNS record"
- Enter "192.0.2.1" in the IP field
- Click "Create", then have AI check whether the settings have taken effect
Domain HTTPS-related settings, path "Domain - SSL/TLS - Edge Certificates":
- Enable "Always Use HTTPS"
- Change "Minimum TLS Version" to "TLS 1.2"
- Enable "TLS 1.3"
- Enable "Automatic HTTPS Rewrites"
Domain performance settings, path "Domain - Speed - Settings". This step is not complicated; just click "Enable all available settings".
The rest of Cloudflare's latest default configurations currently don't have any major issues. As for AI crawler-related settings, my advice is for beginners to just allow all of them; there's no need to configure them, as it is easy to mistakenly block them.