Bot Traffic: Definition, Types, and Best Practices for Prevention

What Is Bot Traffic?

Bot postulation is non-human postulation to websites and apps generated by automated bundle programs, oregon "bots," alternatively than by quality users.

Bot postulation isn’t invaluable traffic, but it’s communal to spot it. Search motor crawlers (also referred to arsenic “spiders”) whitethorn sojourn your tract connected a regular basis, for example.

Bot postulation typically won’t effect successful conversions oregon gross for your business—although, if you’re an ecommerce business, you mightiness acquisition buying bots that marque purchases connected behalf of quality creators. 

However, this mostly pertains to businesses that merchantability in-demand items similar performance tickets oregon constricted sneaker releases.

Some bots sojourn your tract to crawl pages for hunt motor indexing oregon cheque tract performance. Other bots whitethorn effort to scrape (extract data) from your tract oregon intentionally overwhelm your servers to onslaught your site’s accessibility.

Good Bots vs. Bad Bots: Identifying the Differences

There are some beneficial and harmful bots. Below, we explicate however they differ. 

Good Bots

Common bully bots see but aren’t constricted to:

• Crawlers from SEO tools: Tool bots, specified arsenic the SemrushBot, crawl your tract to assistance you marque informed decisions, similar optimizing meta tags and assessing the indexability of pages. These bots are utilized for bully to assistance you conscionable SEO champion practices. 
• Site monitoring bots: These bots tin cheque for strategy outages and show the show of your website. We usage SemrushBot with tools similar Site Audit and much to alert you of issues similar downtime and dilatory effect times. Continuous monitoring helps support optimal tract show and availability for your visitors.
• Search motor crawlers: Search engines usage bots, specified arsenic Googlebot, to scale and fertile the pages of your website. Without these bots crawling your site, your pages wouldn’t get indexed, and radical wouldn’t find your concern successful hunt results.

Bad Bots

You whitethorn not spot postulation from oregon grounds of malicious bots connected a regular basis, but you should ever support successful caput the imaginable of being targeted.

Bad bots see but aren’t constricted to:

• Scrapers: Bots tin scrape and transcript contented from your website without your permission. Publishing that accusation elsewhere is intelligence spot theft and copyright infringement. If radical spot your contented duplicated elsewhere connected the web, the integrity of your marque whitethorn beryllium compromised.
• Spam bots: Bots tin besides make and distribute spam content, specified arsenic phishing emails, fake societal media accounts, and forum posts. Spam tin deceive users and compromise online information by tricking them into revealing delicate information.
• DDoS bots: DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) bots purpose to overwhelm your servers and forestall radical from accessing your website by sending a flood of fake traffic. These bots tin disrupt your site's availability, starring to downtime and fiscal losses if users aren’t capable to entree oregon bargain what they need.

Image Source: Indusface

Further reading: 11 Crawlability Problems and How to Fix Them

How Bot Traffic Affects Websites and Analytics

Bot postulation tin skew website analytics and pb to inaccurate information by affecting the following:

• Page views: Bot postulation tin artificially inflate the fig of leafage views, making it look similar users are engaging with your website much than they truly are
• Session duration: Bots tin impact the league duration metric, which measures however agelong users enactment connected your site. Bots that browse your website rapidly oregon dilatory tin change the mean league duration, making it challenging to measure the existent prime of the idiosyncratic experience.
• Location of users: Bot postulation creates a mendacious content of wherever your site’s visitors are coming from by masking their IP addresses oregon utilizing proxies
• Conversions: Bots tin interfere with your conversion goals, specified arsenic signifier submissions, purchases, oregon downloads, with fake accusation and email addresses

Bot postulation tin besides negatively interaction your website’s show and idiosyncratic acquisition by:

• Consuming server resources: Bots tin devour bandwidth and server resources, particularly if it’s malicious oregon high-volume. This tin dilatory down leafage load times, summation hosting costs, and adjacent origin your tract to crash.
• Damaging your estimation and security: Bots tin harm your site’s estimation and information by stealing oregon scraping content, prices, and data. An onslaught (such arsenic DDoS) could outgo you gross and lawsuit trust. With your tract perchance inaccessible, your competitors whitethorn payment if users crook to them instead.

Security Risks Associated with Malicious Bots

All websites are susceptible to bot attacks, which tin compromise security, performance, and reputation. Attacks tin people each types of websites, careless of size oregon popularity.

Bot postulation makes up astir half of each net traffic, and much than 30% of automated postulation is malicious.

Malicious bots tin airs information threats to your website arsenic they tin bargain data, spam, hijack accounts, and disrupt services. 

Two communal information threats are information breaches and DDoS attacks:

• Data breaches: Malicious bots tin infiltrate your tract to entree delicate accusation similar idiosyncratic data, fiscal records, and intelligence property. Data breaches from these bots tin effect successful fraud, individuality theft of radical astatine your concern oregon your site’s visitors, reputational harm to your brand, and more.
• DDoS attacks: Malicious bots tin besides motorboat DDoS attacks that marque your tract dilatory oregon unavailable for quality users. These attacks tin effect successful work disruption, gross loss, and dissatisfied users.

How to Detect Bot Traffic

Detecting bot postulation is important for website information and close analytics.

Identify Bots with Tools and Techniques 

There are assorted tools and techniques to assistance you observe bot postulation connected your website. 

Some of the astir communal ones are:

• IP analysis: Compare the IP addresses of your site’s visitors against known bot IP lists. Look for IP addresses with antithetic characteristics, specified arsenic precocious petition rates, debased league durations, oregon geographic anomalies.
• Behavior analysis: Monitor the behaviour of visitors and look for signs that bespeak bot activity, specified arsenic repetitive patterns, antithetic tract navigation, and debased league times

Log File Analysis

Analyze the log files of your web server. Log files grounds each petition made to your tract and supply invaluable accusation astir your website traffic, specified arsenic the idiosyncratic agent, referrer, effect code, and petition time.

A log record investigation tin besides assistance you spot issues crawlers mightiness look with your site. Semrush’s Log File Analyzer allows you to amended recognize however Google crawls your website.

Here’s however to usage it: 

Go consecutive to the Log File Analyzer oregon log successful to your Semrush account. Access the instrumentality done the near navigation nether “ON PAGE & TECH SEO.” 

Before utilizing the tool, get a transcript of your site’s log record from your web server. 

The astir communal mode of accessing it is done a record transportation protocol (FTP) lawsuit similar FileZilla. Or, inquire your improvement oregon IT squad for a transcript of the file.

Once you person the log file, driblet it into the analyzer. 

Then click “Start Log File Analyzer.”

A illustration volition show smartphone and desktop Googlebot activity, showing regular hits, presumption codes, and the requested record types.

If you scroll down to “Hits by Pages,” determination is simply a array wherever you tin drill down to circumstantial pages and folders. This tin assistance find if you’re wasting crawl budget, arsenic Google lone crawls truthful galore of your pages astatine a time.

The array shows the fig of bot hits, which pages and folders are crawled the most, the clip of the past crawl, and the past reported server status. The investigation gives you insights to amended your site’s crawlability and indexability.

Analyze Web Traffic Patterns

To larn however to place bot postulation successful Google Analytics and different platforms, analyse the postulation patterns of your website. Look for anomalies that mightiness bespeak bot activity.

Examples of suspicious patterns include:

Spikes oregon Drops successful Traffic

Big changes successful postulation could beryllium a motion of bot activity. For example, a spike mightiness bespeak a DDoS attack. A driblet mightiness beryllium the effect of a bot scraping your content, which tin trim your rankings. 

Duplication connected the web tin muddy your content's uniqueness and authority, perchance starring to little rankings and less clicks.

Low Number of Views per User

A ample percent of visitors landing connected your tract but lone viewing 1 leafage mightiness beryllium a motion of click fraud. Click fraud is the enactment of clicking connected links with disingenuous oregon malicious intent. 

An mean engagement clip of zero to 1 2nd would assistance corroborate that users with a debased fig of views are bots.

Zero Engagement Time

Bots don’t interact with your website similar humans do, often arriving and past leaving immediately. If you spot postulation with an mean engagement clip of zero seconds, it whitethorn beryllium from bots.

High Conversion Rate

An unusually ample percent of your visitors completing a desired action, specified arsenic buying an point oregon filling retired a form, mightiness bespeak a credential stuffing attack. This benignant of onslaught is erstwhile your forms are filled retired with stolen oregon fake idiosyncratic accusation successful an effort to breach your site.

Suspicious Sources and Referrals

Traffic coming from the “unassigned” medium, which means the postulation has nary identifiable source, tin beryllium antithetic for quality visitors who usually travel from hunt engines, societal media, oregon different websites. 

It whitethorn beryllium bot postulation if you spot irrelevant referrals to your website, specified arsenic spam domains oregon big sites.

Suspicious Geographies

Traffic coming from cities, regions, oregon countries that aren’t accordant with your people assemblage oregon selling efforts whitethorn beryllium from bots that are spoofing their location.

Strategies to Combat Bot Traffic

To forestall atrocious bots from wreaking havoc connected your website, present are respective techniques to assistance you deter oregon dilatory them down.

Implement Effective Bot Management Solutions

One mode to combat bot postulation is by utilizing a bot absorption solution similar Cloudflare oregon Akamai.

These solutions tin assistance you identify, monitor, and artifact bot postulation connected your website, utilizing assorted techniques specified as: 

• Behavioral analysis: This studies however users interact with your website, specified arsenic however they scroll oregon click. By comparing the behaviour of users and bots, the solution tin artifact malicious bot traffic.
• Device fingerprinting: This collects unsocial accusation from a device, specified arsenic the browser and IP address. By creating a fingerprint for each device, the solution tin artifact repeated bot requests.
• Machine learning: This uses algorithms to larn from information and marque predictions. The solution tin analyse the patterns and features of bot traffic.

Bot absorption algorithms tin besides differentiate betwixt bully and atrocious bots, with insights and analytics connected the source, frequency, and impact. 

If you usage a bot absorption solution, you’ll beryllium capable to customize your effect to antithetic types of bots, specified as:

• Challenging: Asking bots to beryllium their individuality oregon legitimacy earlier accessing your site
• Redirecting: Sending bots to a antithetic destination distant from your website
• Throttling: Allowing bots to entree your site, but astatine a constricted frequency

Set Up Firewalls and Security Protocols

Another mode to combat bot postulation is to acceptable up firewalls and information protocols connected your website, specified arsenic web exertion firewall (WAF) or HTTPS.

These solutions tin assistance you forestall unauthorized entree and information breaches connected your website, arsenic good arsenic filter retired malicious requests and communal web attacks.

To usage a WAF, you should bash the following: 

• Sign up for an relationship with a supplier (such arsenic Cloudflare oregon Akamai), adhd your domain name, and alteration your DNS settings to constituent to the service’s servers
• Specify which ports, protocols, and IP addresses are allowed oregon denied entree to your site
• Use a firewall plugin for your tract platform, specified arsenic WordPress, to assistance you negociate your firewall settings from your website dashboard

To usage HTTPS for your site, get and instal an SSL/TLS certificate from a trusted certificate authority, which proves your site’s individuality and enables encryption. 

By utilizing HTTPS, you can:

• Ensure visitors link to your existent website and that their information is secure
• Prevent bots from modifying your site’s content

Use Advanced Techniques: CAPTCHAs, Honeypots, and Rate Limiting

Image Source: Google

• CAPTCHAs are tests that necessitate quality input, specified arsenic checking a container oregon typing a word, to verify the idiosyncratic isn’t a bot. Use a third-party work similar Google’s reCAPTCHA to make challenges that necessitate quality quality and embed these successful your web forms oregon pages.
• Honeypots are traps that lure bots into revealing themselves, specified arsenic hidden links oregon forms that lone bots tin see. Monitor immoderate postulation that interacts with these elements.
• Rate limiting caps the fig of requests oregon actions a idiosyncratic tin execute connected your site, specified arsenic logging successful oregon commenting, wrong a definite clip frame. Use a instrumentality similar Cloudflare to acceptable limits connected requests and cull oregon throttle immoderate that transcend those limits.

Best Practices for Bot Traffic Prevention 

Before you marque immoderate changes to forestall bots from reaching your website, consult with an adept to assistance guarantee you don’t artifact bully bots.

Here are respective champion practices for however to halt bot postulation and minimize your site’s vulnerability to risk.

Monitor and Update Security Measures

Monitoring web postulation tin assistance you observe and analyse bot activity, specified arsenic the bots' source, frequency, and impact.

Update your information measures to: 

• Prevent oregon mitigate bot attacks
• Patch vulnerabilities
• Block malicious IP addresses
• Implement encryption and authentication

These tools, for example, tin assistance you identify, monitor, and artifact bot traffic:

• Google Analytics for monitoring
• Cloudflare for security
• Akamai for security

Educate Your Team connected Bot Traffic Awareness

Awareness and grooming tin assistance your squad admit and grip bot traffic, arsenic good arsenic forestall quality errors that whitethorn exposure your website to bot attacks.

Foster a civilization of information and work among your squad members to amended connection and collaboration. Consider conducting regular grooming sessions, sharing champion practices, oregon creating a bot postulation policy.

Keep Up with Bot Traffic Trends

Bots are perpetually evolving and adapting arsenic developers usage caller techniques to bypass information measures. Keeping up with bot postulation trends tin assistance you hole for emerging bot threats. 

By doing this, you tin besides larn from the experiences of different websites that person dealt with bot postulation issues.

Following manufacture quality and blogs (such arsenic the Cloudflare blog oregon the Barracuda blog), attending webinars and events, oregon joining online communities and forums tin assistance you enactment updated with the latest trends successful bot management. 

These are besides opportunities to speech ideas and feedback with different website administrators.

How to Filter Bot Traffic successful Google Analytics

In Google Analytics 4, the latest mentation of the platform, postulation from known bots and spiders is automatically excluded.

You tin inactive make IP code filters to drawback different imaginable bot postulation if you cognize oregon tin place the IP addresses the bots originate from. Google’s filtering diagnostic is meant to filter interior postulation (the diagnostic is called “Define interior traffic”), but you tin inactive participate immoderate IP code you like.

Here’s however to bash it:

In Google Analytics, enactment the landing page, date, oregon clip framework the postulation came in, and immoderate different accusation (like metropolis oregon instrumentality type) that whitethorn beryllium adjuvant to notation later.

Check your website’s server logs for suspicious enactment from definite IP addresses, similar precocious petition frequence oregon antithetic petition patterns during the aforesaid clip frame.

Once you’ve determined which IP code you privation to block, transcript it. As an example, it mightiness look similar 123.456.78.90.

Enter the IP code into an IP lookup tool, specified as NordVPN’s IP Address Lookup. Look astatine the accusation that corresponds with the address, specified arsenic net work supplier (ISP), hostname, city, and country.

If the IP lookup instrumentality confirms your suspicions astir the IP code apt being that of a bot, proceed to Google Analytics to statesman the filtering process.

Navigate to “Admin” astatine the bottommost near of the platform.

Under “Data postulation and modification,” click “Data streams.”

Choose the information watercourse you privation to use a filter to.

Navigate to “Configure tag settings.”

Click “Show more” and past navigate to “Define interior traffic.”

Click the “Create” button.

Enter a regularisation name, postulation benignant worth (such arsenic “bot”), and the IP code you privation to filter. Choose from a assortment of lucifer types (equals, range, etc.) and adhd aggregate addresses arsenic conditions if you’d similar not to make a abstracted filter for each address.

Click the “Create” fastener again, and you’re done. Allow for a processing hold of 24 to 48 hours.

Further reading: Crawl Errors: What They Are and How to Fix Them

How to Ensure Good Bots Can Crawl Your Site 

Once you’ve blocked atrocious bots and filtered bot postulation successful your analytics, guarantee bully bots tin inactive easy crawl your site.

Do this by utilizing the Site Audit tool to place implicit 140 imaginable issues, including crawlability.

Here’s how: 

Navigate to Semrush and click connected the Site Audit instrumentality successful the left-hand navigation nether “ON PAGE & TECH SEO.” 

Enter your domain and click the "Start Audit" button.

Next, you’ll beryllium presented with the "Site Audit Settings" menu.

Click the pencil icon adjacent to the "Crawl scope” enactment wherever your domain is.

Choose if you privation to crawl your full domain, a subdomain, oregon a folder. 

If you privation Site Audit to crawl the full domain, which we recommend, permission everything as-is.

Next, take the fig of pages you privation crawled from the bounds drop-down. 

Your choices beryllium connected your Semrush subscription level: 

• Free: 100 pages per audit and per month
• Pro: 20,000 pages
• Guru: 20,000 pages
• Business: 100,000 pages

Lastly, prime the crawl source.

Since we’re funny successful analyzing pages accessible to bots, take "Sitemaps connected site."

The remainder of the settings, similar “Crawler settings” and “Allow/disallow URLs,” are breached into six tabs connected the left-hand side. These are optional.

When you’re ready, click the “Start Site Audit” button.

Now, you’ll spot an overview that looks similar this:

To place issues affecting your site’s crawlability, spell to the “Issues” tab.

In the “Category” drop-down, prime “Crawlability.”

For details astir immoderate issue, click connected “Why and however to hole it” for an mentation and recommendations.

To guarantee bully bots tin crawl your tract without immoderate issues, wage peculiar attraction to immoderate of the pursuing errors. 

Why? 

Because these issues could hinder a bot’s quality to crawl:

• Broken interior links
• Format errors successful robots.txt file
• Format errors successful sitemap.xml files
• Incorrect pages recovered successful sitemap.xml
• Malformed links
• No redirect oregon canonical to HTTPS homepage from HTTP version
• Pages couldn't beryllium crawled
• Pages couldn't beryllium crawled (DNS solution issues)
• Pages couldn't beryllium crawled (incorrect URL formats)
• Pages returning 4XX presumption code
• Pages returning 5XX presumption code
• Pages with a WWW resoluteness issue
• Redirect chains and loops

The Site Audit issues list volition supply much details astir the supra issues, including however to hole them.

Conduct a crawlability audit similar this astatine immoderate time. We urge doing this monthly to hole issues that forestall bully bots from crawling your site.

Protect Your Website from Bad Bots

While immoderate bots are good, others are malicious and tin skew your postulation analytics, negatively interaction your website’s idiosyncratic experience, and airs information risks.

It’s important to show postulation to observe and artifact malicious bots and filter retired the postulation from your analytics.

Experiment with immoderate of the strategies and solutions successful this nonfiction for preventing malicious bot postulation to spot what works champion for you and your team. 

Try the Semrush Log File Analyzer to spot website crawlability issues and the Site Audit instrumentality to code imaginable issues preventing bully bots from crawling your pages.