Bot Traffic: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

“Bot” Traffic on your website is almost inevitable, and it’s not all bad. You want search bots crawling your site. Social media bots will scrape content for articles you post online.
But there are a wide variety of bots. Some are good, some are bad, some are “neutral”, and it can depend on what services you use. Even good bots can behave badly, for example if they scrape your site too frequently and your server doesn’t have the resources to handle the load. Bot traffic needs to be curated, both good and bad, and there are a variety of ways to do this. Almost all of our customers have protections in place to block things like AI bots or bad bots, and it’s something we recommend as a matter of course.

So What is a Bot?

A bot, short for “robot,” is a software application designed to perform automated tasks over the internet. These tasks can range from simple, repetitive actions to more complex operations. Bots can be broadly categorized into two types: good bots and bad bots.

Types of Bots

  1. Good Bots
    • Search Engine Bots: These bots, like Google’s web crawlers, index content on websites to improve search engine results.
    • Chatbots: These bots interact with users, providing customer service or answering queries in real-time.
    • Monitoring Bots: Used for tracking website performance, uptime, and other metrics.
  2. Bad Bots
    • Scraping Bots: These bots extract data from websites without permission, often for competitive analysis or content theft.
    • Spam Bots: They post spam content or send unsolicited messages, often cluttering forums and comment sections.
    • DDoS Bots: Used in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to overwhelm a website’s server, causing it to crash.

Here are some common problems associated with bot traffic:

1. Skewed Analytics

Bots can significantly distort website analytics. They can inflate page views, bounce rates, and other metrics, making it difficult to accurately assess human visitor behavior. This can lead to misguided marketing strategies and poor decision-making.

2. Server Overload

High volumes of bot traffic can overwhelm servers, leading to slow load times or even crashes. This not only affects user experience but can also impact search engine rankings, as site speed is a crucial factor in SEO.

3. Security Risks

Malicious bots can pose serious security threats. They can be used for activities such as scraping content, launching DDoS attacks, and attempting to exploit vulnerabilities. This can lead to data breaches, loss of sensitive information, and damage to the website’s reputation.

4. Ad Fraud

Bots can generate fake clicks on ads, leading to significant financial losses for advertisers. This type of fraud can also damage relationships with advertisers and reduce the overall effectiveness of ad campaigns.

5. Content Scraping

Bots can scrape content from websites, which can then be republished elsewhere without permission. This not only violates copyright laws but can also harm SEO efforts by creating duplicate content issues.

6. Form Spam

Bots often target forms on websites, submitting fake information that can clutter databases and make it difficult to manage legitimate user data. This can also lead to increased costs for data storage and processing.

How to Mitigate Bot Traffic

To protect your website from the negative impacts of bot traffic, consider implementing the following measures:

  • Use CAPTCHA: Implementing CAPTCHA can help distinguish between human users and bots.
  • Monitor Traffic Patterns: Regularly analyze traffic patterns to identify and block suspicious activity.
  • Employ Bot Management Solutions: Use specialized software to detect and mitigate bot traffic.
  • Update Security Protocols: Ensure your website’s security measures are up-to-date to prevent exploitation by malicious bots.

By understanding and addressing these common issues, you can better protect your website and ensure a smoother experience for your legitimate users.

In a forthcoming article we can discuss other methods of mitigating bot traffic.