Non-human traffic is any online activity that is not generated or done by humans. It is usually caused by bots, which are programs that visit websites for various reasons. Some bots are good, such as search engine crawlers that index web pages, while some bots are bad, such as spambots that send unwanted messages or scrapers that steal content.
According to a report by Internet security company Incapsula, 51 percent of total online traffic is non-human. Of the 51 percent, 20 percent of the traffic is accounted for by search engines, the other 31 percent are the bad bots. Bad bots can inflate your traffic, skew your analytics, and harm your website performance and security.
There are some ways to prevent or reduce bot traffic on your website, such as using bot mitigation techniques like CAPTCHAs and honeypots, or using a web application firewall that can detect and block malicious bots. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to filter out bot traffic and get more accurate insights into your human visitors.
How Can You Know You Have Bot Traffic?
There are some signs that can indicate if your website has bot traffic, such as:
- A sudden spike in traffic from an unexpected location or source
- A high bounce rate or low conversion rate
- A faster browsing rate or inconsistent page views
- A slow loading speed or reduced server performance
- A lot of junk user information or duplicate content
- An abnormal increase in failed login attempts or shopping cart abandonment
To detect and stop bot traffic, you can use some methods such as:
- Using bot mitigation techniques like CAPTCHAs and honeypots
- Using a web application firewall that can detect and block malicious bots
- Using tools like Google Analytics to filter out bot traffic
- Analyzing user behavior patterns and IP addresses to identify anomalies
- Filtering referral traffic sources and verifying browser versions or devices
Why some Bots Are Bad?
Bots can steal information from your website if they are not blocked or prevented. Bots can use web scraping techniques to extract or retrieve data from your website, such as text, images, HTML code, user information, and more. Some bots can even harvest your customers’ financial data, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers.
Bots can use the stolen information for various malicious purposes, such as spamming, selling, reposting, or fraud. This can harm your website performance, security, reputation, and revenue. Therefore, it is important to protect your website from bot attacks by using bot mitigation methods and tools.
How Do I Know If My Website Has Been Scraped by Bots?
There are some signs that can indicate if your website has been scraped by bots, such as:
- A sudden spike in traffic from an unexpected location or source
- A high bounce rate or low conversion rate
- A faster browsing rate or inconsistent page views
- A slow loading speed or reduced server performance
- A lot of junk user information or duplicate content
- An abnormal increase in failed login attempts or shopping cart abandonment
To confirm if your website has been scraped by bots, you can use some tools such as:
- Web scraping detection software that can monitor and analyze your web traffic and alert you of any suspicious activity
- Web analytics tools that can help you filter out bot traffic and identify the source and behavior of the bots
- Web server logs that can show you the IP addresses, user agents, and request patterns of the visitors
- Web scraping honeypots that can lure and trap the bots by creating fake pages or links that are hidden from human users
Conclusion
Bot traffic is a common and serious problem for website owners, as it can affect their website performance, security, analytics, and revenue. Bots can visit websites for various reasons, such as indexing, scraping, spamming, or fraud. Some bots are good, while some bots are bad. Website owners need to be aware of the signs and methods of detecting and stopping bot traffic, as well as the tools and techniques that can help them protect their website from bot attacks. By doing so, they can ensure that their website is only visited by human users who are interested in their content and services.