Four Ways to Overcome Bots on the Websites
There are lots of ways how bots may cause trouble to your website: the distortion of statistics, problems with security, search results, and, of course, users’ experience. Therefore, it is important to know how to prevent bots from damaging your website. We have at least four suggestions for you in this regard.
How Bots Work
Perhaps the most common problem that page owners face is bots traffic. Unless the website is protected by cleantalk anti-spam plugin that can be obtained from the cleantalk platform or the similar software, a resource can be attacked for various purposes:
- linking to a promoted website;
- the distribution of viruses;
- an attempt to expand the botnet network;
- theft of user data;
- substitution of content in order to distribute advertising or transfer the user to someone else’s site.
Moreover, it often happens that the owner may not know about serious problems with the web service. For example, if the page is infected with a virus that replaces content, new visitors will not know that they are being deceived. There are also smart bots that simulate user behavior in a given scenario. To detect them, invisible pixels are used: people will not click on a link that they do not see physically, and the bot will not distinguish it from the real one.
To avoid such issues and ensure the smooth functioning of a website, it is essential to employ the services of professional web designers. For instance, liverpool web designers are well-versed in creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites, while also incorporating the necessary security measures to safeguard against cyber attacks and fraudulent activities. By entrusting your website to reputable web designers, you can rest assured that your online presence will be optimized to its fullest potential.
How to Counteract Bots
If weird traffic appears in your Google Analytics (GA) reports, you should figure out where it comes from. The difficulty is that some bots can imitate human behavior. However, they can still be identified and blocked. Therefore, we recommend you take the following actions:
- Identification of Bots
To separate the natural traffic from the malicious one, GA data is compared by the sources of visits – domains, geolocation, browsers, and IPs. If traffic from any source somehow differs from another, you should pay attention to it.
- Prevention of New Attacks
It must be remembered that blocking will not solve the security problems of the page. Therefore, to prevent new attacks, you should use reliable anti-spam services.
- Checking Suspicions
Webmasters know the lists of domains from which spam is sent, and you can use them to check for sources that have been found.
- Traffic Sources Control
There are several ways to prevent bots from accessing the site. For example, you can try to block the domain, IP address, or remove the bots manually.
In Conclusion
It is impossible to completely eliminate the possibility of bot attacks on the site. On the other hand, reducing risks is a possible task. You only need to take care of the protection against common attacks and regularly monitor the state of the traffic. In this and many other cases, preventive measures are much more effective than delayed treatment.