Surveys into internet traffic have found a marked increase in bot activity. While some of these software programmes can be helpful, others can be malicious. In this article, we discuss how to safeguard your website from bot activity.
Bots are everywhere online, and recent studies suggest they may be more prolific than you think. Designed to replicate repetitive tasks, many are created for malicious purposes. Read on as we discuss the increase in bot traffic and how to safeguard your website from attack.
The Increasing Tide of Bot Traffic
A range of surveys this year have shown that bot traffic is increasing. One investigation by Thales Security found that 49.6% of all online traffic came from bots. More alarmingly, it also stated that malicious bots made up around 32% of all internet traffic.
The study looked at data accumulated in 2023. Malicious bot activity had increased by 2% over the previous year. Human users decreased to 50.4%, showing that slightly over half the internet is now used by humans with the rest being automated activity.
What Are Bots and How Can They Impact Your Website?
A bot is a software application designed to perform repetitive tasks. They often run independently and are designed to mimic repetitive human behaviour. You will probably have interacted with bots today already and may not know it. They can perform functions like scanning content, chatting, and interacting. Not all bots are harmful, and some perform valuable tasks like checking websites for data that helps them be found in search engines.
What is more alarming about these studies is that malicious bots are on the rise. They perform undesirable, damaging and fraudulent tasks. For example, some may mimic human behaviour to try and get personal details from others. Bots may create large volumes of traffic and requests to shut a website down in a move known as a DDoS attack.
Some bots are also used to perform tasks that exist in grey areas. These are not strictly illegal but are not generally accepted. This can include using bots to create false social media activity. Others can also be used to purchase in-demand tickets from websites which are later sold at inflated prices.
Checking Your Website For Bot Traffic
The first step is to check where the traffic on your website is coming from. This will give you a breakdown of how much of your web traffic is actually bot based, and how much is human. Bot traffic can inflate your website statistics, which are not great if you are a service or retail site. They will not buy products or leave you reviews with friends and family, so are essentially useless. If you are getting millions of hits every week and not selling anything, this traffic can make you believe there is a problem with landing pages or sales funnels when in reality, you just need higher-quality traffic.
Don’t spend copious amounts on advanced traffic checkers either. To begin with, you can use a free traffic checker. This will let you know where the bulk of your web traffic is coming from. You can then dive in further and see if this is human or bot-based. Bots tend to appear from direct sources and are not sent from search engines.
When checking traffic, do it regularly. Spikes in visitor numbers can often signify a hit from bot traffic. The opposite can also be true, so if your website slows down and you have fewer visitors be aware. You can then identify the bot and block it. Many free checkers will also let you upgrade for a nominal fee if you decide that you need more in-depth analysis. Once you have the information, you can implement some of the strategies listed below.
Adding a Captcha
Captchas have been around for some time now. Also known as a Turing test, they were created to tell humans and computers apart. You will have seen them before, as they take the form of small puzzles. This can include choosing pictures from a selection of images.
This device will prevent low-level bot traffic from entering your website. However, more advanced and modern bots will get through. They are also not for everyone, as they can also deter human traffic that may be looking for quick pieces of information or products on the website.
Bot Prevention Software
There are a host of bot prevention solutions on the market, some of which may be a better fit for your website than others. The purpose of these is to stop bot issues, lower their presence in your traffic and stop all attacks. The best one won’t require you to make significant changes to your web applications or reroute your DNS.
Bot traffic is increasing and it will only continue to do so. By implementing these changes you will safeguard your website against any future attacks that could compromise you and your visitors.
