Bot traffic is a large percentage of the total internet traffic, with most website owners dealing with automated bots. While some bots are useful for improving user experience and website performance, many bad bots are malicious and aimed at inflicting harm.
Detecting bots on your detect bots on website can be challenging and requires a multi-faceted approach. First, you need to establish a baseline of normal human web activity and recognize abnormal behavior from incoming traffic.
Spikes in page views, particularly when the spike happens at the same time as other unusual or unexpected events, can be an indication of a high level of bot activity. Abnormally high bounce rates can also be a sign of automated bots.
Detecting Bots on Your Website: Advanced Techniques for Accurate Analytics and Enhanced Cybersecurity
Increases in account creation with strange email addresses or a suspicious IP address is another indicator of bots. Form-filling bots or spambots often use these IP addresses to create accounts on sites with the intention of causing problems and fraud.
Increasingly sophisticated bots are built with AI and ML tools to bypass traditional methods of detection, using techniques such as IP address rotation or mimicking user behaviors to escape web application firewalls (WAFs). They can be a major source of damage to websites, resulting in loss of revenue, refunds and chargebacks, and brand reputation issues.
Effective bot detection solutions can help you identify and mitigate bad bots, without impacting the user experience. They do this by recognizing the patterns and markers of bot traffic, including requests coming from known malicious domains.