Website bot website bot detection is a hot topic across the web, particularly because bad bots can cause a host of problems for digital businesses, including false website user data, stolen usernames and passwords for online accounts, and overworking servers that can result in the site shutting down completely. But detecting bots doesn’t have to be difficult and there are a number of ways that businesses can look for bot activity on their sites.

The most common way to detect bots is by looking for anomalies in traffic patterns. For example, if the average duration of visits to your site has shifted drastically from what is typical, it could be an indicator that visitors are using automated software to access the website rather than humans. A sudden spike in traffic from a region that is unlikely to be used for searches or have a large customer base also indicates possible bots.

Stay One Step Ahead: Effective Website Bot Detection Techniques

Other indicators of bots can include erratic browsing behaviour such as rapid repeated page reloads or large gaps in the time between visitor interactions with different parts of your site. Another important metric is the source of your traffic, as bots are likely to use Autoplay in their browsers and they may not understand cultural or language differences. This can indicate bots trying to masquerade as human users in order to spam your website with fake contact form submissions or conduct other malicious activities such as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.