Bot traffic includes automated visitors, some helpful, others harmful.
Bad bots distort analytics, waste ad spend, and pose security risks.
Filtering bot traffic is essential to maintain accurate data and optimize campaigns.
Anura’s ad fraud detection software identifies and blocks bots in real time.
What Is Bot Traffic?
Bot traffic refers to automated visitors accessing your website. While some bots—like search engine crawlers—are beneficial, others can harm your site by skewing analytics, consuming bandwidth, and launching malicious activities. Understanding the difference between good and bad bots is the first step toward protecting your marketing efforts.
Good Bots vs. Bad Bots
Good Bots
Search engine crawlers (e.g., Googlebot) indexing your site.
Social media bots improving user experience.
Chatbots helping to streamline customer service and boost engagement.
Copyright protection bots scanning for duplicate content.
Bad Bots
Scraper bots stealing website content.
Click bots committing ad fraud.
Form bots filling out lead generation forms with fake data.
Transfer bots redirecting legitimate visitors from safe websites to fraudulent sites.
While good bots support your site’s functionality, bad bots exploit vulnerabilities and distort key data.
How Bad Bot Traffic Skews Your Analytics
Bad bots can:
Inflate page views and session counts, giving a false sense of growth.
Skew bounce rates and engagement metrics, hiding how real visitors interact.
Distort conversion data, leading to poor budget decisions.
If bots are filling out forms or completing other actions, it can make campaigns appear successful, even when they’re not.