Tricks From Semalt On How To Get Rid Of Bad Bots

23.05.2018

Tricks From Semalt On How To Get Rid Of Bad Bots

Bot traf c has the capacity to impact on the Google Analytics (GA) reporting data, hampering the performance of the website, increasing the costs of website maintenance and leading to false assumptions. Most users believe that bot traf c does not impact on their websites. However, recent studies indicate that sixty percent of websites can be associated with bots. In this regard, it is signi cant to understand ways of spotting bot traf c to report data accurately.

In this article, Lisa Mitchell, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt, highlights some best practices that can be used to detect bot traf c in Google Analytics (GA) reports as well as methods of eliminating bots by the use of lters and other mentioned techniques. Additionally, important industry practices that must be followed alongside GA lters are discussed.

Identi cation of Bots The following are important points to look out in GA reports that are associated with bots: Low average duration per session.

High rates of bouncing.

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23.05.2018

Almost 100% traf c by new visitors.

Filtration of Bots Admin View Settings Under the "Admin" segment, a user can edit "view" settings by checking the box for eliminating known bots. Internet experts recommend that users should build a test view at rst so at to see the affected results before applying to the main view. The ABC/IAB International Bots and Spiders List outlines eliminated bots that are not available in the public domain.

The use of User Agent and IP Address In situations where a speci c IP address is responsible for bot traf c, site owners can use "view lters" to eliminate the said IP address. However, users must understand that bots change IP addresses every time to escape their identity. A Google Tag Manager can be used to pass the visitor's string value to Google Analytics (GA) as a custom dimension as well as excluding the sessions. Finally, a custom dimension termed as "user agent" can be built in GA and be set as JavaScript Variable in the Google Tag Manager by retrieving values by the use of navigator.userAgent."

A lter can then be created to exclude agents using the condition.

Exclude Bot Traf c Several industry practices can be followed outside GA, for instance, CAPTCHA service. As a company, Google introduced a new service of the popular CAPTCHA called "No CAPTCHA." This service can detect human behavior, like the use of mouse and make a decision based on such acts. The addition of phrase for veri cation reasons is of no use in this scenario. Every time a user visits a web page for the rst time, "No CAPTCHA" service is displayed to the user. The Google Analytics (GA) tag should then be red after successful completion of the CAPTCHA service.

Lastly, a session cookie can then be set up after the procedure, and it should exclude most bot traf c that enters a site. A follow-up process can be set up by presenting a form requesting email addresses from users for sending the activation link within 24 hours.

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