Nine Facts You Might Not Know About Bot Traffic
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Bad Bots Are Rising
The report’s data indicated malicious bots account for 29% of all Website visits. Of those: 22% are impersonators, 3.5% are hacking tools, 3% are scrapers, 0.5% are spammers -
Size Doesn't Matter
Regardless of a site's size, one-third of its traffic is from bots. For most sites, bot traffic is between 63% and 80%. Small Sites (1,000 visitors per day): 80% percent bots, Medium Sites (10,000 visitors per day): 63% bots, Large Sites (100,000 visitors per day): 56% bots -
Absolute Average of Daily Visitors Is Unclear
It's difficult to say what the absolute average number of daily visitors is, but most Websites get fewer than 10,000 visits per day. -
Impersonator Bots Are the Only Ones to Grow
The most advanced malicious bots–impersonator bots–are increasing. They are the only group of bots that consistently grew in the last three years since the survey began. -
Impersonator Bots Are Rising
Impersonator bots' volume increased by 10% last year and by 15% since 2012. They are created by very experienced hackers and are designed increasingly for stealth. -
Types of Impersonator Bots
Impersonator bots include:, Fake search engine bots, Bots with browser-like capabilities, DDoS bots, Bots masked by proxy servers -
RSS Bot Activity Declines
Most of the decline in bot traffic is due to good bot activity, especially those associated with RSS services. This was not due to the shutdown of Google Reader; RSS bot activity declined across the board. -
Googlebots Do Not Play Favorites
Googlebots crawl indiscriminately and with predetermined frequency regardless of a Website's popularity. Result: smaller Websites receive a disproportionate percent of bot visitors (80%) compared to human visitors. -
Bots and Your Bottom Line
How are bots affecting bandwidth consumption and your bottom line? You can save money with better bot filtering practices in addition to better client site security.
Malicious impersonator bots are on the rise, one-third of all Websites are vulnerable to them, and RSS bots are going extinct, according to a new bot traffic report. The survey, "2014 Bot Traffic Report," is the third report conducted by security firm Incapsula. Its data is based on a sample of 15 billion human and bot visits occurring over a 90-day period in 2014. Its proprietary client-classification system collected information from 20,000 Websites in 249 countries. All Websites are on the company's network and all traffic flows through Incapsula-protected domains. Reversing the last two years' upward trend, this year's bot traffic volumes decreased to 56 percent of all Web visits. In 2013, bots accounted for 60 percent of all traffic. Bad bot traffic declined by 10 percent compared to last year. However, it accounted for 29 percent of all Website visits and threatened both big and small sites. Impersonator bots increased during the last three years but were the only type to grow consistently. Small sites (under 1,000 visits per day) received the most bot traffic.