Bots account for half of all internet traffic as an automated script, once activated it does not need human intervention. Typical forms of web robots include DDoS bots, Twitterbots, search bots, and spambots etc. In today’s digital world, they are everywhere, though not all of them are harmful. However, some of them are quite risky and malicious that can damage the online security and confidentiality. They can badly interfere the operation of your WordPress website, slow down the very purpose of your website, and damage credibility of any online business.
There are many effective strategies which can be applied to preventing malicious bots from interfering with your WordPress website. And, Thankfully, WordPress offers multiple useful ways to combat Bots.
In this article, we will explore what bots are, how some of them are beneficial, how to block malicious ones, and how to prevent them from damaging your WordPress website.
Let’s start!
- What Is a Bot?
- What Makes a Bot Bad?
- How Do I Block Bad Bots in WordPress?
- Key Points
What is Bot?
A bot (short name for “robot”) is a software program that performs automated tasks, often over the internet. Bots are normally used to automate certain tasks which are repetitive in nature. It means they can run without specific instructions from humans.
Bots are designed with different sets of algorithms, which guide them perform the assigned tasks. These tasks include extracting content from other websites, search functionality, customer service support or having a conversation with a human, which aims to imitate human actions. There are numerous kinds of bots that are made to do a wide range of functions.
Bots can be simple or highly complex, depending on their purpose. Some common types include:
- Chatbots – These bots simulate human conversation to assist with customer service, answer questions, or provide entertainment. More recent examples of chatbots include virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Gemini Assistant.
- Web Crawlers – Search engines use these to scan and index web pages. Search engines like Google and Bing.
- Social Media Bots – These bots, often considered opinion bots, influence discussions with users on social media platforms. These bots automate posts, likes, and comments on platforms like Twitter or Instagram.
- Gaming Bots – are programmed in a manner in which they can independently play the games with opponent player user. These play video games autonomously.
- Trading Bots – Genuine trading bots from reputable providers can help users ensure they do not miss a trade, no matter what time of day or night it may be. These bots execute stock, commodity or cryptocurrency trades based on pre-defined set of algorithms.
- Malicious Bots – These are destructive in nature and generally programmed toperform activities that create security risks for organizations. Briefly can be categorized such as spam bots, phishing bots, and malware spreaders.
In today’s digital era, few bots are helpful, whereas many others used for harmful purposes. The key is how they are programmed and used!
What Makes a Bot Bad?
A bot is considered “bad” when it is programmed or used in ways that harm users, systems, or organizations. Bad bots performed various type of malicious tasks, such as stealing data, disrupting services, spreading spam, committing fraud, or manipulating online interactions with the intention to deceive or harm users, often by mimicking human behaviour to evade detection. Here are few important factors that make a bot malicious or unethical:
Spamming & Scams often comes together by flooding websites, forums, or social media with unwanted ads or fake messages. Although Spam activity is defined as irrelevant in terms of unwanted posts or messaging but Spamming sets the background for a scam or fraud by sending deceptive links, phishing links to steal personal or financial information.
Hacking & Cyberattacks is the act of intentionally exploiting weaknesses in a system to gain access to data or disrupt operations. Cyberattacks are the results of Hacking which can be executed in different manner such as:
- Conducting DDoS attacks in which the hosting server is overloaded up to its maximum bandwidth with the pure intention to crash the server or a website.
- Using brute force attacks to crack passwords.
- By spreading injecting malware script like viruses, ransomware, keyloggers, etc.
Fake Engagement & Manipulation: Fake engagement services allow users of online social media and other web platforms to illegitimately increase their online reach and boost their perceived popularity. Social Platforms have become an effective marketing tool for all type of businesses as a popular platform for sharing information and news, either legitimate or fake. Many businesses, individuals and organizations have realized this potential of using online social platforms for increasing their reach, penetrating their business ideas across different segment of users, increased online presence, financial benefits or influence the users. The same can be done by bots by:
- Creating fake social media accounts to spread misinformation.
- Using click fraud to generate fake advertisement revenue.
- By posting fake reviews or upvotes/downvotes content dishonestly.
Data Scraping & Privacy Violations: Data scraping is a term which involves automatic extraction of data from websites that can lead to serious privacy violations in cybersecurity. Data scraping is illegal which allows individuals or companies to collect personal information without proper consent, potentially breaching data protection regulations and causing harm to users by exposing sensitive details like addresses, contact numbers, or other personal information
Automated Cheating & Exploitation: Gaming bots and hardware cheats are major challenges for game cybersecurity. In virtual gaming, malicious bots try to gain unauthorized access to user accounts, can misuse content and virtual wallets, and engage in other fraud. Similarly, deploying scalper bots to buy limited-edition products instantly, preventing real users from getting them, are now a primary concern in this industry.
Essentially, a bot becomes “bad” when it disrupts fairness, security, or user experience for selfish or malicious reasons. Do you want to know how to protect yourself from bad bots?
How Do I Block Bad Bots in WordPress?
Blocking bad bots in WordPress is crucial for website security, performance, and bandwidth optimization. Blocking bad bots in WordPress can speed up your site and prevent useless bots from constantly hitting your site. Here are several effective ways to block bad bots:
Use a Security Plugin
An essential tool for website safety is a security plugin that blocks malicious bots and stops malicious automated traffic from visiting your website. These security plugins detect and filter out harmful bots that can engage in activities like scraping content, launching brute force attacks, or overwhelming server resources. By using IP blocking, behaviour analysis, and CAPTCHA verification, security plugins help safeguard sensitive data and maintain website performance. Security plugins such as:
- Solid Security Pro – offer firewall protection, brute force protection among other security features.
- Wordfence – Provides firewall protection and allows manual IP blocking.
- Sucuri – Offers a web application firewall to filter bot traffic.
- All In One WP Security & Firewall – Blocks known bad bots and limits login attempts.
Many advanced plugins also offer real-time monitoring, threat intelligence updates, and customizable rules to enhance protection. Implementing a reliable security plugin reduces security risks, improves site speed, and ensures a safer browsing experience for legitimate users.
Block Bots Using .htaccess
If your WordPress site is hosted on Apache, you can use the .htaccess file to block bad bots. By modifying the .htaccess file, you can deny access to specific user agents, IP addresses, or entire IP ranges. To block bad bots, you can add directives like:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (badbot1|badbot2|badbot3) [NC]
RewriteRule .* – [F,L]
</IfModule>
Replace badbot1|badbot2|badbot3 with the actual bot names you want to block.
Block Bots via robots.txt: You can specify rules that restrict certain web crawlers from accessing specific parts of your website. The robots.txt file is placed in the root directory of your site and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol.
To block all bots from accessing your entire site, you can specify the below instructions:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
If you want to block only specific bots, replace * with the bot’s user agent, such as:
User-agent: BadBot
Disallow: /
However, do note that robots.txt is a voluntary guideline and more sophisticated and advance bots may ignore it. For more restrictive control, consider using server-side methods like firewall rules, CAPTCHA verification etc.
Block Bots by IP Address
To block bots by IP address, you can use the .htaccess file to add code that explicitly blocks specific IP addresses associated with malicious bot activity. Access your website’s .htaccess file through your hosting control panel and add lines of code with specific IP addresses you want to block.
deny from 39.94.101.172 (the IP address that you have identified as malicious)
deny from 2.106.47.95
Ideally, you can place this line near the top of the .htaccess file, following “Order Allow,Deny” and “Allow from all” for optimal functionality.
Limit Login Attempts
By default, WordPress doesn’t limit the number of times you can attempt to log in. As a result, hackers use this open door to try to take control of your site which is known as Brute Force Attacks. Bad bots often try to execute brute force attacks to gain unauthorized access to the website admin area.
Security plugins such as Solid Security Pro, Wordfence, All In One WP Security & Firewall Limit, Limit Login Attempts Reloaded, Loginizer etc. play an important role in restricting the login attempts.
Implement CAPTCHA
Adding CAPTCHA can help block automated bot traffic:
- Use Google reCAPTCHA for login pages, comment forms, and contact forms.
Monitor Traffic & Identify Bad Bots
- Use Google Analytics or AWStats to check for suspicious traffic.
- Tools like Cloudflare Logs and Wordfence Live Traffic can help detect malicious bots.
Key Points
- To preserve site operation and security, the site administrator can manually blacklist known malicious IPs and user agents while whitelisting trustworthy bots.
- Bots can be beneficial or harmful. It is the usage that defines the bot severity whether it is beneficial or harmful.
- Bad bots causing disruptions and security threats to WordPress sites. Malicious bots engage in harmful activities such as data theft, DDoS attacks, credential stuffing, web scraping, and spam distribution.
- To protect WordPress sites from bad bots, users can use dedicated security solutions, with real-time security logs and CAPTCHA options.
Final Thoughts
Bad Bots are always evolving, so it’s important to use multiple layers of security. Understanding the types of bots and their potential harm is crucial for site owners. Implementing counter strategies can effectively mitigate these risks.
Many Security Plugins offers features like real-time security logs, CAPTCHA options, and Brute force protection for both local intrusion and network intrusion to keep malicious bots at bay.
Protect your website today and manage bad bots effectively with appropriate usage of security plugins, a CDN, .htaccess rules, and bot-detection tools, together they can significantly reduce bot traffic.
Contact WordPromise now for more technical insights.
