Protect Your Website: Good Bots and Bad Bots 101

Bots, short for ‘robots,’ are an essential Internet component, as they speed up different tasks through automation. However, some bots have malicious intent that threatens website owners and users. In this article, we’ll learn more about the types of bots, their characteristics and functions, and how they impact websites and the overall user experience. In addition, we cover some strategies and techniques to reduce the risk and impact of bad bots on websites.

But first, what’s a bot?

A bot is an automated software application programmed to perform automated tasks and imitate human activities over the Internet. Bots can interact with websites or respond to site visitors. They can also crawl other websites to get information, benefiting website owners and users. For example, bots can automatically create articles, perform fast-paced research tasks, and collect and analyze data.

There are two types, good and bad, each with distinct characteristics and purposes. Bots are everywhere, and with their growing popularity, it’s crucial to know the difference between the two and discover how they can impact the user’s online experience. Using bots is essential for website owners, particularly in managing website security, promoting site performance, and improving the overall user experience.

Different Kinds of Bots

Bots are capable of completing repetitive tasks at a larger scale. Several types of bots are available, each with varying functions and intentions. Here are some common bots you may encounter or even use on your websites:

Chatbots. Chatbot is one of the most popular bots; you’ll find it on many e-commerce websites. As the name suggests, it’s a site feature that lets users submit queries about available products and services through programmed responses. It imitates human interaction via rule-based or artificial intelligence (AI)-based. Rule-based chatbots, or decision-tree bots, follow a pre-programmed conversation flow. Meanwhile, AI-based chatbots mimic human conversation using machine learning and natural language processing (NLP).
Search engine bots, or web crawlers, index web pages for use on a specific website. They can access and review content on other websites on the Internet. Then, they allow these contents to appear in search results as relevant searches. Popular search engines like Google and Bing operate search engine bots beneficial to Internet users.
Site monitoring bots. These bots can monitor the entire website's performance to ensure safety, security, and a positive user experience. They monitor possible system outages, server maintenance, and whether the site runs smoothly. Site monitoring bots also report bugs on the website and user activities.
Specialized Bots. These bots play different functions in various domains. Specialized bots include shopping bots for e-commerce, procurement bots for the purchasing process, and language translation bots for enhanced language connectivity. All types of bots assist users through automated tasks and responses.
Commercial bots: These are common bots with no malicious intentions but bring good traffic to the website. Market research companies usually operate commercial bots to monitor customer reviews and manage advertisement traffic.
Personal Assistant Bots. Bots like Siri or Alexa offer automated routine tasks like setting reminders or managing schedules. This type of bot is usually available 24/7, giving users immediate assistance and customer support.
Copyright bots: These bots can detect copyrighted or duplicated content over the Internet, including texts, music, images, and videos. Anyone or any company that owns copyrighted material can operate copyright bots and check whether the content violates copyright law.
Feed bots: Social media platforms like Facebook operate feed bots that gather data from other websites to enhance user recommendations. Content aggregator websites may also operate feed bots.

But what are bad bots?

Unlike good bots, bad bots may have malicious intentions that can harm your computers, systems, or websites. These bots promote scams, trigger unauthorized access to contents and user accounts, and harm intellectual property. Some of the bad bots you need to be cautious of are credential stuffing bots, spam bots, DDoS bots, scraping bots, and ad fraud bots.

In 2023, Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed a new type of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack hit the website. This bot attack caused flooding of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests targeting their customers. The company reported over 155 million requests per second, affecting workflows and site performance. The AWS engineers finally adopted bot mitigation strategies to protect the website, but not after some costly disruptions suffered by businesses.

To website owners and users, bad bots bring several risks to sensitive or confidential information. Bad bots mainly target technology, finance, and gaming industries. Thus, adopting best practices and strategies to manage bad bots is vital.

Strategies and best practices in managing ‘bad bots’

Good bots enhance website operations, while bad bots expose website owners and users to serious and costly threats. Thus, it is beneficial to implement strategies and best practices to manage these bad bots. Here are some effective bot management techniques and approaches you can use.

1. Robots.txt. A robots.txt file is a text file without HTML markup code containing a set of commands that uses the Robots Exclusion Protocol. It is usually found in most website source files that help determine allowed resources and websites. Robots. tx files use two main protocols: the Robots Exclusion Protocol and the Sitemaps Protocol.

2. Allowlist. Unauthorized access to a website puts website owners and users at heightened risk. Thus, it can be beneficial to establish an ‘Allowlist’ as part of your bot management strategy. By using an Allowlist, only those included in the list can access and utilize the web property. Allowlist works through the bot’s Internet protocol(IP) address, a user agent, or a combination of the two.

3. Blocklist. With a blocklist, you can restrict a set of IP addresses or user agents from accessing a web property, server, or network. In this strategy, you can block specific bots while letting all other bots pass through. A blocklist helps enhance security and user experience while blocking potential fraud by other bots. However, it is possible to block a legitimate user, especially if it shares the same IP address.

4. Captchas. Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a security measure challenge-response test used to protect against bad bot attacks and spam. Most websites deploy CAPTCHAs to block bad bots and verify whether a user is legitimate or a bot.

Final thoughts

Bots are essential in website monitoring, maintenance, and enhancing user experience. For example, bots reduce waiting periods by giving site users immediate assistance and responses. Bots also protect digital assets and web property. In short, properly using these bots can help improve online processes and enhance the users’ experience. As such, a complete understanding of the functions and intents of bots can benefit all stakeholders involved, from site owners to website users.

If you’re running a website, you must prepare for bad bots. These bots with malicious intent may compromise your site’s usability and overall performance. Adopting bad bot blocker options and other strategies indicated here is a wise decision if you're a website owner. As mentioned, you can use plenty of tools and techniques to stop bad bots on their tracks: you can run a Robot.tx file, create an Allowlist or Blocklist to limit unauthorized websites or use CAPTCHAs to verify access. But always remember, the challenge is to strike the right balance between restrictions and convenience to enhance your users’ website experience.