What Bots are Visiting Your Site

In the vast digital landscape, your website is frequented not just by humans but by robotic entities known as search engine bots. These automated web surfers, also known as spiders or crawlers, come from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and other bots, they visit your site to index its content. Having a grasp on what bots visiting your site, and how often, can offer vital insights about your website’s SEO standing and the relevance of your content in the eyes of search engines.

However, the realm of bot tracking isn’t without its challenges. It requires a level of technical expertise and the ability to parse through data with accuracy. But don’t worry! This comprehensive guide aims to demystify the process and empower you with the knowledge to make the most out of these digital visits.

Table of Contents

What are Bots and Types ?

In the simplest terms, a bot, short for robot, is a software application programmed to perform certain tasks automatically. In the realm of websites and search engines, these tasks often involve crawling and indexing website content.

However, it’s crucial to remember that not all bots are the same. They can broadly be categorized into two types – good bots and bad bots.

Good Bots: These are the automated programs that we generally welcome on our websites. They perform beneficial tasks, like indexing your website’s content so it can appear in search engine results and get a traffic flowing to your site. Good bots include:

• Search Engine Bots: These are the bots we’ve been discussing so far, like Google’s Googlebot, Yahoo’s Slurp, and Bing’s Bingbot. They crawl and index your website to help it appear in search results.
• SEO Bots: These bots help with search engine optimization. They can provide valuable data about your website’s performance and visibility, assisting you in improving your site’s SEO.
• Feed Fetcher Bots: These bots are used to fetch updates for RSS feeds or podcasts.

Bad Bots: Not all bots have good intentions. Some bots, like those deployed by cybercriminals, visit sites to carry out undesirable activities. They might be attempting to scrape content, seek vulnerabilities, or even instigate attacks. They include:

• Scraping Bots: These bots steal content from your website and replicate it elsewhere without permission.
• Spam Bots: These bots inundate your site with spam, often in the form of comments or contact form entries.
• Attack Bots: These bots attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in your website’s security to gain unauthorized access or launch DDoS attacks.

While we strive to invite the good bots to visit our site for beneficial activities, it’s just as important to protect against the malicious activities of bad bots. As we journey further into the world of bot tracking, keep these categories in mind – they’re key to understanding and managing the bot traffic on your website.

How to Find Out Which Bots are Visiting the Site?

There are several strategies to discover what bots are visiting your site. Two of the most effective methods include:

1. Examining Server Logs: Your server logs function as an extensive record of all activities on your website, including those of bots. While this method offers the most detailed data, it does require a certain level of technical competence.
2. Utilizing Google Search Console: If you’re primarily interested in Google’s bot, Google Search Console offers a more user-friendly way to track its visits. However, it won’t provide information on Yahoo or Bing bots.

Server logs, despite being rich in information, demand a deeper understanding of data analysis. On the contrary, Google Search Console is more accessible, but its coverage is limited to Google’s bot.

Server Logs getting into Details

Server logs capture every request made to your website, including those made by search engine bots. When a bot visits your site, it leaves behind its “User-Agent” detail, which gets logged. This identifier typically mentions the bot’s name, allowing you to distinguish among Googlebot, Bingbot, or Slurp (Yahoo).

So, how do we make sense of a User-Agent? Let’s break down a sample User-Agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Here, Mozilla/5.0 is a common prefix used for compatibility reasons. The most important part is what comes after the word “compatible.” In this case, Googlebot/2.1 indicates that the bot visiting your site is Google’s web crawler and the version of the bot is 2.1.

The URL http://www.google.com/bot.html following the semicolon is where you can find more information about Googlebot. This is particularly useful when you encounter a bot you’re not familiar with.

Here are a few examples of User-Agents for popular search engine bots:

• Googlebot: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
• Bingbot : Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)
• Slurp (Yahoo): Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)

Remember, while User-Agent strings are a helpful starting point, they can be faked or manipulated. Therefore, it’s crucial to use this information in combination with other bot tracking methods to get the most accurate understanding of your site’s bot activity.

Using Google Search Console

For those specifically interested in the activity of Google’s web crawler, Google Search Console provides a simpler approach. This user-friendly tool offers insights into how Google views your site and when the Googlebot last crawled it.

To leverage this, you’ll need to access the “Coverage” report within the console. This report reveals pages that the Googlebot has crawled, along with any detected errors. However, the console only offers information on Googlebot activity, leaving Yahoo’s Slurp and Bingbot out of the equation.

This method is considerably less technical than delving into server logs, but it’s essential to remember that it only offers a piece of the whole picture.

Wrapping Up

Understanding bot visits on your site is key to boosting your online visibility and refining your SEO strategy. It may seem daunting at first, but with the right tools and knowledge, it becomes an achievable task.

Remember, the ultimate goal here isn’t merely to track bot visits but to use this information to improve your website. So, roll up your sleeves and start exploring the bot world. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments below if you have questions or experiences to share. Happy bot tracking!