Internet Bots are initially designed to be harmless as they help to perform repetitive, and structured tasks faster than human efforts. However, some bots on the other hand can be quite harmful – as such bots are deployed by cybercriminals to perform harmful tasks on websites
In this article, we will be discussing bad bots attacks and how to protect website from bots attacks on WordPress.
While there are different types of bots (such as Social Media bots, Ticketing bots, etc), we would be focusing only on Internet bots in this article.
What are Internet Bots
A Web crawler is sometimes called a spider or spiderbot and often shortened to a crawler. It is an Internet bot that browses the World Wide Web and is operated by search engines for the purpose of Web indexing. {Wikipedia}
Brief History of Internet Bots
The first bot that was used primarily to index web pages was created in 1994 and known as WebCrawler. It was first used by AOL in 1995 and later bought out in 1997, by Excite.
The Most Popular Internet Bot
The most popular internet crawler was created in 1996 originally being called BackRub, and now known as Googlebot.
What is a Bad Internet Bot
Bad internet bots are often deployed by Cybercriminals and hackers for a wide variety of malicious purposes. Some common examples of these bad internet bots, and their attacks are;
- Email spambots
- Malware bots
- Forum spambots
- DDOS bots attack
- Brute-force logins attack
- Web scraping
How To Protect Website From Bots Attack on WordPress
By now, you must have known the difference between the two different types of bots. If you haven’t, you can scroll up a bit to read about it again or leave a comment at the end of this article (we will surely respond).
Without further ado, let’s dive into how you can protect your website from bots attack on WordPress.
6 Ways To Protect Website From Bots Attack on WordPress
Maintain a Good Web Hosting
A web hosting service is simply an Internet hosting service, that hosts websites i.e. it offers the facilities required to create and maintain a website, and then makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. {Wikipedia}
Since web hosting is a storage and computing service that houses all of your website files, it is very important you consider and choose a good web hosting service.
Choosing a bad web hosting service could lead to constantly having downtime, low hosting resources, a slow server, and worse – bad bots crawling your website due.
On the other hand, choosing reliable web hosting services such as Hostinger, Namecheap and DomainKing gives you access to a more secure infrastructure and increases the chance to protect website from bots’ attacks on WordPress.
Avoid Using Nulled WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins are extensions that allow you to customize and enhance the functionalities of your website.
You can either choose from thousands of free plugins in the WordPress plugins repository or browse the 4000+ paid plugins from Envato Marketplace to add new components to your website.
A Nulled plugin, on the other hand, is a copy of a paid premium plugin that has been modified to provide some degree of premium functionality without paying for a license. {WordFence}.
In most cases, nulled plugins due to their nature contain backdoors that can create pathways for bad bots to gain access to your website. This might make it hard to protect websites from bots attacks.
By avoiding the use of nulled plugins, you’re minimizing the risk of giving bad internet bots to access your website.
Avoid Using Nulled WordPress Themes
WordPress themes represent the user interface of your website and determine your website’s appearance.
Similar to WordPress plugins, you can browse and use any of the awesome themes from the WordPress themes repository, or go for a premium theme from Themeforest. You can also check out Astra – a free, popular, and fastest WordPress theme.
A Nulled theme, on the other hand, is a copy of the premium theme that has been modified to imitate a premium design without paying for a license.
The practice of using a nulled theme not only makes your website prone to bad bots attacks but can also hurt your website ranking and reputation.
Avoiding the use of nulled plugins or themes is a safe means to protect a website from bots attacks, and promote a friendly ecosystem for the developers who built the product.
Monitor your Traffic Source via analytics
The best way to prepare your website against bad bots attacks is to be aware. Being conscious of your website’s health makes it easier for you to understand some of your website’s health issues at an early stage.
For instance; monitoring your website traffic stats using plugins like Jetpack can help you find out your website traffic source and agents. Through accurate analytic data, you can be able to figure out if your website is being accessed by good bots or bad bots.
WordPress Security
WordPress is a powerful and popular content management system powering millions of websites on the internet. The downside to this popularity is that the popular CMS sometimes attracts the wrong agents.
Having a security system set up on your website using tools like Jetpack security, WordFence, Sucuri, etc can help you protect your website from bots attacks.
Recaptcha on your form
Earlier, we mentioned there are different types of bots attacks in which one of which is spam email bots. Spam email bots are the bots that engage in activities such as filling your web form, and or sending you unsolicited emails.
Having ReCaptcha turned on for your web form can prevent and protect website from bots attack through a web form.
Conclusion
While bots attack can come in various forms depending on the nature and channel, by following the tips mentioned in this article, you will increase the chance of your website being protected against bots attack.
If you do not have the time or skills to secure your website, you can take advantage of WordPress Website Management services like WP Buffs or TuhamWorld CC to secure your WordPress website.
Have any questions or contributions regarding securing a WordPress Website, feel free to leave a comment below
Read also: Best Top 10 WordPress Plugins to Install on First Installation
