Imagine owning a profitable clothing business. You are selling your products on your website, and on the first day, 100% of your merchandise is sold. That’s great, right?

Well, not in our story. Now let’s assume that you tried to investigate who bought your products and found that 96% of the purchases were non-human clicks and visits, commonly known as bots. Again you may think that this is not so bad.

Unfortunately, I can’t offer you a happy answer. Your products were probably bought to be released at inflated prices. By hoarding the high-demand product, the bots will annoy your customers, tax your infrastructure, and reduce conversions and revenue. 

This is not the only scenario that can happen. Bad bots can steal your credentials and data, you name it. 

Now, let me give you some legit reasons why it is time to say NO to the bad bots. 

Types Of Bots And Why Bad Bots Are Harmful?

When a person goes to your website and clicks or byes a product, it’s called human traffic. When automated software does the same thing, then it’s called bot trafficking. 

Bots are not always that simple to be avoided. A total of 25.9 percent of bad bots are operating on a sophisticated level. This means that they are successfully mimicking human behavior and finding a way to go around security protection. 

However, it’s also important to know that bots are not always our enemies. There is also good bot traffic. For example:

• Friendly chatbots for customer service
• Search engine web crawlers 
• Bots that display adds 
• Bots that test your website performance
• Virtual assistants

These bots were created for the greater good. They are made by legit companies, and completely respect all the rules given by the owner. The goal with them is to upgrade the user experience.  

Why You Need To Protect Your Site From Bad Bots

You don’t want to become a victim of the bad bots. They can really take down or damage a business in a day. 

Below are the main reasons we need to boost our game to get rid of the bad bots. 

1. You will protect your business from online fraud 

Bad bots can cause various damages. Before you know it, you can be a victim of fake account creation, card fraud, credential stuffing, or account takeover. Bad bots are a disease, and we need the right medicine to treat it. 

A good bot-detection software is just what the doctor ordered. DataDome is a great choice if you are looking for a long-term solution to eliminate that pesky bots. You can schedule a demo or start a free trial if you want to start your safe journey. 

Bot-detection software analyses every piece of data that is entered on your website. All information is checked thanks to AI/machine learning models, and they decide if access should be granted. This is the easiest way to make sure that you won’t be a victim of a bot attack.

2. It will save you money

Nothing comes good from the part where bots steal your data and use them to their creators’ advantage. 

Let’s just say you spent a lot of funding on a great digital marketing agency, preparing an appropriate campaign for your business. All of this can go to waste because of the bad bots. 

Bots destroy the microflora of your business. The website infrastructure costs can rise together with the customer support cost. 

That’s why you should never ignore suspicious traffic. With the use of proper bot detection software, you should be able to tag and migrate them in a timely manner before they do some damage. 

3. You will improve customers relations 

Your customers give their data freely and trust that you will take proper care of them. So, when some malicious software gets its hand on them, it’s pretty obvious that people won’t be happy. 

But that’s not all. You could also get irritated customers if the product is out of stock, thanks to the bots, or the website is not working correctly. 

It’s best to take a bot detection software that will ensure GDPR compliance at all times; for example, most software development companies make sure GDPR laws are followed in order to make their customers feel safe and satisfied. 

4. You will keep the reputation of your brand safe 

Money is not the only thing your business can lose. Branding is one of the most important things about your business. It gives the identity of the business, and that is why it is vital to protect its integrity. 

The brand is closely connected to the customers, so if they are unsatisfied, then they will ‘blame’ the brand for it. If you and your team focus more on fixing the bots’ mess, you will have less time to take care of your customers’ issues. 

Also, your customers can get disappointed by:

• Not interacting with your website
• The products in not in stock
• An IT team is not resolving their tickets
• Lack of trust in the brand 

This is why the detection and migration of the bots with the help of software would be the best choice. 

5. A bot-detection software will get you the proper analysis 

Bots can make chaos from your data. You won’t be able to see how many real customers you have. Also, you won’t get the correct information about your customers, like gender, age, or the region they are from. 

Analysis of your customers’ behavior is everything. If someone or something tempers with that, then your business can go in the wrong direction. A bot-detection software would be of great use to avoid this kind of situation. 

6. The decision-making process will be easier 

Did you know that in the 90ties, an internet company called Excite.com could have turned itself into a giant with a $750,000 purchase of Google in 1999? One CEO made this decision and then sold his company to Google one day. 

Some decisions can bring a business down or make it flourish. Bad decisions can temper your production, marketing, or sales. That’s why you need the right information and analysis to define the winning steps. 

These are some of the examples of how your decision-making process will be easier:

• You will be aware of the market
• Your marketing plan will be in place 
• Your sales plan will have a clear view 

Awareness of the market: When you have the right data that is not tempered by the bots, then you will know your current and potential customers. 

Suitable marketing plan. When you know who your customers are and where to find them is much easier to set up the right digital marketing campaign. Also, the funding for your marketing campaign will be well-spent. 

Clear sales plan: When bots start purchasing your product, you won’t know how your sales went. It would be hard to discover your client’s needs and plan your next move. 

7. You will get a faster website

Today more and more website and IT crashes are a result of bot attacks. 

Let’s say it’s the Christmas season, and you expect more potential clients to visit your website. But instead of legit people, you get thousands or millions of bot visits. It’s more likely that your website won’t be prepared for a thing like this, and it will be easily shut down. 

Sometimes the intention is more malicious. They want your website to crash, so they can jump in undetected when the website is live again. 

These sneaky attacks can lead to already-stated financial losses, low trust from your current and potential clients, different levels of security breaches, and you name it. 

That’s why having the proper bot-detection software would help you maintain a faster website and create a safer environment for your business. 

Conclusion

Better be safe than sorry, right? Bots are a big problem in the online world. Unfortunately, the people behind them are getting better day by day. It’s not as easy as blocking them after the damage is done. 

Not to mention that it is much harder to make a difference between a human and a bot these days. This leads to higher costs for IT support and resources and other possible bad scenarios mentioned above. The traditional security tools might not work that well. 

That’s why while trying to solve this problem, you should look for the best bot-detections software. Specialized tools, together with your team, can be the firewall between the bots and your business.