Finding the bot traffic in Google Analytics
About 73% to 74% of a furniture business's recorded website traffic for one month turned out to be bots. We found the pattern in Google Analytics, filtered it out and rebuilt the monthly report on real visitors only.
The short version
- Challenge
Reported traffic that looked strong but did not behave like real visitors.
- Approach
Identify the bot signature, filter it from reporting and rebuild the report.
- Result
About 73% to 74% of the month's recorded traffic was bots, now excluded from reporting.
- Sector
- Furniture manufacturing and retail
- Region
- South Africa
- Delivered
- Analytics investigation and corrected monthly performance reporting
- Services
- SEO & AI Visibility
What needed solving
The business receives a monthly website performance report. The raw numbers looked strong, but the traffic behind them did not behave like real visitors.
Inflated traffic does more than flatter a report. It hides what is really working, distorts conversion rates and can lead to marketing budget being spent in the wrong places.
How we did it
How we approached the work, step by step.
Find the signature
We analysed the sessions behind the spike and found a single, highly unusual device profile shared by the automated traffic.
Filter, not delete
We excluded that traffic from the reporting view, so the original data stays intact and the correction can be audited.
Confirm the cut-off
The bot traffic was concentrated before a block took effect partway through the month, which confirmed the pattern.
Report on people
We rebuilt the monthly report from the filtered data, so its figures describe human visitors only.
What the business has now
The business now sees its real audience. Close to three in every four recorded sessions that month were not human, and the corrected report gives an honest baseline for decisions about marketing spend.
A month that is three-quarters bots can make a failing campaign look like a success, and push budget towards the wrong channel. Checking that the traffic is human comes before any judgement about what is working.
Questions, answered
How do I know if my website traffic includes bots?
Warning signs include sudden traffic spikes without matching enquiries, near-zero engagement time, and large numbers of sessions sharing an identical device, screen size or location.
Does bot traffic affect my marketing decisions?
Yes. It inflates visits, lowers conversion rates and can make one channel look stronger than it is, which leads to budget being allocated on false signals.
Can bot traffic be removed from Google Analytics reports?
It can be filtered out of reporting views using the pattern that identifies it, while the raw data stays intact for audit. Blocking it at the website or firewall level reduces it at source.
What causes bot traffic on a website?
Scrapers, search and SEO crawlers, spam bots, uptime and testing tools, and fraudulent clicks. Some bots identify themselves, but others are built to look like real visitors, which is why they end up in analytics reports.
Does bot traffic hurt my Google rankings?
Not directly; Google does not rank a website lower because bots appear in its analytics. The harm is indirect: marketing decisions based on inflated figures, and heavy automated traffic that can slow the website for real visitors.
Have a similar challenge?
Tell us what your business needs and we will come back to you the same working day with the right approach.