Website crawlers: managing the rise of automated bots

Website crawlers and the rise of automated bots

Today’s websites are dynamic sources of information attracting visitors from around the world. Not every visitor is human, however. Websites increasingly encounter automated programs known as web crawlers.

What are web crawlers?

Also called spiders or bots, crawlers systematically scan websites to collect and index data. Search engines such as Google use them to index pages and provide relevant search results quickly.

Why are there more of them?

Crawler activity has increased noticeably. One reason is the growth of businesses developing AI applications or expanding their data collection. They need large amounts of data to train models and use crawlers as an important collection tool.

Challenges for website owners

Although crawlers are essential to the internet, they also create challenges:

• Server load: Every visit generates requests. Heavy crawler traffic can overload servers, slowing websites or temporarily taking them offline.
• Bandwidth use: Downloading content consumes bandwidth, potentially increasing costs for sites with limited allowances.
• Security risks: Some bots collect information, including content and email addresses, for harmful purposes such as spam and phishing.

Balancing benefits and drawbacks

Allow useful crawlers from trusted search engines while blocking irrelevant or harmful bots. Finding that balance matters for both visibility and performance.

How we manage crawlers

We host many websites and webshops with valuable information, so managing crawler traffic is a daily challenge. We actively identify and block unwanted crawlers for our customers.

The exceptionally large volume of bots can make it take longer to respond effectively. A website may temporarily slow down until we block the unwanted traffic. We continually improve our processes to keep websites secure and performing well.