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Categories
Tag Archives: bots
Why cPanel AWStats Shows 90%+ of Website Visits as 0–30 Seconds (And Why It’s Normal)
If you have ever opened your website analytics and looked at the Visits Duration report, you may have felt a sudden wave of concern.
You see that the majority of your visits - sometimes 90% or more - appear in the shortest duration category:
0 seconds to 30 seconds.
Does that mean visitors are leaving immediately? Is your content failing? Is your website not engaging people?
Before assuming the worst, it helps to understand what your analytics system is
... Continue reading
Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged AI crawlers, awstats, bots, cpanel, cpanel awstats, crawlers, disables cookies, engage visitors online, engagement, google analytics, javascript, server-level vs script-based analytics, tracking script, visit duration, web hosting, website visitors
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What Happened to Reddit? API Changes, Shadowbans, Bots, and Community Decline
“Ask David!” Question:
“First it was Quora, and now it's Reddit. It just sucks and feels dead. Why?? It seems like real human interaction has been totally replaced by bots, heavy moderation, and shadowbans. Is there any real alternative left for building an online community where you actually control your content and culture?” -Ex-Redditor
You're not imagining it, and you definitely aren't the only person saying it.
Spend five minutes browsing tech forums, creator communities, or independent discussion boards and
... Continue reading
Posted in AI, Ask David!, Social Networking, Technology in the News
Tagged ai, Alexis Ohanian, bots, building online community, community management, me we too, organic discovery, quora, Quora alternatives, reddit, reddit alternatives, reddit sucks, shadowban, social network, spam filters, Steve Huffman
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The AI Scraping Free-for-All Is Over: Welcome to the Era of Licensing (2026)
Quick Summary: The 2026 AI Licensing Blueprint
🚨 The Crisis: AI "Zero-Click" answers are draining traffic.
🎯 The Goal: Protect your data from "Training" bots while staying visible to "Search" bots.
🛡️ The Defense: Layer Cloudflare over your UltimateWB site to block "stealth" scrapers at the edge.
💰 The Payday: Use RSL 1.0 and TollBit to turn your content into a licensed asset.
🛑 Bottom Line: Stop being the "raw material" for AI for free. Lock the door and set
Posted in AI, Technology in the News
Tagged .htaccess, AI bots, AI crawlers, AI scraping, AI Tollbooths, ai training, AI user agents, apache, Appen, Axel Springer, bandwidth, bots, Business Insider, cdn, chatgpt, Cloudflare, Cloudflare Pay-Per-Crawl, community website, Condé Nast, content delivery network, cpu, crawl, Defined.ai, engagement, Google AI, google ai overviews, Google AI snippets, indexing, lawsuits, legal compliance, license.xml, licensing, litigation, llm, meta, News Corp, No-AI meta tags, OpenAI, pay-per-crawl, perplexity, Politico, RAG, Really Simple Licensing, reddit, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, robots.txt, RSL, search engine optimization, search engine traffic, seo, seo ranking, seo rankings, server-level rules, social website, stack overflow, stealth bots, TollBit, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Wired, xai
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No, AI Did Not Secretly Build Its Own Society
Separating AI Experiments From AGI Myths
Recently, a viral post claimed that 32,000 AI bots built their own social network, recognized that humans were watching them, and began organizing and talking about us - proof, it said, that AGI and the Singularity are already here.
That claim is not accurate.
While it’s based on a real type of AI experiment, the conclusions being drawn are exaggerated and misleading. Here’s what the experiment shows - and what it
... Continue readingWebpage direct visits: bots, crawlers, or real visitors?
"Are webpage visits coming from a direct visit (vs a search) from bots or crawlers vs real visitors, or perhaps AI scrapers?"
Yes - a significant portion of direct webpage visits can come from bots, crawlers, and AI scraping content, not just real human visitors. But how much depends on the site, traffic level, and what kind of page you’re looking at.
Below is a clear breakdown.
1. What “Direct” Traffic Really Means
... Continue reading
Posted in AI, Ask David!, Website Traffic
Tagged ai, AI crawling, ai scrapers, analytics accuracy, bot traffic, bots, bots vs humans, content scraping, crawlers, direct traffic, fake direct traffic, fake traffic, google analytics, matomo, raw server logs, real visitors, robots, seo, SEO analytics, server logs, traffic analysis, web crawlers, website analytics, website monitoring
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Valid HTML Matters: How Clean Code Boosts SEO, Accessibility, and Trust
If you’ve ever been told you’re being too picky for caring about your website’s HTML validation, you’re not alone. Some developers brush off invalid code as “harmless,” and non-tech folks might even label you as having a bit of OCD. But here’s the truth: caring about clean, valid HTML isn’t obsessive -
... Continue reading
Posted in Accessibility, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tagged accessibility, boost seo, bots, brand identity, browser compatibility, content structure, core web vitals, crawl, crawlability, cross-device compatibility, easy maintenance, fast loading times, index, invalid code, maintenace, ocd, pagespeed insgihts, pagespeed insights, professional, ranking, scalability, search engine optimization, search engine optimization tips, seo, seo tips, site maintenance, valid html, website speed
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Is Domain Front-Running Real? And Which Companies Might Be Doing It?
If you’ve ever searched for a domain name, only to return a few hours or days later and find it mysteriously registered by someone else, you’re not alone. This frustrating phenomenon has led many to ask: Is domain front-running real? And are some registrars secretly registering domains based on our searches?
Let’s break it down.
The Truth About Domain Front-Running
Domain front-running is the practice of a registrar using search data to register or "reserve" domains that people are
... Continue reading
Posted in Ask David!, Domain Names
Tagged automated bots, bots, buy domain name, check domain name, check domain name availability, domain availability, domain backorder, domain front-running, domain monitoring, domain name, domain watchers, godaddy, icann, icann accreditation, industry practices, namecheap, reputation, user experience
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How to deal with bad bots and crawlers that waste your server resources and harm your website?
It is true that there are bad bots and crawlers that can potentially harm your website by consuming server resources, engaging in scraping, or attempting to exploit vulnerabilities. These malicious bots can negatively impact your website's performance, security, and user experience.
To address this issue, it's possible to implement measures to block or restrict the activities of bad bots and crawlers without affecting the good bots and crawlers that are used by legitimate search engines.
Here are some methods for
... Continue readingShould you block bots and crawlers from your website?
“Ask David!” question: "Is it a bad idea for SEO and search engine indexing and ranking to block bots and crawlers from accessing your website?"
Short Answer: Yes.
Blocking search engine bots and crawlers from accessing your website is generally a bad idea if your goal is to achieve good SEO rankings and search engine indexing. Here's why:
- Invisibility to Search Engines: When you block bots and crawlers, your website becomes invisible to search engines like Google. They won't be
Posted in Ask David!, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Website Traffic
Tagged backlinks, bots, cloaking, crawlers, fast website, fast-loading times, high-quality content, invisibility, keyword ranking, meta robots, mobile optimization, organic traffic, responsive app, search engine crawl, search engine optimization, search engine ranking, seo, sitemap generator, target keywords, webpage indexing, website speed, xml sitemap
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How reliable and accurate is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a reliable and accurate tool for tracking website traffic and visitor behavior. It is used by millions of websites around the world, and it is considered to be the industry standard for web analytics.
Google Analytics uses a variety of methods to collect data, including JavaScript tags, cookies, and server-side collection. The data is then processed and stored in Google's data centers.
Google Analytics is known for its accuracy and reliability. However, it is important to note
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Posted in Ask David!, Website Traffic
Tagged ad blockers, bots, crawlers, data, google analytics, google analytics troubleshooter, sampling, website traffic
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