The rising use of generative AI and other large language models has opened the door for other AI technologies like web scraping bots and automated crawlers that collect data to train these models. This has had a dramatic impact on search volume and traffic for businesses around the globe.
There are two different kinds of bot traffic that come to your website: bad bots and good bots.
Bad bots can extract data from your website without permission and reuse it to get a leg up on the competition. Good bots can be used for indexing websites for search engines and monitor performance.
Website Traffic Trends
According to the Imperva 2024 Bad Bot Report, in 2023 bad bot traffic accounted for 32% of traffic while good bot traffic accounted for 17.6%. Human traffic accounted for 50% of traffic. From 2013 to 2023, bad bot traffic has increased by 10% while human traffic has decreased by 7%.
The Imperva 2024 Bad Bot report also shows that the top five industries with the largest share of bad bot traffic are Gaming (57.2%), Telecom & ISPs (49.3%), Computing & IT (45.9%), Travel (44.5%) and Community & Society (42.2%). The United States receives the lion’s share of targeted bad bot traffic at 47% followed by the Netherlands at 9%.
One of the biggest threats that bad bots present are “account take over (ATO) attacks,” which have increased by 10% from 2022 to 2023. ATO attacks use bots to attempt unauthorized access of user accounts with credential cracking techniques. The United States again receives the majority of ATO attacks with 40% followed by the United Kingdom at 7%.
Beyond the threat of bad bot traffic, recent search innovations – like Google’s AI Overview – also pose a threat to your organization’s organic search traffic. According to a recent study by Gartner, search engine volume will drop by 25% by 2026 due to chatbots and other virtual agents. There are also numerous other studies that predict a much more dramatic drop in search engine volume.
”Organic and paid search are vital channels for tech marketers seeking to reach awareness and demand generation goals. Generative AI (GenAI) solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional search engines. This will force companies to rethink their marketing channel strategy as GenAI becomes more embedded across all aspects of the enterprise.
Alan AntinVice President Analyst, Gartner
What Marketers Can Control
As virtual agents dominate traditional search keyword strategies, quality content will become imperative for marketers. Enhancing content for AI Overview (Search Generative Experience) is similar to traditional SEO. Developing high quality content that answers users’ long form queries as opposed to broad keyword-based content will be recognized and favored in the new search experience.
Marketers will need to practice the E-E-A-T method, which relies on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Marketers who develop content for content’s sake will be devalued while marketers who follow the E-E-A-T method will be recognized.
So how valuable or reliable is your company’s search traffic? Nanhi Singh, GM of application security at Imperva, recently stated, “Automated bots will soon surpass the proportion of internet traffic coming from humans, changing the way that organizations approach building and protecting their websites and applications. As more AI-enabled tools are introduced, bots will become omnipresent. Organizations must invest in bot management and API security tools to manage the threat from malicious, automated traffic.”
The state of website traffic has always been dynamic, but in 2024 we have seen some of the biggest changes in decades. The most important thing for marketers to do is to not panic but embrace this new digital environment. The use of generative AI and other virtual agents is here to stay. Optimizing your strategies to align with the use of generative AI will help your company stay ahead of the curve. Utilizing quality thought leadership content to align with the E-E-A-T method will increase the chances of your content showing up higher in search results. Also, creating content that provides helpful answers to users’ long search queries will increase the chance of users viewing your company/brand as authoritative and trustworthy.
The way people find your business will continue to change…which is the one thing that won’t change. Subscribe to our Thoughts from the 313 newsletter for monthly insights on industry trends, the evolution of AI/its impact on marketers and more.
Ryan Solecki is a senior paid media specialist at Franco. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
