When reviewing your website traffic in Google Analytics, a sudden spike in visitors may feel like a win—until you realize those visitors might not be human. Bot traffic can distort your data, inflate your metrics, and lead to misguided marketing decisions. Sounds like the perfect storm – but there’s a simple solution to securely protecting your ship, and data.
So, how do you distinguish bots from real users in Google Analytics? And more importantly, how can you take action? Our Google pros will show you how.
Bots, short for robots, are automated programs that crawl the web. Some are legitimate (like Googlebot indexing your site), but others are spammy, malicious, or simply irrelevant to your business. Bot traffic can:
For small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) trying to grow intelligently, distinguishing real engagement from fake is essential.
Navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium. If you see strange referrals (like traffic from “bot-traffic.xyz” or sources you’ve never heard of), they’re likely bots.
In Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, look for traffic with:
These are classic indicators of bot hits.
Go to Audience > Technology > Network and enable the “Hostname” or “Service Provider” filter. Bot traffic often comes from generic ISPs or fake hostnames (like “amazonaws.com” or “(not set)”).
If you see a sudden spike in users from a country you don’t target—especially those with poor engagement—take a closer look.
Under Admin > View Settings, make sure to check the box labeled “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders.” This helps Google automatically weed out common bots.
Create a custom segment that excludes known bots based on IP, hostname, or suspicious behavior. Then compare data side-by-side with all users to get a clearer view of your real audience.
For small and medium-sized businesses in competitive markets like Jacksonville, Florida, clean data is power. Misinterpreting bot traffic can lead to:
At Fable Heart Media—our award-winning digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, FL—we specialize in helping small-to-medium businesses thrive through accurate data, strategic content, and performance-driven marketing.
Here’s how local businesses have achieved success with our help:
We’ve got the receipts to back these claims up - just check out our case study and testimonials page for more information!
Curious if bots are sabotaging your marketing data? Let’s talk. At Fable Heart Media, we offer customized solutions to analyze your Google Analytics setup, assess traffic quality, and recommend actionable improvements. The best news of all? 👉 You can book your consultation for FREE today and start building your Google success story with one click of the cursor.