Jan 16, 2021
Does bot traffic show in "Performance" section of Search Console?
I have always assumed that bot traffic would be filtered out in all reporting of Google, be it Analytics or Search Console. And maybe that was a stupid thing to think because: Some research clearly shows a regular pattern on some of my keywords: Every Sunday, those keywords show a sudden spike in impressions. For months now. I can see this spike for the last 16 months continuously on Sundays:
Clearly, this is not "human" traffic. This is a bot, maybe some keyword tool looking for the ranking of websites focussing on that keyword, I don't know.
The reason why this might be crucial is the pure fact that due to the bot traffic the "real" numbers are distorted and any conclusion you draw from them.
I also wonder: If Google "thinks" this is human traffic, and if CTR is a ranking factor – wouldn't that mean that if my page is not clicked with that bot traffic that it will lose out regarding the ranking?
Any insight is highly appreciated.
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All Replies (7)
Bots are not shown in these reports.
Why do you see spikes? If somebody is checking rankings using a tool than some of these checks are visible in Impressions.
IMHO this is the explanation why you see these spikes.
Jan 16, 2021
Jan 16, 2021
With "somebody" you mean a real person? I would find this unlikely as every Sunday there are hundreds of keywords checked. This definitely is an automated process (those ranking tools have this built-in, of course).
So if google sees this as non-bot traffic: Will those impressions hurt the CTR and therefor the ranking over time?
Last edited Jan 16, 2021
Some of the tools do get by sometimes, it's an arms race, the ranking checkers are constantly changing to avoid detection, google are constantly working to catch them.
They can sometimes get through though, and I agree it's annoying when it distorts figures, always worse on lower numbers like this, more popular terms tend to blend this out a little.
But for the CTR concerns, CTR isn't a ranking factor, at least as far as we know, with Googler's stating it's only used for evaluating experiments they do in the serps. It's a really, really noisy signal, and one easy to fake. But even if they did, a ranking tracker isn't clicking on your competitors either, so no advantage gained or lost to any other site.
Jan 16, 2021
They can sometimes get through though
If it would be sometimes, I would not be concerned at all. But this is going on for years. On many keywords relevant to my business. And as it seems without any interruptions.
But if you say it is not a ranking factor, I probably should not care. Still annoying that it distorts the data, though.
Jan 16, 2021
@John
can't you just look at the server logs to see what correlates to the Sunday visits?
These are no visits. These are impressions in Google. The bot is checking on google those keywords. The chart above shows that every Sunday a keyword spikes in the number of searches.
Yep, some of the ranking trackers are constant I'm getting through, and can skirt through for years. Sometimes they come from one country, often one you don't normally get traffic from, so it's worth seeing if that is the case here, and filter by the country you do care about.