How to use the Bad Bot Blocker in WordPress

April 27. 2020

Bad bots are a true nuisance that can hinder the work you do in your WordPress. However, there is a way to block them, and that is with a simple, yet effective plugin called the Bad Bot Blocker. Its role is to help your site’s performance by not wasting CPU resources on unwanted traffic. In the following few lines, we will explain how to install this useful aid and further go over the available setup options that will help you use the Bad Bot Blocker in WordPress.

How to install and use the Bad Bot Blocker in WordPress

Start by logging into your WordPress Dashboard. You would then click on the ‘All in One SEO’ tab in the navigation menu to the left of your screen. Then, click the ‘Feature Manager’ tab. It should be the fourth one from the top. The first thing you do from there is to activate the Bad Bot Blocker. You will see the Bad Bot Blocker feature listed, so scroll to the tool’s tab and click the ‘activate’ button. This will install the Bad Bot Blocker, and you will now see this item in the navigation menu.

Adjusting the plugin

Clicking on the link in the menu will take you to the main Bad Bot Blocker page. You can choose whatever option you want to use by selecting any or all of the boxes presented. Keep in mind that some of them will drop down and give you additional options. For example, the Track Blocked Bots box will drop down a section named Log of Blocked Bots and let you see anything that has been blocked. Also, if you click on the Use Custom Blocklists box, it will drop down a list from which you can choose which user agents you want to block. In addition, you can click the question mark next to each option, if you want some additional information on what these tools do, as it will give an explanation for each section. They go as follows:

• Block Bad Bots using HTTP – Block requests from user agents that are known to misbehave with 503.
• Block Referral Spam using HTTP – Check this box to Block Referral Spam using HTTP.
• Track Blocked Bots – Log and show recent requests from blocked bots.
• Use Custom Blocklists – Check this to edit the list of disallowed user agents for blocking bad bots.

Once you have chosen the options you see most fit for your preferences, you want to click on the blue ‘Update Options’ tab bellow these features. Doing this will save the combination you have put together. Upon doing so, you should be able to see a message at the top of your screen saying ‘All in One SEO Options Updated’. This lets you know that the settings you have adjusted are now saved.

The All in One SEO Pack

Now, it is important noting that in order to use the Bad Bot Blocker in WordPress, you need to have the All in One SEO Pack. While this may seem like not that much of good news, the truth is far from it. Namely, this is the original WordPress SEO plugin with over 65,000,000 downloads since 2007. It does a tremendous job of helping people optimize their WordPress site for SEO. It is very easy and intuitive. As such, it is great for beginners, while it also has advanced features and an API for developers.

The pros of All in One SEO Pack

Amongst many benefits, the All in One SEO Pack will provide you with:

• XML Sitemap support. You just have to submit your sitemap to Google and Bing, and with it improve your SEO. The same stands for Image XML Sitemap, as well as RSS Sitemap.
• Google AMP support (support for Accelerated Mobile Pages), and Google Analytics support.
• Schema.org Markup.
• Supreme Support for SEO on Custom Post Types.
• Advanced Canonical URLs.
• The ability to redirect attachment pages to parent posts, all in accordance with your preferences.
• A feature that automatically notifies search engines like Google and Bing about any changes to your site.
• A built-in API so that other plugins or themes that you use can access and further extend functionality.
• SEO Integration for e-Commerce sites, including WooCommerce free of charge. Mind you, this is the only free plugin with such feature.
• Nonce Security that is already built into your All in One SEO Pack.
• Automatic optimization of your titles for Google, as well as other search engines.
• The feature that generates META tags automatically.
• A system that avoids the typical duplicate content you can easily find on multiple WordPress blogs
• A simple-to-use interface that is highly suitable for beginners. All you have to do is install it, all the plugin will work out-of-the-box.
• An option for advanced users to fine-tune everything, and thus optimize their SEO exactly to their liking.

• A possibility to override any title and set any META description, as well as many META keywords you would want.
• Compatibility with a great many other plugins
• An interface that has been translated into 57 languages, allowing all to use it with greater ease.
• 100% compatibility with PHP 7.

To conclude

You would be smart to use the Bad Bot Blocker in WordPress if you want to do your work in the most optimal, productive and efficient way. For this very same reason, it would be smart to look into the All in One SEO Pack and adjust its great features to your work. We are sure that you will be more than happy with the end result.