Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers vs Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL)

In the age of AI, your valuable website content is a prime target for data crawlers from large tech companies. Bot Traffic Shield is your first line of defense against content theft and unauthorized scraping. This lightweight yet powerful plugin identifies and blocks a wide range of AI bots and data scrapers before they can access and harvest your content, protecting your intellectual property while reducing unnecessary server load. 🛡️ Why You Need Bot Traffic Shield Protect Your Content – Stop AI companies from training their models on your hard work Reduce Server Load – Block unwanted traffic that wastes your bandwidth and resources SEO-Safe Blocking – 35+ legitimate search engines and social media indexers are automatically whitelisted and will NEVER be blocked Granular Control – Enable or disable protection against each AI provider individually (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Apple, ByteDance, and more) Real-Time Analytics – Beautiful interactive charts showing blocked traffic trends and bot breakdowns Take Control – Decide exactly who can and cannot access your valuable content ✨ Key Features Interactive Analytics Dashboard (NEW in v1.0.5) * Real-time Chart.js powered trend graphs and doughnut charts * Switchable timeframes: 7-day, 14-day, and 30-day views * KPI summary cards showing total blocks, today’s blocks, active rules, and top scraper * Bot traffic breakdown showing which AI crawlers hit your site the most Granular AI Crawler Toggles (NEW in v1.0.5) * Individual on/off switches for each AI provider * Covers OpenAI (GPTBot, ChatGPT-User), Anthropic (ClaudeBot), Google (Gemini/Extended), Perplexity, Meta (FacebookBot), Apple (Applebot-Extended), ByteDance (Bytespider), Common Crawl, Cohere, Amazon, Diffbot, You.com, and more * Select All / Deselect All bulk actions for quick configuration * Each toggle shows provider name, description, and exact User-Agent strings SEO Safety & Search Engine Whitelist (NEW in v1.0.5) * 35+ whitelisted search engines and social media indexers that are NEVER blocked * Includes Googlebot, Bingbot, DuckDuckBot, Baiduspider, YandexBot, Twitterbot, LinkedInBot, Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and more * Explicit Allow: / rules added to robots.txt for all whitelisted bots * Developer-friendly btsld_search_engine_whitelist filter hook for custom additions * Standard Applebot (Siri/Spotlight) is whitelisted while Applebot-Extended (AI training) remains blockable Real-Time Bot Blocking * Actively blocks bots by their User-Agent on every page request * Immediate protection with zero configuration needed * Returns proper 403 Forbidden headers with no-cache directives Comprehensive Default Blocklist * Pre-configured list of 15+ AI crawler groups covering 20+ User-Agent signatures * Includes GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Bytespider, FacebookBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Amazonbot, and more * Regularly updated with new bot signatures in each plugin version Advanced Logging & Analytics * Track every blocked bot attempt with detailed logs * View bot name, IP address, user agent, and timestamp * Pagination system – Browse through logs easily (20 entries per page) * Daily aggregated statistics powering the dashboard charts * Running statistics showing total and daily blocked requests CSV Export Capability * Export your block logs to CSV format with UTF-8 BOM for Excel compatibility * Filter exports by date range (7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or all time) * Includes timestamp, date, bot name, IP address, and full User-Agent robots.txt Integration * Automatically adds Disallow rules for blocked AI bots * Automatically adds Allow rules for whitelisted search engines * Provides dual-layer protection for both compliant and aggressive bots Admin Toolbar Widget * Real-time “Blocked Today” counter in the WordPress admin bar * Quick-access dropdown links to Dashboard, AI Rules, Activity Log, and Settings * Lifetime blocked count display Fully Customizable * Add your own custom User-Agent strings to block * Simple textarea interface – one bot per line * Enable/disable logging with a single toggle * Master on/off switch for all blocking features Modern, Intuitive Interface * Beautiful 4-tab admin dashboard: Analytics, AI Rules, Settings, Activity Log * Interactive Chart.js visualizations with smooth animations * Card-based KPI metrics grid * Modern toggle switches and responsive grid layouts * Mobile-responsive admin panel * No learning curve – start protecting immediately Lightweight & Performance-Optimized * Minimal impact on site speed * Efficient code that runs before page load * O(1) daily stats lookup for admin bar (no log iteration) * No external API calls on frontend * 60-day automatic stats pruning to keep database lean 🎯 Who Is This Plugin For? Content Creators – Protect your articles, tutorials, and creative work Bloggers – Keep your unique content from being scraped News Sites – Prevent unauthorized content aggregation E-commerce – Protect product descriptions and pricing data Publishers – Safeguard premium content from AI training datasets Any WordPress Site – That values their content and server resources 🚀 How It Works Install and activate the plugin Bot Traffic Shield immediately starts blocking known AI bots Visit the Dashboard & Charts tab to monitor blocked traffic visually Fine-tune protection in the AI Crawler Rules tab by toggling individual providers Check the Activity Log tab for detailed block records Export logs for analysis or record-keeping No complicated setup. No API keys. No subscriptions. 🔒 Privacy & Security All data stays on your server No external services or third-party dependencies on frontend GDPR compliant – you control all logged data Logs can be cleared at any time with a single click Chart.js loaded locally for WordPress.org compliance 📊 Perfect For ✅ Reducing bandwidth costs ✅ Protecting original content from AI training ✅ Improving server performance ✅ Maintaining competitive advantage ✅ Monitoring AI scraper activity with visual charts ✅ Preventing unauthorized data harvesting Stop letting AI companies profit from your hard work. Install Bot Traffic Shield and take back control of your content today! Privacy Policy Bot Traffic Shield logs the following information when a bot is blocked (if logging is enabled): * User-Agent string * IP address * Request timestamp * Bot identifier All data is stored locally in your WordPress database. No information is sent to external servers. You can disable logging or clear logs at any time from the plugin settings. Daily statistics are automatically pruned after 60 days to minimize database usage. Support For support, feature requests, or bug reports: * Visit our website: https://monarchwp.com/ * Email: [email protected] Credits Developed by MonarchWP

Easily improve site security with WordPress Hardening, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Login Protection, Vulnerability Detection and SSL certificate. Really simple, Effective and Performant WordPress Security Really Simple Security is the most lightweight and easy-to-use security plugin for WordPress. It secures your WordPress website with SSL certificate generation, including proper 301 https redirection and SSL enforcement, scanning for possible vulnerabilities, Login Protection and implementing essential WordPress hardening features. We believe that security should have the absolute minimum effect on website performance, user experience and maintainability. Therefore, Really Simple Security is: Lightweight: Every security feature is developed with a modular approach and with performance in mind. Disabled features won’t load any redundant code. Easy-to-use: 1-minute configuration with short onboarding setup. Security Features Easy SSL Migration Migrates your website to HTTPS and enforces SSL in just one click. 301 redirect via PHP or .htaccess Secure cookies Let’s Encrypt: Install an SSL Certificate if your hosting provider supports manual installation. Server Health Check: Your server configuration is every bit as important for your website security. WordPress Hardening Tweak your configuration and keep WordPress fortified and safe by tackling potential weaknesses. Prevent code execution in the uploads folder Prevent login feedback and disable user enumeration Disable XML-RPC Disable directory browsing Username restrictions (block ‘admin’ and public names) and much more.. Vulnerability Detection Get notified when plugins, themes or WP core contain vulnerabilities and need appropriate action. Login Protection Allow or enforce Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific user roles. Users receive a two-factor code via Email. Improve Security with Really Simple Security Pro Protect your site with all essential security features by upgrading to Really Simple Security Pro. Advanced SSL enforcement Mixed Content Scan & Fixer. Detect files that are requested over HTTP and fix them to HTTPS, both Front- and Back-end. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security and configure your site for the HSTS Preload list. Firewall Really Simple Security Pro includes a performant and efficient WordPress firewall, to stop bots, crawlers and bad actors with IP and username blocks. 404 blocking – Blocks crawlers as they trigger unusual numbers of 404 errors. Region blocking – Only allow/block access to your site from specific regions. Automated and customisable Firewall rules. IP blocklist and allowlist. Security Headers Security headers protect your site visitors against the risk of clickjacking, cross-site-forgery attacks, stealing login credentials and malware. Independent of your Server Configuration, works on Apache, LiteSpeed, NGINX, etc. Protect your website visitors with X-XSS Protection, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, a Referrer Policy and CORS headers. Automatically generate your WordPress-tailored Content Security Policy. Vulnerability Measures When a vulnerability is detected in a plugin, theme or WordPress core you will get notified accordingly. With Vulnerability Measures, you can configure simple but effective measures to make sure that a critical vulnerability won’t remain unattended. Force update: An update process will be tried multiple times until it can be assumed development of a theme or plugin is abandoned. You will be notified during these steps. Quarantine: When a plugin or theme can’t be updated to solve a vulnerability, Really Simple Security can quarantine the plugin. Advanced Site Hardening Choose a custom login URL Automated File Permissions check and fixer Rename and randomize your database prefix Change the debug.log file location to a non-public folder Disable application passwords Control admin creation Disable HTTP methods, reducing HTTP requests Login Protection Secure your website’s login process and user accounts with powerful security measures. Two-Step verification (Email login) 2FA (two factor authentication) with TOTP Passwordless login with passkey login Enforce strong passwords and frequent password change Limit Login Attempts With Limit Login Attempts you can configure a threshold to temporarily or permanently block IP addresses or (non-existing) usernames. You can also throw a CAPTCHA after a failed login (hCaptcha or Google reCaptcha) Access Control Restrict access to your site for specific regions. Add specific IP addresses or IP ranges to the Blocklist or Allowlist. Useful Links Documentation Security Definitions Translate Really Simple Security Issues & pull requests Feature requests Love Really Simple Security? If you want to support the continuing development of this plugin, please consider buying Really Simple Security Pro, which includes some excellent security features and premium support. About Really Simple Plugins Our mission is to make complex WordPress requirements really easy. Really Simple Security is developed by Really Simple Plugins. For generating SSL certificates, Really Simple Security uses the le acme2 PHP Let’s Encrypt client library, thanks to ‘fbett’ for providing it. Vulnerability Detection uses WP Vulnerability, an open-source initiative by Javier Casares. Want to join as a collaborator? We’re on GitHub as well!