Browser and Bot Groups: Basic Concept
All visits in KillBot are divided into snapshots. To determine whether a snapshot is from a real user or a bot, each one is assigned a label. The label determines which of the two groups the snapshot belongs to: browsers (users) or bots.
This approach allows for the automatic distribution of visits into categories. It also indicates the type of traffic a particular snapshot represents: a real user or a bot.
If a snapshot remains without a group (NOT in groups) and is among the top traffic, it is always a bot. The reason is simple: all snapshots of popular browsers have already been added to system groups. To prevent a snapshot from remaining "orphaned," you can create your own bot group and add the snapshot to it. After this, the table will clearly indicate that it belongs to that specific group.
True Purpose of Snapshot Groups
When KillBot divides traffic into snapshots, the snapshots that account for the majority of visits are located at the top of the table on the snapshots page.
However, there is also a large number of unpopular snapshots that collect only one to ten visits. This is the "tail" of the snapshot list—usually the second page of the table and beyond.
The main feature of this tail is that it contains both real users and bots that are not in system groups.
There will always be visits from real users with unknown snapshots. This is because they may be using browser extensions that affect the snapshot structure, anti-detect browsers, or unpopular browsers.
So, how do you interpret this tail of noisy traffic with unknown snapshots?
- With large unknown snapshots, everything is simple: just look into Webvisor, check, and if you see they are bots, place them in your bot group.
- But with individual visits, complexity arises. Manually reviewing each visit is time-consuming, and no one will do it.
KillBot has the ability to interpret this noisy tail of snapshots differently.
Here, it is important to understand:
- If the site has many bots, then the snapshot tail also consists mainly of bots. Therefore, it is reasonable to process it as bot traffic.
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If the site does not have that many bots (for example, only a few types that are already isolated into separate groups), then user traffic will predominate in the tail. It is logical to interpret it as visits from real users.
This is exactly what the "Visit with unknown snapshot is" option is designed for.
How to Mark the Noisy Tail of Snapshots as Real USERS
By default, the noisy tail of unknown snapshots is marked as bots. This section will cover how to interpret this tail as users.
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First, you need to create your own bot group.
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In this bot group, you will add "heavy" bot snapshots—from the first page of snapshots that are not yet in system snapshots. You need to ensure that all snapshots on at least the first page are in groups. After this, the main volume of traffic will be distributed among known snapshots (bots or users).
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In the tail, only individual, ungrouped, and unlabeled snapshots will remain.
Once all traffic is divided into groups and labeled, you need to choose the option:
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"Visit with unknown snapshot = USER"—if the site has few bots.
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"Visit with unknown snapshot = BOT"—(by default) if there are many bots and the traffic tail mainly consists of them.
Once traffic is divided into groups (snapshots) and those groups are marked as users or bots, a tail is left. Since it makes no sense to check this tail individually, we process the entire tail in the same way.
Important Point
If a new type of bot arrives at the site and begins generating a significant volume of visits, and this bot is not in the system snapshots while the setting is "Visit with unknown snapshot = USER," then visits from this new bot will be erroneously considered user visits.
Therefore, it is important to periodically check whether a new mass bot has appeared on the site. In the future, KillBot will implement special signals that automatically track such situations.
How to Create a Bot Group and Add a Snapshot to It
In the left menu, click Bot Groups -> Create Bot Group.
Enter the data:
Here you will:
1. enter the bot group name. This is exactly what will be displayed under the snapshot.
2. AND, IMPORTANTLY:
you must select the site to which you want to apply the bot group. This corresponds to (2) in the screenshot above. If you do not do this, the bot group will not appear for selection on the snapshots page.
3. Click Save.
Then, on the snapshots page, simply select the group under the snapshot to add the snapshot to it:
If an unknown snapshot belongs to real users, you can similarly create a browser group and add the snapshot to it.