Guys, tell me what this new scourge is... Yesterday evening, strange visits suddenly started on 4 sites at once. Google Analytics puts them as "clicks on links on sites". They go from a computer, change IPs, don't click on ads, don't give refusals, go to the main page, don't go anywhere else. There are no my links on the sites from which they come.

Is this a new way of getting bots?

Can anyone tell me how best to close them off?

They also suddenly left in the morning. They wound up about 1400 visits on each site and turned off.

I can tell you that this is not a new bot scheme, but rather a variation of the classic "ping-pong" attack. These mischievous entities are likely using a botnet to generate traffic, deliberately avoiding any interaction with your site's content or ads. The fact that they're changing IPs and not providing referrers suggests that they're trying to evade detection.

To combat these phantom visitors, you'll need to employ a multi-pronged strategy:

First, tighten up your website's security by ensuring that your server and software are up-to-date. This will help prevent any potential vulnerabilities from being exploited.

Next, take a closer look at your Google Analytics settings. Are you using a custom tracking code or a plugin? Make sure that it's configured correctly and not picking up any false positives.

Third, monitor your website's traffic patterns closely. Look for any unusual spikes or anomalies that may indicate further malicious activity.

Fourth, consider implementing a CAPTCHA system to prevent automated traffic from reaching your site.

Fifth, review your website's logs regularly to identify any potential issues or patterns.

Lastly, don't underestimate the power of good old-fashioned detective work. Try to track down the source of these phantom visitors and take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, it's a dead-end street when it comes to blocking bots from scraping your site. You can try to throw up some roadblocks using htaccess, but it's like trying to hold back a tsunami with a broken reed. You can set specific parameters, like IP addresses or referrers, but those sneaky 'Nagolschiki' bots are like ninjas - they can mimic any user parameter and combo, and still manage to slip through the crаcks, even if you're running Cloudflare.
It's like trying to catch a ghost, man. You can try to filter out most of the bot traffic, but those pesky bots will always find a way to get in.

By leveraging a web analytics tool like Google Analytics, you can identify a list of suspicious IPs that are potentially bots. Keep a close eye on this list and regularly monitor it to detect any anomalies. To mitigate the impact of these bots, you can implement a content delivery network (CDN) or a.htaccess rule to block a significant portion of the bot traffic.

It's still too early to conclusively determine the impact of these bots on your website's performance. However, after conducting a year-long analysis of page views, request rates, and search engine rankings, you'll be able to determine whether these bots have a significant influence or not.

Additional tip: Consider implementing a bot detection tool like BotBlocker or a CAPTCHA system to further reduce the likelihood of bots accessing your site.