I have never faced situation like this before, and I really need some guidance. Our website experienced a ddos attack. We set up Cloud Flare, but I have some questions:

1. Will the 4 seconds delay hurt our SEO? Do Google bots and similar services get put on their safe lists?

2. Besides this 4-second lag, could using their service cause other bad effects on our SEO?

3. Are there any services that can protect against DDoS attacks without making the page load for 4 seconds?

Let's break down your questions.

1. The 4 seconds delay you experienced might have some impact on your SEO if it affects the overall user experience and page load speed. Google values fast-loading websites, and extended delays can potentially lead to higher bounce rates. However, Googlebot and other search engine bots tend to be more lenient with verification checks. They shouldn't be affected too much by that delay. It's worth ensuring that your site is still crawler-friendly and accessible for bots.

2. Using a service like Cloudflare may introduce other factors that could impact SEO negatively. For instance, if the service is improperly configured, it might block legitimate traffic, including search engine robots or even regular users. Additionally, if your site's content is being served from a Cloudflare cache without proper HTTP headers for expiration or caching, it may lead to serving stale content. Always ensure your settings accommodate search engines efficiently.

3. There are various other alternatives for DDoS protection that might not impose such long delays. Services like Akamai, Imperva, or AWS Shield provide robust DDoS protection with a focus on performance. They typically offer specialized configurations to minimize latency while providing security. Another option is to implement Web Application Firewalls (WAF) that can filter out malicious traffic at the application level, thus improving response time.

It's essential to review your current configurations and possibly run some tests to see how different settings in whichever service you choose may affect your loading times and overall performance. Always prioritize optimizing your website's speed and usability, even if it means trying out multiple services to find the right balance between security and user experience.

All gratice or low-cost safeguards rely on the testcookie module. As a result, you will see either a placeholder or an concealed redirect when the page is refreshed. From an SEO perspective, there's no need to panic.

Typically, the bots' addresses are included in the white list, and the response code for this placeholder is 5**, so that page will be ignored by indexing, and the bot might return later if it happens to find the page and isn't in the whitelist.

Here it is.

1. A delay of four second is not ideal; some users will give up waiting.

2. No, but for certain visitors, the website might be slow. Also, Cloudflare has a protection mode that you could reduce.

3. There are several options:

You can switch to Google cloud; they offer DDoS protection and charge you only for the traffic that's cleaned.

If your budget is tight, consider shifting here https://ddos-guard.net/store/web.

Alternatively, you could take shelter with their defenses and then change the server's IP.

Once you take cover, a few bots might still be able to access the site; you can deal with them using botguardo.