Hi there! I'm running a website on Vercel and using the free plan with Cloudflare, but I keep running into issues with bot traffic. Sometimes I experience thousands of edge requests from illegitimate sources like bots and scripts, and I'm looking for the best ways to limit or block this kind of traffic. I've already set up some basic protection measures on Cloudflare and I know it's possible to create custom rules to block known bots. Any advice on how to tackle this?
3 Answers
I heard that blocking traffic from specific regions, like India and Africa, can help cut down on bots. I can't verify it myself since my site doesn't get much real traffic, but it logically makes sense. It's unfortunate for the legitimate users though!
If your audience is primarily from one country, consider setting your Cloudflare settings to allow traffic from there and challenge any other traffic. It might keep the bots at bay!
That’s a good tip! But will that still result in queries hitting Vercel?
Looks like you've found one of the downsides of Vercel's pricing model! But seriously, integrating Cloudflare has already made a big difference for me in reducing unwanted traffic during the day. Keep at it!
Yeah, I can see how it’s a bit of a catch-22 here. But it’s good to know you’re seeing changes with Cloudflare!
My site is aimed at a specific country and I don’t want to block any visitors, even if they might be using a VPN. I’ve thought about region blocking, but I really don't want to miss out on potential legitimate traffic.