Episode Details

One Shopify store we work with had more than 65% of its traffic coming from bots, and it's a growing problem that skews analytics, burns through app credits, and can even lead to a cloned copy of your store. Leighton Taylor and Dave Tanguay break down how they fight Shopify bot traffic with Cloudflare O2O, AI-written security rules, and ongoing monitoring for clone sites.

Links Mentioned

• Blockify Fraud Filter & Blocker (Shopify app): https://apps.shopify.com/blockify
• Boxify (shipping rate calculator for Shopify): https://apps.shopify.com/boxify
• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/
• Cloudflare O2O for Shopify (setup guide): https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-for-platforms/cloudflare-for-saas/saas-customers/provider-guides/shopify/
• Recon Brand & Clone Protection: https://recon.bot/

Watch This Episode on YouTube

• https://youtu.be/LOlLfAohPUM

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:34 Meet Dave Tanguay
• 1:40 Bots From Singapore and China
• 2:26 What Bot Traffic Costs You
• 4:13 Cloned Stores and Missing Orders
• 5:01 Why Blocking Countries Stopped Working
• 5:46 Switching to Cloudflare's Free Plan
• 6:58 What Cloudflare O2O Is
• 8:25 Blockify vs. Cloudflare in Plain English
• 10:30 Challenging Every Checkout
• 11:30 An Arms Race With Bots
• 12:55 Letting Good Bots Through
• 14:09 Moving Your DNS to Cloudflare
• 16:00 Why Not to DIY Your DNS
• 17:37 Doesn't Shopify Already Use Cloudflare?
• 19:07 Using AI to Write the Rules
• 22:47 How We Spotted a Clone Site
• 25:15 Tools That Watch for Clones
• 27:52 Signs You Have a Bot Problem
• 28:17 Wrapping Up

Book a Call

• Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call
• Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast

Work with Us

• Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/
• Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io

You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.