Our X3M Bot Limit plugin for WordPress was created for the need to restrict access to full website content for over 80 crawlers bots, which include search engine bots, AI bots, aggressive scraping bots and so on. IP range restrictions can also be set. WP admins can set which crawlers to restrict and which are permitted to read full content on the website.
This plugin does NOT completely blocks bots on your website, but rather limits the content these bots have access to (restrictions set either with start/end shortcodes or by general rules like count of words in each article or first/last paragraphs availability). Why this implementation? Simply because AI crawlers make use of your website content without crediting/referring traffic back to your site as source.
For many website owners this has become a big problem in the past year, since the introduction of AI overviews: most webmasters complain of decreased traffic from search engines due in fact of AI overviews which tend to rather facilitate a user to stay on the search engine site rather than getting referred to the source. This lost traffic results unfortunately in lost revenues to many webmasters, having them at risk of completely shutting their work and expertise.
X3M Bot Limit Features
With the X3M Bot Limit plugin, webmasters can select individual bot crawlers to target and set content restrictions – bots will still be able to access the website and each page, but the content they can read will be limited and requested to link back/refer real users to read the full content or study. Real users will still be able to access the full content on the website, without further requirements.
Simple, yet powerful features:
- Bot selection from 80+ options
- IP ranges for added restriction control
- In-content shortcodes for restrictions
- OR General website-wide rules for restrictions
- Individual restrictions by selected post categories, custom posts or pages
If you download our X3M Bot Limit plugin you agree with X3M Media Privacy Policy as well as with its Terms & Conditions of use. You are granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use this plugin for personal or commercial use. You may not modify, redistribute, or resell the plugin or any part of its code without prior written consent.
X3M Bot Limit FAQ
Who needs to use X3M Bot Limit plugin?
The X3M Bot Limit plugin was developed for webmasters looking to restrict access to their hardly worked content to bots that simply use their expertise to feed answers to users without proper attribution of source or traffic referral. Lost organic traffic by many webmasters ultimately results in business closures and, in time, more limited expertise options on the Internet.
My Google traffic is down. Will this plugin help me get it back up?
Unfortunately there is no guarantee for your traffic to get back up. But, the use of this plugin will limit Google or other search engines serving AI overviews rather than referring users to your website by using your content and keep the user in their ecosystem. This would apply to new content, but old/already crawled content may also be impacted with time.
Hidden content from these bots will be changed to a text like “Real users can read the rest of the study/content on www.your-page.com”. Since you are considering this option already, it is clear that your traffic is down – the question is: how much worst should it get before taking action?
Why would I use such plugin?
The simple answer is to send a clear message to AI companies and search engines stealing user traffic that this direction of development is only in their own interest, not the interest of many hard working webmasters which have built expertise in an area.
Won't this redirect bots to my competition?
This is indeed a risk, but if these bots will start counting on the expertise of other websites/your competition, they will face in the end the same issues like you do: user traffic down while AI companies/search engine make use of their full content.
Why isn't the plugin restricting the full content?
The general rules to set content restriction to happen after first few characters/words or better first/last paragraph is for the webmaster to still serve some teaser content about what the article is about, but without offering full details to bots – only real users visiting the page will be able to read full content. The hidden content will be replaced with a desired message and the page link, hopefully forcing these bots to refer users to it for full info.
Therefore the plugin can be used for teasing bots and make them refer user traffic rather than completely block them.
Can I restrict the full content?
If you still want to restrict full content on your website, you can use the X3M Bot Limit plugin for in-page/in-post content restrictions, not to full website. Simply use the start/end shortcodes or set the general rule of access to just few characters for all posts. This will allow bots to read its title and just the few charters from the intro – not enough to make any sense for them.
If for any reason you still want to completly restrict access of these bots to your website, you may use a service like Cloudflare, Free plan has this option included.
When will this have the best impact?
The best impact of such restrictions can be achieved when/if enough webmasters are applying this strategy, sending the clear message that author attribution/traffic referral for the work referenced is the way to go, allowing creators to still make a living from their web projects.
So with your help and spreading the word to other fellow webmasters can make this message loud and clear!
What are the prerequisites to use X3M Bot Limit?
The X3M Bot Limit plugin is firstly a plugin for WordPress platform, meaning this can be used on a WordPress website only. Download the plugin from above link and install it using your WordPress dashboard – section Plugins.
Is X3M Bot Limit plugin free?
Yes, the plugin is offered for free – simply download it and install it on your website to start applying restrictions.
What does this tell to AI companies and Search Engines?