BotSec - PHP script for denying Search-Bots

botsec.php - Deny unwanted search-bots

A PHP script for denying and redirecting unwanted search bots which may be causing a huge traffic on your website. You may use, copy, amend and redistribute this PHP script in all your projects whether it’s personal or commercial. The script is licensed under MIT license and freely available for everyone.

• botsec.php - A PHP script for denying Search-Bots and reducing unwanted web-traffic

This is an example usage of the “botsec.php” script. It’ll redirect you to https://google.com if the user-agent of the request is in the array to check.

Source on GitHub

• botsec on GitHub

Implementation of the script

• Open the file botsec.php and amend the array $agentsToDeny in the script with your own search-bots you want to deny
• Also change the $redirectLocation variable to a location you want the bots to be redirected to if needed
• Upload or place the script to your webserver where your root or main index.php file (or any other script you want the function to apply) is.
• Inlcude the botsec.php file like so:

<?php
    require("botsec.php");
?>

• That’s it. Every request to the website including the botsec.php script from a user-agent which is in the $agentsToDeny array is now beeing redirected to the URL stated in the $redirectLocation variable

Testing the script

You can test the botsec.php script with your own User-Agents like so:

1. Copy the files to a directory of your choice
2. Amend the User-Agents array $agentsToDeny in <?= $botsecScript ?> with you own
3. Goto the directory containing the files in a terminal
4. Execute “php -S 127.0.0.1:8888” in the terminal
5. Open the address “127.0.0.1:8888” with your Webbrowser of choice
6. Now you should see the success message
7. With Google Chrome you can amend the User-Agent for the Request like so
   1. Open the developer console of Google Chrome with CMD+Option+J
   2. In the developer console click the three dots in the upper right corner
   3. Click on “More Tools” > “Network Conditions”
   4. In the bottom panel you should see the User-Agent and you can chnge it

Credits

Author / Members

• Kim David Hauser