One Shopify Store's Traffic Was 65% Bots. Here's How We Fought Back

Podcast: Off the Record Ecommerce
Episode: One Shopify Store's Traffic Was 65% Bots. Here's How We Fought Back
Pub date: 2026-10-02

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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

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The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Leighton Taylor & Patrick Rice, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.