If you’re running a WordPress site, chances are you’ve noticed strange traffic, spammy comments, or sudden server slowdowns. In most cases, malicious bots are to blame. Bots can waste bandwidth, scrape your content, attempt brute-force attacks, or even bring down your server. That’s where Wordfence, a powerful WordPress security plugin, comes in.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to block bots using Wordfence, improve your WordPress bot protection, and keep your website secure and fast.
Why Bot Protection Matters for WordPress
Bots are automated scripts or programs that visit your website. While some bots, like Googlebot, are beneficial for SEO, many are harmful:
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Content Scrapers steal your posts to republish elsewhere.
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Spam Bots flood your forms and comments with junk.
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Hacker Bots look for vulnerabilities to exploit.
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DDoS Bots overload your server with fake traffic.
Without proper bot protection, your WordPress site can slow down, get blacklisted, or be compromised.
Why Use Wordfence to Block Bots?
Wordfence Security is one of the most trusted plugins in the WordPress ecosystem. It includes:
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Real-time traffic monitoring
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Advanced firewall rules
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Rate limiting and IP blocking
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Brute-force protection
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Custom bot-blocking rules
Whether you’re dealing with scrapers or brute-force attackers, Wordfence gives you full control over who can and cannot access your site.
How to Block Bots with Wordfence (Step-by-Step)
1. Install and Activate Wordfence
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Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New
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Search for “Wordfence Security”
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Click Install and then Activate
2. Enable Firewall Protection
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Navigate to Wordfence → Firewall
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Enable the firewall and set it to “Enabled and Protecting”
This activates the web application firewall (WAF), which filters out bad traffic before it reaches WordPress.
3. Monitor Live Traffic
Go to Wordfence → Tools → Live Traffic
Here you can:
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Identify bots by user-agent strings
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Spot IP addresses making repeated or suspicious requests
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See bots attempting to access non-existent pages or login URLs
4. Block Suspicious IPs and User Agents
You can block IPs manually or automatically:
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Wordfence → Blocking
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Add specific IP ranges, user-agents, or even entire countries
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Use wildcards to block ranges (e.g.,
66.249.*)
Common bad bot user agents include:
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MJ12bot -
SemrushBot -
AhrefsBot -
DotBot -
BLEXBot
5. Rate Limiting Settings
In Wordfence → Firewall → Rate Limiting tab:
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Limit crawlers and bots to reduce server load
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Recommended settings:
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“If anyone’s requests exceed” → 60 per minute
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“Then throttle it” → Throttled
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Block fake Google crawlers
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6. Advanced Blocking with Custom Rules
Under Wordfence → All Options → Advanced Firewall Options:
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Use pattern matching rules to block specific behaviors
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Example: Block all requests with
wp-login.phpin the URL from non-whitelisted IPs
Additional Tips for WordPress Bot Protection
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Use reCAPTCHA on forms and login pages
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Disable XML-RPC unless necessary
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Hide your login URL with plugins like WPS Hide Login
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Use a CDN with built-in bot protection (e.g., Cloudflare + Wordfence combo)
Conclusion
Blocking bad bots on your WordPress site is essential for performance, security, and peace of mind. By combining Wordfence’s bot protection features with smart configuration, you can drastically reduce malicious traffic and protect your site from spam, scraping, and attacks.
