How to control and manage user generated content to maintain the safety of your website?

How to control and manage user generated content to maintain the safety of your website?

by | Jan 13, 2023 | Uncategorized

As the name suggests, user generated content (UGC) is the content created by users and published on social networks or online platforms. From simple text such as blogs, testimonials, reviews, images or videos, user generated content is the most unique form of content that a website can have. User Generated Content acts as a social proof for any business or organisation and helps them to build trustworthy relationships with their audience. UGC is considered to be better than traditional advertising methods due to the authenticity they bring along. People tend to trust UGC more as it is not the brand which does the talking about its product but individuals outside the company. In fact, research has revealed that 79% of people are in view that their purchase decisions are highly influenced by UGC. Further, user generated content does not require any effort and money from the company or brand, it gets created organically. The brands just need to provide good customer experience.

However, as much as user generated content is important for a website or a brand, it is equally crucial to control them so that they do not hamper your website’s performance or customer experience. But why is it crucial to manage UGC? Well, the reason is simple! When you or your team post any content on the website, the power to control it in terms of brand’s style sheet, resolution, optimising as per search engines among other aspects remains with you. However, in case of user generated content, if you do not have the control your website might be in a mess. Some of the common challenges that you might face if user generated content is not controlled includes:

  • Users might upload large format content or in the wrong format which can hamper your website’s loading time.
  • Users might post images not according to the website’s specifications and size which can lead to lack of consistency and style of the website.
  • Due to the UGC content, bots can spam the website.
  • Content published by the users will not be as per the SEO guidelines and optimised accordingly which might affect your websites overall performance.

So, now when you know about the importance of managing user generated content, let’s take a look at different ways to handle user generated content in the most effective manner.

1.     Content policy: As you might have allowed user generated content on your website which could be in the form of blog posts, testimonials or reviews, the first thing you should do is form a content policy for UGC. The content policy will help the users to understand what is expected from them and what they need to follow while publishing content on your website. To form the policy, you need to put guidelines, rules, and legal standards on one page and can consult with the lawyers as well. The content policy page should entail the kind of content that is not allowed such as malware, irrelevant links, spam, private information and offensive content. Furthermore, the content should not be hateful and offensive and should not reveal anyone’s personal information. It should also contain guidelines for photos and videos such as resolution details which should be minimum 640 x 480 pixels as well as publishing specifications such as not to publish images or videos of people without their permission.

2.     Ensure proper security for your website: You need to ensure proper security guidelines to upload files by users to prevent your website from various vulnerabilities such as unauthorised server access, malware, attacks on data of users among others. So, the best practices include restricting users from uploading certain types of files such as setting your uploader for not accepting executable files (.exe, .bat, .app, etc.) as these file types can run malicious code and commands. You should also set maximum file size and limit the number of uploads to prevent your website being flooded with large files which can bring the site down. The website should have SSL encryption to secure data passed between the browser and web server. Make sure that the upload form is compliant with regulatory standards recommended for your niche.

3.     Provide an easy method to edit and upload visuals: In case you are allowing your users to upload images or visuals on your website, then you need to provide them an easy method to upload as well as edit them. Such as you can give your users an easy option to crop or edit the sizes while they upload visuals. The easiest and fastest solution to do this is to have an in-built image editor which offers ample image transformations. The editor should provide users with editing options like crop, rotate, resize, adjust the quality of the visuals or even add a watermark.

4.     Website storage: Another factor that you need to consider while managing user generated content is organising your website storage. You might consider saving user’s files on the same server where you store your essential website file but that could be a bad idea. As in case of some virus attack, the entire website can come down. The best way to do this is to have separate cloud storage for your own content and user’s content such that if any malicious software attacks, then your website content remains safe.

5.     Use CAPTCHA code for submitting content: Bot spamming has become common on social media channels and on other similar platforms. Hence you must use CAPTCHA codes to prevent your social media platforms from malicious bots spamming with unwanted messages and advertisements. CAPTCHA protects your website against bots by testing whether you are human or not. CAPTCHA programmes use various tests which only humans can pass and computer programmes cannot. It is an important security measure which prevents user generated contents from negative publicity and automated comment spamming from interfering in genuine user interactions.

6.     Do consider SEO: While allowing users to post content on your website, make sure that your site automatically incorporates the right HTML tags and uses the correct markup. This will help search engine robots, making sure that the website information corresponds to users’ search query. Keywords and tags help bots to understand your content in a better way and show the same to the user who needs it. Hence, you should use the correct HTML tags in metadata, headings, subheadings, etc. You can also provide structured data to help search engine bots understand the context of your page. Such as if your page comprises reviews then you can use a review schema while structuring the content.

What is IVT and how to prevent your websites using simple tools

What is IVT and how to prevent your websites using simple tools

by | Jan 11, 2023 | Uncategorized

Invalid traffic or IVT refers to rise in ad clicks and impressions on a website artificially. This kind of traffic is not generated by genuine users with real interest in the content, rather a result of automated software known as bot traffic. They are usually considered as negative associations such as spam comments with some malicious links, unauthorised crawlers, click bots that create automatic clicks on ads among others.

IVT is counted among the major threats for digital marketers. A recent study by Juniper Research reveals that in 2022, the digital advertising spends lost to fraud is expected to reach $68 billion. Apart from ad fraud, invalid traffic can cause other damages to your website such as hampering the reputation of a website and data of publishers and further suspension from Google. 

For instance, if your website is witnessing constant increase in traffic, high bounce rate and no sign of additional revenue then this can be a sign of invalid traffic. It is said that more than 40% of the traffic includes bot traffic and that is why the prime concern among organisations remains to look for various ways to handle it. To address this concern, you first need to analyse profiles of your website’s traffic to detect suspicious patterns. 

Types of IVT

IVT is primarily categorised into two types- General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).

GIVT is sent by bots, crawlers and machines and has limited impact on the websites. Sudden increase in website’s traffic can be due to GIVT. It could be easily identified through regular monitoring and filtering using standardised parameter checks, lists of crawlers along with other methods. You can use third party solutions like Google Analytics or others to monitor the GIVT.

SIVT includes human and non-human traffic, not relevant to business goals. SIVT is hard to track and caused by malicious media operators to steal advertising revenue. The most common form of SIVT includes malware, injected ads without consent or payment of the user, hijacked devices among others. To track this kind of traffic, you need human intervention to understand how SIVT works and sophisticated analytics systems such as dynamic honeypots, fingerprinting and network behaviour analysis. 

Filtering the invalid traffic

To stop invalid traffic, it needs to get filtered first. This can be done using Google analytics which filters the hits from known bots. After detecting the source of the bots, marketers can provide a list of identified IP addresses to be ignored by Google Analytics. This move helps to stop some bots but not all. 

How to prevent websites from invalid traffic?

Robots.text: The first step to prevent websites from invalid traffic is by including robots.txt file which instructs bots for crawling a page and also prevents them from visiting. However, it is important to note that only good bots can be managed through robots.txt, malicious bots cannot be stopped from crawling a website.

Rate limiting: There are several ways to deal with invalid traffic. One of them is a rate limiting solution which helps to detect traffic from a single IP address and prevent them from visiting a website, but malicious traffic still gets overlooked. Furthermore, a network engineer can look through the traffic, list out the suspicious network requests and provide the list of IP addresses to be blocked with the help of Web Application Firewall (WAF). This process again prevents invalid traffic to certain extent but not all.

Bot management solution: Apart from rate limiting, there is an easiest and effective way to stop invalid traffic and that is through bot management. This form of solutions use behavioural analysis to stop malicious traffic from entering a website. One such simple, easy to use and affordable tool is Cloudfare Bot Management. This software leverages intelligence from internet properties and applies machine learning to identify and stop different kinds of bots by analysing their functioning. Cloudfare is a cloud-based service whis is available on subscription. Its Pro plans consist of a Super Bot Fight Mode which helps to stop as many bots as possible during active attack. To configure this mode, you just need to click on the Configure Super Bot Fight Mode link and click the allow tab for Definitely automated and Verified bots feature and further toggle options for Static resource protection and JavaScript Detections to off. In case of Enterprise and Business plans, again you need to click on the Configure Super Bot Fight Mode link and Allow Definitely automated, Likely automated and Verified bots feature. Under this plan also the Static resource protection and JavaScript Detections options need to be put off.

Simple recommendations to prevent your website from IVT

·        Identify source of IVT: You need to identify the origin point of IVT using specialised analytical tools to detect and block invalid traffic. If you can track the source, you might be able to stop it.

·        Carefully select third-party traffic sources: Use of third-party paid traffic sources can lead to a considerable high amount of IVT. That is why it is crucial to closely review these sources and select only those which provide high-quality traffic.

·        Coordinate with your ad exchange partners: In case you detect some invalid traffic on your website, you need to connect with the platform being used to sell ad inventory and seek their help to identify and prevent abnormality in the traffic.

·        High quality ad inventory: It is important to maintain high quality ad inventory with high viewability along with other crucial parameters in order to detect IVT and eliminate it further.