Periodic surges in visits from the USA to my Australian store skewing stats

[Armac57]

Hi, I have a small Australian based store, not currently actively marketing due to ill health, so regular visitor numbers are very low (<20 daily). Every so often I get a huge surge of visitors from the USA, many at the same time, and usually all within an hour of each other. This week 2 days in a row it has been 30+, but in the past I have had up to 120 visits within an hour. It's been happening for well over a year, but I haven't had the energy to query it until now. It totally screws up my analytics. Is it something that Shopify are doing, like training their staff or something stupid? How can I stop this? 

[PageFly-Theodor]

Hi @Armac57 ,
This is Theodore from PageFly - Shopify Page Builder App.

Those sudden spikes in US visitors to your Australian Shopify store aren't caused by Shopify. Here's what might be happening:

• Bots or Web Scrapers: Automated programs could be crawling your site, causing temporary traffic surges.
• Social Media Buzz: Maybe your store got mentioned on a US social media platform, leading to a short-term jump in visitors.
• Misdirected Traffic: There's a chance your store URL is accidentally linked elsewhere, causing visitors to land on your site unintentionally.

To investigate and stop these spikes:

• Review Shopify Analytics: Look for details about the surge (source, visitor behavior). High bounce rates and low time on site suggest bots/misdirected traffic.
• Consider Apps: Install apps like "Clear Fraud" to help identify and filter bot traffic.
• Monitor Search Console & Social Media: Check for spikes in keywords or social media mentions that might explain the surge.

Best regards,
Theodore | PageFly

[littletonlane]

I'm having exactly the same issue and it's frustrating. I'm not keen on paying for an app to stop this happening as I feel it should be a built in security that Shopify provides.