Start Here: Creating Your Account and Installing Bot Badger

Step 1: Create an Account and Select a Plan

Visit app.botbadger.com and click the "Register" link to begin the registration process.

Enter your name, email address, and a secure password.

Enter a name for your account. For most folks, this will be your company name. However, if you work for an agency, you should consider creating individual accounts for your clients. Doing so will allow you to give your clients access to Bot Badger and make things much less messy if you ever have to part ways with the client.


Select a plan. Currently we have 3 plans available: Regular, Premium and Enterprise. The only difference between the plans is the number of domains that each plan supports. Please note that Bot Badger considers each subdomain a separate domain. For example, www.yourwebsite.com and store.yourwebsite.com would be separate domains and take up 2 of your 3 domains on the Regular plan.


Enter your billing information. While we offer a fully-featured 30-day free trial, we want to make sure Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics continue working without disruption when that trial ends, so we collect your billing information upfront.

Step 2: Add a Domain

Click the [Add Domain] button to begin the process.


Give your domain a descriptive name, such as "WidgetCo Website" or "WidgetCo Store". Enter the URL of your home page. Note: This must be a full URL, not just the domain name. We recommend opening up your website in a new tab and copying and pasting from the address bar to make sure there are not typos. Click the [Add Domain] button to continue.


Find your Google Tag Manager (GTM) container ID. Because Bot Badger works by selectively loading Google Tag Manager, you'll need to link your Bot Badger domain with the Google Tag Manager container you'd like to load on that domain. In a new tab, open Google Tag Manager and locate your GTM container ID. You'll find it in a number of places, but most notably in the upper-right corner once you click into the container you'd like to use. Copy this value to your clipboard.


Enter your Google Tag Manager (GTM) Container ID into Bot Badger


Select your Operating Mode. For each domain on your account, Bot Badger can operate in one of three modes. You can learn more about each here:
Hide GTM Mode
Send Info Mode
Load Alternate Mode

If you're unsure of which one to use, we recommend using "Hide GTM" mode, since it is the simplest and nearly impossible to make a mistake in setup.

Click [Save] to bring up the Installation panel

Step 3: Uninstall Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager from Your Website

Because Bot Badger works by selectively loading Google Tag Manager, you'll need to uninstall Google Tag Manager and/or Google Analytics from your site if it is already installed. How you go about doing this is different, depending on the content management system (CMS) you use to manage your website.

Check the links below, and if you don't see your CMS listed, work with the people responsible for managing your webiste to remove the code.

**Failing to remove Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics from your website prior to activating Bot Badger can result in duplicate pageviews in Google Analytics and will prevent Bot Badger from blocking any bots.**

Wordpress

Uninstall Google Tag Manager from Wordpress
Uninstall Google Analytics from Wordpress

Wix

Uninstall Google Tag Manager from Wix (COMING SOON)
Uninstall Google Analytics from Wix

SquareSpace

Uninstall Google Tag Manager from SquareSpace (COMING SOON)
Uninstall Google Analytics from SquareSpace (COMING SOON)

Shopify

Uninstall Google Tag Manager from Shopify (COMING SOON)
Uninstall Google Analytics from Shopify (COMING SOON)

Other Website Builder or CMS

Uninstall Google Tag Manager from Another Website Builder or CMS (COMING SOON)
Uninstall Google Analytics from Another Website Builder or CMS (COMING SOON)

Custom-Coded App or Website

Uninstall Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager from a Custom-Coded App or Website (COMING SOON)

Step 4 (optional): Create a New Google Tag Manager Account and Link It to Google Analytics

Note: this step is only required if you do not have an existing Google Tag Manager account and you only uninstalled Google Analytics in Step 3. If you have a Google Tag Manager account you would like to use, please skip ahead to step 5.

If you don't have an existing Google Tag Manager account/container you'd like to use, here is a detailed tutorial on creating a new Google Tag Manager account and setting it up to collect data in Google Analytics.

Step 5: Install Bot Badger on Your Website

There are two ways to install Bot Badger on your website: Via the Wordpress Plugin and via a Manual Install. Which you use will depend on your platform:
• Installing Bot Badger on Wordpress using the plugin
• Installing Bot Badger on Wix using manual instal
• Installing Bot Badger on SquareSpace using manual instal
• Installing Bot Badger on Shopify using manual instal
• Installing Bot Badger on another platform or custom site using manual instal

Step 6: Review Your Impact

Once you have installed Bot Badger, you can open your website in a new tab. Based on the volume of website traffic, you may see traffic in Bot Badger on your dashboard within a few minutes. Don't forget to log in after a few days of data collection and check the dashboard to see how many bots you've blocked!

Updated on: 05/04/2024