For a moment, I thought something exciting had happened to my blog.
A spike in views — nice.
Mostly from the USA — normal.
But then… China. A lot of China.
China!?
That’s when I started to feel a bit suspicious.
I’m used to occasional traffic from different countries, but this felt different. The numbers didn’t quite make sense, and the behavior didn’t either. The most viewed post of that day wasn’t something new or seasonal or even recently shared…. or recipe!
It was this one:
An old, old, old post from 2017.
Why that one? I honestly have no idea. No recent links, no mentions, nothing that would explain the sudden attention. Which makes me wonder — is this real traffic, or just bots wandering around the internet doing their bot things?
I guess this is part of having a blog. Not all visitors are really visitors. Still… I opened the post again, and there I was.
And you know what? I looked pretty 🙂 I remember that day!
Ilze
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a day in the life of a latvian mom 
I have a similar situation on my website Beauty for Ashes, with translations into English of Nelly Sachs poems. I’m pretty sure it’s a bot, as very few comments appear, but see no reason for so many views.
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That comment is from catterel.
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It’s AI companies gathering content. If you don’t want WP to share with their AI partners you have to turn the option off. I’m in brain fog so I can’t remember the exact setting to go to. Somedays I can have 1,200 visitors and it’s because they are gathering content and it’s often from older posts.
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It’s under Settings-Reading. You will see Site Visibility, look down to Prevent third-party sharing to see if you have tired on sharing.
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Altho’ I do not have my own blog I have been wandering around the Net for some 15 years. Methinks ‘Looking for the Light’ is totally right and has even been able to give you a way to turn things off. It seems to be AI ‘doing wretched homework’ which probably would not hurt you – but you don’t want the lack of privacy either. I have had a number of blog friends telling exactly the same story – if you want to talk to someone else – you are on a list from me – have a look at ‘b……Pete’ from GB – I know he and some friends of his have had the same trouble and he is a very friendly guy who has been around the Net for years. Good Luck!
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