Blackhole Pro works automatically. Install, activate, and then sit back and relax while Blackhole works its magic and blocks bad bots from ever reaching your site. Whenever a bot disobeys your site’s robots.txt rules and follows the hidden trigger link, they will be banned forever. Or until you release them from the Blackhole. Now that’s all fine and good, but what if you want to add a bot manually to the Blackhole? As in, you want to block a bot that has not fallen into the trap. Here are a couple of ways to do it..

Manually block based on IP address

To manually block any IP address with Blackhole Pro:

  1. Visit the Bad Bot Log
  2. Scroll down to “Add bot”
  3. Add the bot’s IP address in the first field (required)
  4. Add any other known details in the other fields (optional)
  5. When ready, click the “Add bot” button to make it so

After adding the IP address, the bot will be listed above in the Bad Bot Log. And just like all the other bad bots, the newly added IP address will be blocked from your website.

Update: As of Blackhole Pro version 3.5, it is possible to add multiple/bulk IP addresses at once. Visit the plugin setting, “Blacklist IPs”.

Manually block based on user agent

To manually block any user agent with Blackhole Pro:

  • Go to Blackhole Pro settings ▸ Advanced Settings
  • In the Blacklist Bots setting, enter the relevant portion of the user agent name (e.g., horriblin, ev1lb0t, etc.)
  • Save changes and done

After adding the user agent, the bot will be blocked from your site. Note that any user agents (bots) entered in this setting will not be listed in the Bad Bot Log.

About the Blacklist Bots setting

Note: this information is taken directly from the Help tab on the plugin settings page. Check it out for all sorts of information and tips.

The “Blacklist Bots” setting enables you to always block any bot based on its reported user agent. When adding user agents to the list, keep the names short, simple, and as unique as possible. Also do not include any special characters. Separate multiple strings with commas. Note that the plugin’s whitelist settings always will override the blacklist settings. Remember to test well. Learn more about blocking user agents.