Report finds 76% of bot traffic is unverified, signaling intelligent traffic management as the new strategic imperative for web teams in 2026

WP Engine, a global web enablement company providing premium products and solutions for websites built on WordPress®¹, today released its 2025 Website Traffic Trends Report. The report analyzes proprietary first-party data and metrics from Google CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) and Cloudflare Bot Management spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251217561773/en/

Global web traffic composition

“The shape of the web is evolving rapidly. The industry is underestimating the speed at which the internet is transitioning into a dual-audience environment, optimized for both human consumption and AI interaction,” said Ramadass Prabhakar, chief technology officer at WP Engine.

“These shifts open a different kind of opportunity that prioritizes Intelligent Traffic Management to proactively control all activity visiting a site. Teams who can advance this imperative will narrow digital divides, better control costs, and deliver superior experiences on an AI-driven web.”

Digital teams are entering a year defined by heavier automation, rising traffic from AI crawlers and growing pressure to deliver fast, reliable experiences across regions. Performance expectations continue to increase, but the underlying patterns of traffic and security are evolving faster than many sites can adapt. The report's findings reflect a web driven by AI, with clear signals about what will matter most in 2026.

The web is becoming a bot-first environment

Automated, non-human traffic accounts for a rapidly growing percentage of all web requests. The rise of AI-driven bot traffic, which consumes up to 70% of the most costly dynamic resources such as hosting, environment, and performance, has transformed traffic management from an optimization task into a critical financial imperative. It’s no longer just search crawlers. Key insights include:

• Unverified bot traffic is growing worldwide (76%), drawing added attention and caution from web teams.
• Only 38% use dedicated solutions for bot-mitigation, security and performance.
• Across the web, nearly 1 in 3 requests come from bots.

Security maturity now drives speed and cost

Security practices now map directly to performance outcomes. Sites that fully adopt HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) and proactive bot mitigation load faster, stay more stable under automation-heavy traffic and avoid the inflated request volumes that skew analytics and strain infrastructure.

Meanwhile, sites using security tools like Global Edge Security facilitate more consistent speeds across distant regions because automated requests are filtered closer to the user, reducing long-haul load and helping preserve the gains of proximity-based delivery. Key insights include:

• WP Engine customers’ sites serving traffic exclusively over HTTPS are 1-5 seconds faster in LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) than those using HTTP, a performance gap that widened this year.
• Larger organizations show near-universal 2FA and HTTPS use, while smaller teams trail by about 25%.
• Agencies using Global Edge Security see more stable performance and cleaner traffic than those relying on manual or reactive rules.

Geography, mobile, plugins, and CDNs shape web performance

At the same time, the gap between fast and slow regions is widening. North America and Europe still post the strongest LCP performance, while high-growth regions like Asia and Latin America are slowing because traffic is rising faster than sites are being optimized. Global traffic now hinges on mobile delivery and long-distance requests, yet many high-traffic sites still lack basics like Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). The result is slower experiences in growing regions and a structural gap in how the web is built and maintained. Key insights include:

• Roughly 50% of the top 10 million sites tracked by Google CrUX are still not leveraging a CDN. Those that do, see ~20% improvement in LCP.
• Despite mobile being the dominant traffic source globally, mobile performance consistently trails desktop, revealing a costly optimization gap.

Website speed isn’t the only success factor anymore. Security, traffic patterns, and location now play an equal role in how fast and stable sites perform. Findings indicate the most reliable sites in 2026 will treat intelligent traffic management, performance parity and security maturity as one connected system.

To access more in-depth data findings and what they mean for web teams, download WP Engine's 2025 Website Traffic Trends Report here.

About WP Engine

WP Engine empowers companies and agencies of all sizes to build, power, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites and applications with confidence. Serving 1.5 million customers across 150+ countries, the global technology company provides premium, enterprise-grade solutions, tools, and services, including specialized platforms for WordPress, industry-tailored eCommerce and agency solution suites, and developer-centric tools like Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and more. Learn more at wpengine.com.

[1] The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251217561773/en/

“The shape of the web is evolving rapidly. The industry is underestimating the speed at which the internet is transitioning into a dual-audience environment, optimized for both human consumption and AI interaction,” said Ramadass Prabhakar, CTO, WP Engine