google.bot showing as guest instead of Spyder in Admin

[bigbadbob]

While we all appreciate the google.bot paying attention to our web sites
it appears that it is a double edged sword. Within ZenCart the bot
shows up as a Guest rather than a Spyder and consequently every item
that is "viewed" comes up in the Products Viewed. This then negates the
use of Products Viewed for marketing purposes. Has anyone else had this
problem? Know of a fix?

[DrByte]

What version of Zen Cart?
What addons do you have installed?
What version of PHP on your server?
What is your URL?

[bigbadbob]

What version of Zen Cart?
1.3.8a

What addons do you have installed?
Hum.... I think only:
Image Handler 2.0
Ultimate_SEO_URLs_v2.106

What version of PHP on your server?
4.4.8

What is your URL?
www.historichomehardware.com

[DrByte]

What are your settings in Admin->Configuration->Sessions?

[bigbadbob]

See attached screenshot.

[DrByte]

Well, since you've turned off the "Prevent Spider Sessions" switch, it's no wonder that spiders are affecting your stats.

You might put it back to the default setting of "true" ... unless you had a specific reason for changing it in the first place.

[bigbadbob]

Ummmm... By setting "prevent" spyder sessions to False is two negatives. It was set to false always and I never changed it. If I am saying "FALSE to prevent", that means I am allowing Spyder sessions. If set it to TRUE, that would mean I do NOT want to allow SPYDER sessions. Or am I missing something here?

Maybe you are not understanding the problem. I WANT the Spyders, but they are now showing up for some reason as "guests" viewing the product pages. When they show as Guest, they increase the individual products viewed count. As a Spyder not. I like to see what products are being viewed by visitors and not a Spyder/BOT visitor.

[gjh42]

"Prevent Spider Sessions" only keeps them from showing as guests. It does not stop them from indexing your site.
And somehow you have changed it from its original (default) setting of true.

[bigbadbob]

OK, well that is good news. I will change that! BUT, I have never even gone into the Sessions settings so am 10000% sure I did not change anything. I would have no idea why I would even change it because I never new the purpose of the setting!

Thanks, I will change it and see what happens.

[gjh42]

"Prevent Spider Sessions" and "Recreate Session" are both set to true in my 1.3.7 test site, where I have certainly not touched them.

I know from experience that it is possible to have changed things in early exploration and then not recall seeing them later.