Although my company fights problems caused by malicious bots on the Internet, many bots are doing good things. These beneficial bots may help a site get better exposure, provide better product recommendations, or monitor critical online services. The most famous good bot is the Googlebot, which crawls links to build the search engine many of us use.

To keep their access to the Web open, the makers of good bots must understand how to tell the world about their bots’ intentions. At PerimeterX, we defined a “Code of Good Bots” that provides basic rules of good behavior.