Overview
JavaScript is Zambia's most common secondary barrier
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.6% |
| CAPTCHA | 24% |
| JavaScript | 37.6% |
| Rate Limiting | 12% |
| TLS | 18.6% |
WAF reaches 92.8% of Zambia sites. Among secondary barriers, JavaScript leads at 37.6%. CAPTCHA reaches 24.0%. Antibot sits at 20.6%, TLS at 18.6%, and Rate Limiting at 12.0%.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Zambia's active secondary defences
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.6% |
| CAPTCHA | 24% |
| JavaScript | 37.6% |
| Rate Limiting | 12% |
| TLS | 18.6% |
| Has robots.txt | 80.7% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 15% |
WAF covers 92.8% of sites. JavaScript is the top secondary barrier at 37.6%. CAPTCHA follows at 24.0%. Antibot (20.6%), TLS (18.6%), and Rate Limiting (12.0%) complete the profile.
One-barrier sites are Zambia's most common configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.4% |
| 1 barrier | 33.8% |
| 2 barriers | 32.3% |
| 3 barriers | 15.6% |
| 4 barriers | 9.5% |
| 5 barriers | 4.2% |
| 6 barriers | 0.3% |
33.8% of Zambia sites carry exactly one barrier — the largest group by a slim margin over two barriers at 32.3%. Sites with three or more total 29.6%. Only 4.4% carry no barriers at all.
Most Zambia sites are Easy to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The mean browser-retrieval tier across 1,035 Zambia sites is 1.68, with a median of 2. A median of 2 means fewer than half of sites are retrievable at Tier 1 (Simple).
Nearly half of Zambia sites are Simple to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 48.7% |
| 2 - Easy | 38.6% |
| 3 - Moderate | 9.5% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.4% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.8% |
48.7% of Zambia sites sit at Tier 1 (Simple) and 38.6% at Tier 2 (Easy) — 87.3% combined. Tier 3 (Moderate) accounts for 9.5%. Tiers 4 and 5 together hold 3.2%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers are Zambia's most-cited robots.txt bot category
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 16.9% |
| SEO / search indexing | 12% |
| SEO audit tools | 12.8% |
| Commercial scrapers | 7.8% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6.7% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.3% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.6% |
AI crawlers appear in robots.txt rules on 16.9% of all 1,035 Zambia sites — more than any other bot category. SEO audit tools follow at 12.8% and SEO/search indexing at 12.0%.
Uniform rules are Zambia's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 41.2% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 33.2% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 3% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.7% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 3% |
41.2% of Zambia sites use uniform per-agent rules with no path mixing. Path-level mixed rules apply to 33.2%. Sites with no robots.txt at all account for 19.3% of all 1,035 sites.
GPTBot faces the most Disallow rules in Zambia's robots.txt
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 12.1% | 2.1% |
| CCBot | 9.4% | 1.1% |
| ClaudeBot | 9% | 1.2% |
| Google-Extended | 9.9% | 1.8% |
| Bytespider | 7.9% | 0.6% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.4% | 0.3% |
| ChatGPT-User | 6.6% | 2.5% |
| PerplexityBot | 6.5% | 2.4% |
| Applebot-Extended | 5.5% | 0.5% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.3% | 2.2% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.9% | 1.1% |
GPTBot carries a Disallow rule on 12.1% of all Zambia sites — the highest of any AI agent. Google-Extended follows at 9.9%. ChatGPT-User receives the most Allow rules, on 2.5% of sites.
Multiple Zambia sectors all name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Entertainment | 90% |
| Foreign Language | 90% |
| Furniture | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Healthcare | 90% |
| Libraries | 90% |
| Market Research | 90% |
| Mass Media | 90% |
| Newspapers | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Design, and Retail each have every sampled site naming at least one bot in a Disallow rule. Twelve further sectors sit at 90%, spanning Adult to Newspapers.
Zambia's Airlines sites lead in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 90% |
| Market Research | 80% |
| Travel & Tourism | 80% |
| Comics & Animation | 70% |
| Non-Profit | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Renewable Energy | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 60% |
| Biotech | 60% |
| Consulting | 60% |
| IT Services | 60% |
| Investment | 60% |
Airlines leads Zambia's explicit Allow list at 90% of sector sites — the highest rate in the top 15. Market Research and Travel & Tourism follow at 80% each. Seven further sectors reach 70%.
Industry Patterns
Three Zambia sectors reach a Moderate median access tier
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 80% | 20% | 0% | 50% | 20% | 40% | 40% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 60% | 60% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Computer Hardware | 80% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 40% | 20% | 60% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 70% | 60% | 40% | 50% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 90% | 20% | 50% | 50% | 20% | 0% | 60% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Renewable Energy | 70% | 0% | 30% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 10% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 40% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Furniture | 90% | 40% | 20% | 60% | 10% | 40% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 90% | 20% | 40% | 50% | 40% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 80% | 30% | 20% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 100% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 0% | 30% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
Hospitality tops Zambia's difficulty ranking at mean tier 2.90 with a median of 3. Jewellery & Luxury (mean 2.70) and Computer Hardware also sit at median 3. Computer Hardware, Apparel & Fashion, and Human Resources all share a mean tier of 2.40. All remaining sectors sit at median 2.
Six Zambia sectors share the most accessible floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reference | 80% | 60% | 40% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Sporting Goods | 80% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 10% | 0% | 40% | 20% | 0% | 60% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Insurance | 80% | 30% | 10% | 40% | 0% | 0% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 50% | 60% | 30% | 0% | 30% | 80% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Banking | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 100% | 30% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Music | 100% | 40% | 40% | 60% | 20% | 20% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Oil & Gas | 80% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 0% | 10% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Training & Cert. | 90% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 0% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Travel & Tourism | 100% | 30% | 10% | 70% | 20% | 10% | 80% | 30% | Tier 2 |
Banking, Maritime, Music, Oil & Gas, Training & Cert., and Travel & Tourism each record a mean recommended tier of 1.90 — the lowest in Zambia's bottom-15 group. All sectors here sit at median tier 2.