Overview
Secondary barrier rates closely mirror global averages
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93% |
| Antibot | 21.8% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.1% |
| JavaScript | 41.8% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.3% |
| TLS | 18.4% |
WAF covers 93.0% of New Zealand sites. JavaScript (41.8%) and CAPTCHA (23.1%) both sit at or within a fraction of the global rates. TLS (18.4%) and Rate Limiting (13.3%) are also near-global. Antibot (21.8%) is slightly above the global 20.2%.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript leads secondary barriers in New Zealand
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93% |
| Antibot | 21.8% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.1% |
| JavaScript | 41.8% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.3% |
| TLS | 18.4% |
| Has robots.txt | 80.5% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 14.3% |
WAF reaches 93.0%. JavaScript is the leading secondary barrier at 41.8%, followed by CAPTCHA at 23.1%, Antibot at 21.8%, TLS at 18.4%, and Rate Limiting at 13.3%.
Two-barrier sites are the most common configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.5% |
| 1 barrier | 29.3% |
| 2 barriers | 35.4% |
| 3 barriers | 17% |
| 4 barriers | 8.8% |
| 5 barriers | 4.7% |
| 6 barriers | 0.3% |
Two-barrier sites account for 35.4% of New Zealand domains, the modal count. One-barrier sites follow at 29.3%. Zero-barrier sites total 4.5%. Sites carrying three or more barriers make up 30.8% of the total.
Most New Zealand sites lean toward Easy access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The median recommended tier is 2 and the mean is 1.71. Tier 1 accounts for 46.9% of sites — just below the majority threshold that would push the median to 1. Tier 2 holds 39.3% of sites.
Most New Zealand sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 46.9% |
| 2 - Easy | 39.3% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.8% |
| 4 - Complex | 1.9% |
| 5 - Advanced | 1.1% |
Tier 1 holds 46.9% of sites and Tier 2 a further 39.3%, combining for 86.2%. Tier 3 accounts for 10.8% — the highest third-tier share in this group. Tiers 4 and 5 together add 3.0%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers are the most-cited bot category in robots.txt
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.9% |
| SEO / search indexing | 13% |
| SEO audit tools | 13.8% |
| Commercial scrapers | 7.9% |
| Social / content scrapers | 5.8% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.6% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.4% |
AI crawlers appear in robots.txt files on 15.9% of all New Zealand sites. SEO audit tools follow at 13.8% and SEO/search indexing bots at 13.0%. Commercial scrapers (7.9%) and social/content scrapers (5.8%) are less commonly named.
Uniform and path-mixed rules together cover three quarters of all postures
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 41.1% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 34% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.7% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.5% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.4% |
41.1% of sites apply uniform per-agent rules and 34.0% use path-level mixed rules — together covering 75.1% of all sites. Allow-only (2.7%), mixed AI posture (2.5%), and blanket Disallow: / (2.4%) each appear at similar low rates.
GPTBot is the most blocked agent in New Zealand
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 12.1% | 2.8% |
| CCBot | 9.4% | 1% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.9% | 1.2% |
| Google-Extended | 8.6% | 1.9% |
| Bytespider | 7.4% | 0.5% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.1% | 0.1% |
| ChatGPT-User | 6.1% | 2.5% |
| PerplexityBot | 6.4% | 2.1% |
| Applebot-Extended | 5.2% | 0.5% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.3% | 2.1% |
| anthropic-ai | 6% | 1% |
GPTBot carries a Disallow rule on 12.1% of all New Zealand sites. CCBot (9.4%) and ClaudeBot (8.9%) follow. On the allow side, ChatGPT-User leads at 2.8% and GPTBot at 2.5%.
Eight sectors unanimously name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Chemicals | 100% |
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Consumer Electronics | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Newspapers | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Telecom | 100% |
| Visual Art | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Agriculture | 90% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% |
| Automotive | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| Crafts | 90% |
Chemicals, Computer & Video Games, Consumer Electronics, Design, Newspapers, Retail, Telecom, and Visual Art all reach 100% — every site in each sector names at least one bot in a Disallow rule. A further seven sectors sit at 90%.
Automotive, Sporting Goods, and Telecom lead on explicit bot Allow rules
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Automotive | 80% |
| Sporting Goods | 80% |
| Telecom | 80% |
| Airlines | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Plastics & Polymers | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Real Estate | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Agriculture | 60% |
| Architecture | 60% |
| Crafts | 60% |
| Farms & Ranches | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| Import & Export | 60% |
Automotive, Sporting Goods, and Telecom each have 80% of their sites naming at least one bot in an Allow rule. Telecom also appears in the block ranking at 100%, making it one of the few sectors prominent in both lists.
Industry Patterns
Jewellery & Luxury and Hospitality are New Zealand's hardest sectors to access
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 30% | 50% | 70% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Hospitality | 100% | 30% | 0% | 60% | 40% | 40% | 60% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 70% | 60% | 40% | 50% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Real Estate | 90% | 30% | 40% | 60% | 50% | 10% | 90% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 100% | 10% | 0% | 30% | 40% | 30% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 10% | 50% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 0% | 0% | 60% | 20% | 20% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Warehousing | 100% | 30% | 50% | 60% | 20% | 0% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 40% | 30% | 50% | 50% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Medical Devices | 90% | 0% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 0% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 100% | 10% | 40% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
Jewellery & Luxury leads the hardest-access ranking with a mean recommended tier of 3.00 and a median of 3. Hospitality follows at mean 2.90 (also median 3). Equipment & Supplies sits at mean 2.40 with a median of 3. All three are the only sectors with a median tier of 3.
Seven sectors share the most accessible mean tier
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sporting Goods | 90% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 60% | 30% | 60% | 40% | 0% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Reference | 80% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 10% | 50% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 100% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 50% | 10% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Telecom | 90% | 10% | 10% | 70% | 0% | 30% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Textiles & Nonwovens | 100% | 10% | 30% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 50% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Adult | 100% | 40% | 40% | 80% | 20% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Agriculture | 100% | 30% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 20% | 20% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 20% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Education | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Events | 100% | 20% | 20% | 80% | 20% | 0% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Furniture | 100% | 40% | 40% | 30% | 10% | 30% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
The floor in the bottom 15 is a mean recommended tier of 1.90, shared by Adult, Agriculture, Crafts, Customer Services, Education, Events, and Furniture. All sectors in this group carry a median tier of 2, with mean scores ranging from 1.90 up to 2.10.