What Is Happening?
When you send out a large batch of emails, security systems (like Microsoft Defender) want to make sure the links you sent are safe for their users. To do this, their automated "bots" will visit every single link in your email to scan them before the email even lands in your reader's inbox.
We call this a "security scan flood" (Link Detonation). It essentially looks like thousands of people are trying to load your website at the exact same second.
The Multiplier Effect
The reason this is so heavy on your site is that these bots don't just click one link, they click everything. This includes:
All posts links within the email
The "View in Browser" link.
Every social media icon (Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) in your footer.
The Math of a Newsletter Send:
If you send to 10,000 subscribers and have 5 links in your email...
Your website suddenly gets 50,000 hits all at once.
For a standard website, this "flood" of requests is too much for the server to handle, which is why the site can become sluggish or go offline.
How BigScoots Helps You Stay Online
At BigScoots, we have built-in tools to help manage these sudden spikes so you can focus on your content. These advanced protections are part of our BigScoots BOOST plan, which uses a high-performance network (Cloudflare Enterprise) to act as a shield for your site.
1. Helping Bots "See" Your Site Without Hurting It
We monitor for these specific security bot bursts. When we detect them, we "freeze" a version of your page in place (Forced Caching).
How it helps: Instead of your server having to "work" to build the page 50,000 times for the bots, we just show them the "frozen" copy. This satisfies the security scan without putting any stress on your actual website.
2. Blocking Unnecessary Background Noise
Some themes or plugins try to do extra work every time a page is viewed. These background tasks (Dynamic Requests/admin-ajax.php) serve no purpose for a security bot. We identify these bots and can stop those extra tasks from running, saving your site's power for your actual human readers.
One Simple Tip for You
While we handle the heavy lifting on the server side, there is one easy thing you can do in your email platform (like Flodesk, ConvertKit, or Mailchimp):
Stagger Your Sending: Most platforms allow you to "throttle" or spread out your send over an hour instead of sending to everyone at once. This makes the "flood" much smaller and ensures a smooth experience for both the security bots and your fans.