An Effective Guide From Semalt To Eliminating Ghost Referral Traffic In Google Analytics

23.05.2018

An Effective Guide From Semalt To Eliminating Ghost Referral Tra c In Google Analytics

Ghost referral traf c refers to traf c that does not visit a site, avoiding the Google Analytics measurement protocol tools. Also, ghost referral traf c is not spiders or bots that block a website since they never hit a web page. Often, ghost referral traf c trails referral reports or host name to entice an internet user to click spam-ridden sites or pages.

Internet experts argue that ghost referral traf c can be blocked by the use of hostname lter since they come from other pages. Including a site's hostname only prevents other hostname's information from popping up in the Google Analytics Reports.

Spammy hackers can overwrite a site's hostname as well as lters by intentionally sending bad traf c. In this case, ghost referral traf c will be indistinguishable from lters doing nothing and normal site traf c. So how can an online user eliminate or minimize ghost referral traf c?

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23.05.2018

A more ef cient technique of blocking traf c outside a user's site is to use a combination of Universal Analytics with tracking lters and changes.

Find out the important steps of this procedure in the following guide de ned by Frank Abagnale, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt.

1. Set a Cookie The rst basic step in eliminating ghost referral traf c is to set up site's cookies. This can either be accomplished manually or digitally by use of Google Tag Manager. Thus, anyone accessing a site illegally will get the web cookie.

For instance, consider a nondescript term like "dev-status" with a value of "june2016" making expiration date into the future. Anytime a fraudster hits on a site, the owner can update the cookie with "dev-status=june2016" thus extending its lifespan.

2. Formulate a Custom Dimension A custom dimension should be set up at the Property Level within Google Analytics. To be safe, it is recommended that users must set the dimension at the User Scope. Finally, write down the indexing number.

3. Grab the Value of Cookie This can be implemented through the use of Google Tag Manager by creating new Macro or variable rst Party Cookie.

4. Pass in the Value of Cookie It is achieved by the use of Google Tag Manager. Users should take the Macro/Variable and place it in the Custom Dimension within Google Analytics pageview Tag.

5. Eliminate the Bad Tra c This is the nal step. In the Google Analytics page, formulate a new lter by including speci c Custom Dimension to set the speci ed value.

Therefore, ghost referral traf c denotes traf c, not from a user's site and does not look at the site. Additionally, "Smart Ghost Referrals" mimic a site's custom dimensions and are the hardest to detect since they are smart enough to scan the website by mimicking other aspects apart from general web page hit.

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