Semalt Expert On The Blockage Of Russian Referral Spam From Google Analytics

23.05.2018

Semalt Expert On The Blockage Of Russian Referral Spam From Google Analytics

Spammers are continuously developing new types of spams that attack Google Analytics. Currently, there has been an in ow of spam ware from Russia with the spammers taking their time to develop spams that will gather traf c.

There are four main types of spams namely: Analytic, Crawler, Legit bots and Search spam.

Get down to the compelling issues provided by the leading expert from Semalt, Alexander Peresunko, and stay safe from referral spam.

Analytic spam They are also known as ghost referrals. Although they do not visit the site, they are seen in the analytics whilst spamming Google Analytics ID's. The spamming takes place in a random manner and is intended to trick the computer user into opening their referral sites. They are mostly of Russian origin.

Crawler spam

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These are the type of spams that are characterized by their crawling nature on the internet collecting information. It is advised to avoid visiting them because of their virus threat hence they should be blocked.

Example of crawler spams is buttons-for-website spam.

Legit Bots Although legit иots are not commonly seen in analytics, they occasionally spider around content in a bid to show in search engines.

Search Spam These spam do not actually visit one's website but instead ping analytics account in an attempt to spam their targets. Search spam can be ltered thus preventing them from showing in the analytics account.

Measures of controlling spam Although spams appear to link to websites, Russian spams do not actually engage the websites in which they are seen. The following is a list of some of the most common spam links namely: hul ngtonpost.com 7makemoneyonline.com cenoval.ru pricereg.com darodar.com economy.co blackhatworth.com bestwebsiteawards.com buttons-for-website.com ilovevitality.com Most of these links do not go to users' website but instead visit user ID's of Google Analytics users. Their links show up in analytic results which tempt Google users to visit their websites. Examples of such spams are darodar and ilovevitality.com. Even though spams do not visit the user's site, it is essential to block them from showing up in Google Analytics results. The reasons for the need to block spams are: https://rankexperience.com/articles/article1366.html

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i. It is vital to have accurate data on the number of people that are visiting one's site so that effective analysis can be carried out. This information is important in determining the bounce rate and the presence of spams makes data collected for analysis inaccurate. ii. The presence of spams negatively affect the rankings of search engines. The existence of spammers who are continuously developing new types of spams necessitate the existence of companies such as Mis t to combat the vice and make the running of small business smooth.

Referral spams can be combated using the TL checklist: 1. The bot Filtering Tool can be used to prevent bots from showing up in a Google Analytics account by clicking on the "View Settings" and selecting the "bot ltering" option.

2. All Russian spam URL's should be ltered by adding them to the referral exclusion list including the view lters option. a) In the case of blocking referral spam, visit the Google Analytics account and select the "Filter" tool. b) Select the "New Filter" option and input the domain name. c) On the type of lter, select the custom option and select the Referral option. d) Type the precise URL that you wish to block on the "Filter Pattern". e) Procedure d above should be carried out for the same domain but on the "Filter eld" option you should click the hostname. f) The same process applies for search spam only that the "Filter Field" should be replaced with "Campaign Term" and the pattern is the legible wording verbatim.

3. It is however recommended that a report is made to Google if there are suspicions of malicious codes.

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