Are you wondering about the messing up of your Google Analytics report? Do you think your GA reports are completely worthless? Let me tell you, the problem lies not with GA, but with a special type of spam. This spam commonly called the referrer spam leaves reports valueless and also hampers the quality of data. To ensure high quality report, you can take the help of an SEO company and the skilled professionals working there.
So, you are wondering about the meaning of a referrer spam. Here is an idea.
A referrer spam is called by this name, because at the early stage it shows as a fake referral. Then the spammers use more techniques to reach to your reports. A referrer spam appears in many forms such as a page, an event, an organic keyword, etc. The fake traffic is registered by Google Analytics and comes from spam bots.
The referrer spam is also known as the crawler spam because it investigates websites to attract people to their own site for making a sale. They are unethical because these crawlers do not heed rules of GA.
Any Idea What a Bot is?
The SEO company specialists can tell you that a bot is a crawler program created to repeat tasks with dexterity. However, not all bots are bad. While some bots are good and are utilized to index web pages, others allure visitors to sell something.
How do you know your Reports have been hit by the Referrer Spam?
There are two ways of detecting the presence of referrer spam.
# Download Google Analytics. It will find the Referrer Spam on a website on its own, without you having to hassle over it.
# Visit your Google Analytics account and go to the Referrals report. You will then have to sort the report in downward order by bounce rate. A referrer with at least 10 or more sessions is most probably a referrer spam. This type of spam has either 100% or 0% bounce rate.
You want specimens of Referrer Spam?
Here is a list of referrers which you can tag as spam even when you are blind-folded.
• semalt.com
• iloveitaly.ro
• 7makemoneyonline.com
• screentoolkit.com
• prodvigator.ua
• darodar.com
How to Solve the Problem?
No worries, Google Analytics is framed in such a way that it can ensure data quality and clean the muddle caused the spam on your reports.
How to Block the Referrer Spam?
Why not use custom advanced filter to make sure that referrer spam cannot disturb you again.
In most cases, inexperienced people exclude the website of the referrer spam with the help of ‘Referral exclusion list.’ This, my dear is a grave mistake because it will only make the traffic appear as direct traffic in your Google Analytics report. It will not appear via referral traffic any more and you will not be in a position to assess the influence of the spam on the traffic to your website.
Hence, taking the help of an SEO company is the best solution. They are equipped with the most experienced professionals to handle your needs. This is what they can do
# Make a note
A professional will make a note that states why there was a sudden change in the traffic. As a result, when he or she analyzes traffic, this spam traffic can be left out of the analysis.
# Ban the IP address
The specialist can enter the .htaccess file and add a code to make sure that IP address of the spam bot is blocked. Spam does not come from a single IP address; therefore he or she has to keep blocking IP addresses utilized by spammers. The SEO company experts will make sure that the list of rejected IP addresses does not lengthen in size. The SEO expert will write a script, which will find bad IPS and banish them.
# Block the referrer
Are you using IIS? Well, in that case the expert can utilize web configuration to block referrals from a particular spamming site. He or she may also enter .htaccess file and enter a code which can block referrals from the culprit website or any of its domains.
# Blacklist the range of IP address
The SEO expert will study the IP addresses. If he or she realizes that spam websites are using a specific range of IP address, he or she can block the entire range.
# Check your server logs regularly
Ok. What does a doctor do when you go to him with a symptom? He prescribes certain tests. Why? Because he wants to assess the root of the symptoms, so that he can diagnose the actual issue and prescribe the right medication.
In the same way, it is necessary to resist spam at the initial stage. If an SEO executive can fight them at sever level, he or she can check them from breaking into your website.
# Use Google Chrome
The experts at the SEO company you approach will know that Google Chrome can discover spam website and virus at a quicker rate than any other malware scanner or web browser. Therefore, in the event that you enter a probable referrer spam, Google Chrome can actually protect your PC from malware in the website.
# Make use of Firewall
Firewall is like a filter between the Internet and web server. It detects malware and defends your website from spam.
#Alter your Tracking ID
Well, unlike the previous measures, this step does not block referrer spam. However, your Google Analytics is not much visible to spammers. If you want to protect a new website, the SEO company executives may use this technique.
The referrer spam generally aims at harming GS tracking IDs that end with 1. Suppose the expert changes the tracking ID of your Google Analytics for a number that does not end with 1, but with a higher number like, 10. Your website will be protected from most of the spam. Even though, referrer spam can hit tracking IDs of higher denominations, it has lesser probability.
You must have learnt the ways, in which an expert can stall referrer spam from affecting your machine and website. These techniques can assist you keep analytics report clean and safe from malware. So, stop worrying and take expert help from an SEO company.
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