You are diligently tracking your website traffic, but something feels off. You see a surge in visitors from unfamiliar websites, often with seemingly nonsensical names and descriptions. You are not getting any actual traffic from these sources, yet they are showing up in your Google Analytics reports. This, my friend, is called referrer spam.
Not surprisingly, we have had numerous clients ask us about referrer spam. Therefore, I thought it would be a good time to provide answers to some of those common questions about it.
What is Referrer Spam?
Referrer spam is bogus referral traffic to your website, sent by malicious actors who typically use automated software applications, called bots, to facilitate such questionable activities.
Why Do Spammers Send Referrer Spam?
The short answer is that there is no really clear reason. Referrer spam seems to target websites randomly, often hitting smaller sites with less sophisticated analytics filtering. Some people have suggested the following possible reasons:
SEO Manipulation
Spammers might try to manipulate search engine rankings by using your website as a backlink to boost their own, even if your website has nothing to do with them. Thus, referrer spam is a type of spamdexing.
Ad Revenue Schemes
Some spammers might use their fake traffic to inflate ad impressions on your website and earn revenue from unsuspecting advertisers.
Blackhat SEO Tactics
Some companies may use referrer spam to sabotage the analytics of their competitors, making them look less successful as well as to artificially boost their own website’s ranking in SERPs.
Malicious Intent
In some cases, spammers might attempt to hide their own malicious activity or spread malware by embedding links within the referrer spam.
Malware Distribution
Spammers might use your website to spread malware or unwanted software, hoping you’ll click on their links.
Data Collection
They might be gathering data about your website or its visitors for unknown purposes.
Simply to Annoy You
Some spammers are just looking to cause disruption and make your analytics look messy.
How Does Referrer Spam Affect Your Website?
While referrer spam does not directly impact your website’s functionality, it can cause several problems
Confusing Analytics
Your website traffic data will be skewed, making it difficult to understand real user behavior and track your website’s true performance.
Distracting from Real Traffic
You might miss important insights about genuine visitors due to the overwhelming amount of spam.
Wasting Resources
You might spend time investigating the source of the spam and trying to remove it, diverting your focus from more productive tasks.
How to Deal with Referrer Spam
Fortunately, there are ways to combat referrer spam and reclaim your analytics
Ignore It
This might seem counterintuitive, but the best approach sometimes is to simply ignore the spam. It won’t affect your website’s performance and focusing on real traffic is more beneficial.
Use Spam Filtering
Many analytics platforms offer built-in filters to identify and block referrer spam. Configure these filters to recognize suspicious sources and automatically exclude them from your reports.
Block Specific URLs
If you identify specific URLs causing the spam, you can block them through your website’s security settings.
Update Your Website’s robots.txt file
This file instructs search engines how to crawl your website. You can add specific rules to block access from known spam URLs.
Report the Spam
Some analytics platforms have reporting mechanisms to flag suspected spammers. Reporting them can help reduce the amount of spam you receive.
Referrer spam is annoying, but generally harmless. By understanding its nature and implementing appropriate solutions, you can protect your analytics from manipulation and maintain clarity in your website performance data.
EMAIL US