Semalt Expert Knows How To Remove Referral Spam From Google Analytics

1. 23.05.2018 Semalt Expert Knows How To Remove Referral Spam From Google Analytics Referral spam continues to pop up despite Google providing an of?cial solution. The update targets special referral links that include unpredictable, free-video-tool, keywords-monitoring-success and rank-checker. However, executing hostname ?lter is the best solution that should be considered before any other technique. Thus, Ivan Konovalov, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt, highlights in this article dangers of referral spam and how users can deal with such links. According to internet experts, referral spam is the act of sending bogus traf?c to a product or site. This might sound harmless, but it is turning into a serious internet issue. Kinds of Referral Spam In the Google Analytics context, there are two main types of referral spam: ghost and spammy web crawlers. Spammy crawlers are robots which visit sites with a goal of indexing content. Most spammy web crawlers use identities of webservers. Hence they are left out of analytic reports. Nevertheless, some spammy crawlers do not appear as robots, and therefore they end up in Google analytics reports as sessions with 0-second duration and 100% bounce rate. https://rankexperience.com/articles/article1306.html 1/2

2. 23.05.2018 Recently, Google introduced a feature used to ?lter out known as spiders and bots although it is not perfect. Ghost referral traf?c is arguably the greatest of the two referral spam. This spam does not visit a site. Instead, spammers exploit the idea that Google analytics transfers data through HTTP requests directly into servers of Google analytics which implies that a hacker can easily "spoof" a session. Additionally, Ghost referral traf?c is generated by programs which send fake HTTP requests targeting some Google analytics properties such that a site does not experience traf?c. Also, experts maintain that ghost traf?c can be used in spoo?ng organic search results as well as sending false events. Negative Impacts of Referral Spam Referral spam compromises web analytics data for a website. The "sessions" that enter through referral spam skew information by in?ating traf?c volume and accuracy of engagement of metrics. Users unaware of spam may attribute decisions on inaccurate data and lack of traf?c. There are multiple options of removing referral spam within Google analytics. Filter Spammy Crawlers and Exclude Foreign Hostnames Most ghost referrals are characterized by inaccurate hostname attribution. For example, while reviewing Google analytics referral data, ghost referrals present hostnames that are completely irrelevant to the site. Therefore, this knowledge helps site owners to create ?lters that allow information with accurate hostnames. Moreover, this solution is more relevant for Google analytics users with a handful of domains. In most cases replacing top domain name of a site is suf?cient. In the case of multiple domains, regular expressions should be checked with Regex Pal. This type of ?lter can remove any type of ghost referral traf?c. An additional ?lter, however, is required to eliminate web crawlers because they visit a website and report accurate hostnames. Filter all Sources of Referral Spam It applies in situations where domains change easily in a measured view. The ?lter thus should be more exhaustive to encompass all offending referral websites. https://rankexperience.com/articles/article1306.html 2/2