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  • Kristie Hill

Easily remove spam referrals from your Google Analytic reports

July 15, 2015

Spam referrals have really started to spike in Google Analytics recently. It may look exciting because a site appears to be sending you a lot of traffic. The truth is though, it’s just spam referrals or bots hitting your Google Analytics.

A lot of bloggers have emailed me recently asking why they are getting blog traffic from very inappropriate sites. You’re not. They just use bots to ping your site and get you to click on their URL and visit their site. It’s a dirty trick and I really hope that Google cracks down on their security soon. HINT HINT Google.

Sick of spam referrals in your Google Analytics reports? This is the easiest way for WordPress users to block spam referrals and get accurate statistics.

Personally, the spam referrals were driving me crazy! They were a big chunk of my referral traffic, depending on the spam was 4-10% of my referral traffic:

Spam referrals in Google Analytics.

While it was fun to have higher numbers, I want accurate numbers. I researched how to block spam referrals and found a lot of posts on the best methods. Most of them include going into your .htaccess files and setting up blockers there, or setting up filters in Google Analytics itself. I just never took the time to do it, plus I didn’t want to have to keep updating every time I was hit by a new spammer.

Luckily, I was introduced to a plugin that will do it for me (thank you Karl Peschel) . I will go as far to say that it is my favorite plugin to date.

Use the GM Block Bots plugin to remove unwanted spam referrals in Google Analytics

The GM Block Bots plugin removes known spammers from your Google Analytics statistics. Once you install the plugin, it runs in the background. There are no settings or tabs in your WordPress dashboard.

The creators, Green Mellen Media, have been great at updating the plugin when new spammers hit Google Analytics.

Make sure to update the plugin as soon as an update is available! (This is best practice for all plugins, really.)

It took a couple of days for my Analytics to bounce back, but I am so happy to have the spam out of the way so that I can see where my real traffic is coming from.

Another thing to note is that the plugin will not block ghost referrals:

This plugin only blocks them based on their http_referer, which may not catch everything. In addition, some bots are “ghost referrals” that ping Google Analytics directly (without ever visiting your site) and the only way to stop them is via filters in Google Analytics.”

Go install the plugin for yourself and get more accurate statistics.

If you do want to try blocking the spam yourself, here are a few tutorials:

  • Definitive Guide to Removing Referral Spam – Analytics Edge
  • How to Stop Spam Bots from Ruining Your Analytics Referral Data – MOZ
  • Geek Guide to Removing Referrer Spam in Google Analytics – Optimize Smart
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Filed Under: WordPress Plugins Tagged With: Google Analytics Conversation: 29 Comments

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Comments

  1. Catherine @ Ten Thousand Hour Mama says

    December 30, 2016 at 10:35 am

    Thanks for this! Just activated on my blog and pinned to my Better Blog board for others.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      January 4, 2017 at 9:46 am

      Thank you for saving for others Catherine. I love this plugin, makes getting rid of the biggest spammers easy.

      Reply
  2. Bonnie says

    November 25, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    Great recommendations as I’m a new blogger on a self-hosted website and doing everything myself. These bots are driving me crazy as well. I have implemented some of the filters right within GA itself but now I have also added this WP plugin. I have been getting this one lately but can’t find any info on it. black-friday.ga looks like ghost spam to me for black friday week. Since I’m so new thought I would ask someone more experienced.

    Reply
  3. Grace says

    November 23, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    Hey! I already have the GM Block Bots plugin and I have for a while. In the last couple of weeks my referral spam and bounce rate has sky rocketed, and I’m so frustrated. Do you know why the plugin wouldn’t be as effective anymore? It doesn’t show any update available.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      November 24, 2015 at 6:23 am

      Hmm, I haven’t had any problems lately. Which probably means the spam hitting your site are ghost referrals, which aren’t blocked by this plugin.

      What are some of the referrals?

      I need to write up a tutorial on how I block the ghost hits.

      Reply
  4. Dalibor says

    September 30, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    Hi Kristie, thank you very much for directing me to your blog. I will definitely give the plugin a try and will keep an eye out for the ghost traffic. Thanks again =)

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      September 30, 2015 at 11:49 pm

      You’re welcome. I’ll have to go re find the tutorial I used to get rid of ghost traffic. It was pretty easy and worked well.

      Reply
  5. Flavia says

    July 26, 2015 at 9:03 am

    Kristie, I have been waiting for this post! I was very close to requesting this content from you.
    I get so much spam referral, it’s plain annoying – I rather see 0 visits to my blog than 15 of those daily!
    Many thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 27, 2015 at 8:37 am

      I’m the same way, I want accurate statistics! I’m just glad I finally found a plugin that works. Feel free to request content anytime!

      Reply
  6. Jenny Kim says

    July 23, 2015 at 4:08 pm

    I never knew that this is a problem, but it’s something to keep in mind. It’s actually very clever as well, because a lot of website owners would probably click the link out of curiosity. But it’s really a terrible way to get traffic. Kind of useless when I think about it. Thanks for sharing your tips.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 24, 2015 at 8:09 am

      You might be getting spam traffic and not even realize it’s not real traffic. I agree with you Jenny, it seems like a horrible strategy – and just rude.

      Reply
  7. Katie says

    July 23, 2015 at 10:30 am

    Holy thank you! I tried this plugin in the past but immediately heard it didn’t work. I will be giving it another go because this is all getting a little ridiculous!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 24, 2015 at 8:10 am

      It doesn’t work on Ghost referrals, but it’s worked on the majority of the spam referrals I get! I agree, the amount of fake traffic in my analytics was ridiculous!

      Reply
  8. Tiffany says

    July 21, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    OMG, thank you for sharing this! I’ve tried so many tutorials to block spam referrals, and I haven’t had any luck. It’s so annoying. Really looking forward to trying out this plugin.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 21, 2015 at 2:58 pm

      This one definitely makes it a lot easier to block spam referrals. Hopefully Google does something on their own soon though – it’s been a big problem for everyone lately! This plugin can’t block ghost referrals, but it has taken care of everything else for me. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  9. Tenns says

    July 20, 2015 at 11:31 am

    I have been looking all over the place for a way to remove spam bots from my GA! Thanks so much for sharing this Kristie! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 21, 2015 at 2:57 pm

      You’re welcome! It’s been a lifesaver for me, so I couldn’t help but share with everyone else!

      Reply
  10. Marianne // DYOB says

    July 20, 2015 at 7:03 am

    OMG i have SOOO needed this, thank you kristie!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 21, 2015 at 2:55 pm

      You’re welcome. Also, keep tabs in the support forum for the plugin, they let you know which referrals are ghost referrals (which you can only block via filters in GA).

      Reply
  11. Krystal says

    July 15, 2015 at 3:53 pm

    Thank you so much Kristie – I’ve been searching for a Plugin to do this but I haven’t wanted to install one that I wasn’t sure of. So, thank you. I’ve installed this now and it will be interesting to see how it goes.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 16, 2015 at 8:27 pm

      Hopefully it helps you have more accurate statistics Krystal! Mine took a few days to balance out, so don’t expect it to be instant.

      Reply
  12. Mickey Mellen says

    July 15, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    Kristie — Thanks for sharing our plugin! If you (or anyone else) has suggestions for new bots to block or other features to add, we’re always open to ideas.

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 16, 2015 at 8:26 pm

      You’re welcome Mickey, I’ll be sure to let you know if I notice anything else that needs blocked. Thanks for providing an awesome plugin.

      Reply
  13. Fran says

    July 15, 2015 at 12:08 pm

    Spam referrals are SO annoying! I’m going to give this a try – probably won’t work for ghost referrals though, right?

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 15, 2015 at 12:40 pm

      Correct, it does not work for ghost referrals, but most of the common spam referrals right now have not been ghost referrals (in my ananlytics at least).

      Reply
  14. Peter Nicholls says

    July 15, 2015 at 9:29 am

    Google have gotta sort this out soon!
    I’ve gotta give this plugin a try – I’ve tried blocking via my .htaccess and because the spam doesn’t actually ever hit my site it hasn’t worked. Fingers crossed it does what it says!!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 15, 2015 at 12:48 pm

      Hi Peter, hopefully it works for you! The plugin can not block ghost referrals, “some bots are “ghost referrals” that ping Google Analytics directly (without ever visiting your site) and the only way to stop them is via filters in Google Analytics”

      Reply
  15. Wendy says

    July 15, 2015 at 7:14 am

    This was perfect timing, Kristie! I was just getting ready to research how to remove floating social share referrals when I checked my email and found this! Just installed the plug in you recommend. Not looking forward to the new graph on my analytics, but at least what I see will be more accurate. ๐Ÿ™‚ Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kristie Hill says

      July 15, 2015 at 12:48 pm

      You’re welcome. It took a couple of days for my analytics to balance out, but I’m happy with the statisics now.

      Reply

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