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.
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:
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.
Thanks for this! Just activated on my blog and pinned to my Better Blog board for others.
Thank you for saving for others Catherine. I love this plugin, makes getting rid of the biggest spammers easy.
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.
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.
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.
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 =)
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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. 🙂
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! 🙂
You’re welcome! It’s been a lifesaver for me, so I couldn’t help but share with everyone else!
OMG i have SOOO needed this, thank you kristie!
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Spam referrals are SO annoying! I’m going to give this a try – probably won’t work for ghost referrals though, right?
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).
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!!
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”
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. 🙂 Thank you!
You’re welcome. It took a couple of days for my analytics to balance out, but I’m happy with the statisics now.