Spam traffic

[santomarco]

Hello,

I have a problem, in my google analytics on organic search I see a traffic with "sharebutton.to" as: social share buttons sharebutton.to or website buttons sharebutton.to

Does anyone know how I can get rid of this data?

Also how can block this type of spam?

Thank you.

[baldidiot]

It's analytics spam. Been going on for a couple of years now, just the website being promoted that changes. And yes, it's annoying.

You can set a filter to remove it: https://moz.com/blog/stop-ghost-spam...ith-one-filter

[santomarco]

Thank you.

I changed .htacces and I set a filter, now let's see.

[iGamer]

I was getting a lot of web spam from Russia - I'm using Cloudflare as a CDN and just set an extra javascript challenge to all Russian traffic. I've found this has reduced my webspam to zero while still letting in genuine users from Russia.

[baldidiot]

Seeing lots of .xyz domains popping up in the referrals.

Also weirdly some are for established sites like abc.xyz (which is google). Not quite sure what the point of it is at the moment, sure it'll become clear soon though...

[iGamer]

Bald, I got the abc.xyz too and looked into it and it was from Russia with a less than 2 seconds on the site for each hit! So I think they're somehow masking the domain - I don't think this is a proper Googlebot.

Here's some more web spam shenanigans involving Russian bots pretending to be from Google which I've also had - bgr.com/2016/11/21/fake-google-vitaly-popov-scam-spam/

As I say, I solved this by using Cloudflare's option for a browser javascript challenge to target Russia, which still lets in genuine Russian users.

[baldidiot]

Bald, I got the abc.xyz too and looked into it and it was from Russia with a less than 2 seconds on the site for each hit! So I think they're somehow masking the domain - I don't think this is a proper Googlebot.

Yeah I agree. But I don't understand what they're up to - with referral traffic up til now it's been to direct traffic at a website. But this is them clearly masking it with another, so what do they get out of it?

That's what I meant...

[CasinoBonusMaster]

There are many reasons they do it. For example:

- artificially inflate website traffic
- spread malware

So, never click on referrers that you don't trust, but google their domain first.

[baldidiot]

There are many reasons they do it. For example:

- artificially inflate website traffic
- spread malware

So, never click on referrers that you don't trust, but google their domain first.

But that's my point, I understand the normal reasons but with this new wave they're not promoting their site. Click it, google it, whatever, it goes to the google corporate page. That's what I'm confused about. Why?

[CasinoBonusMaster]

But that's my point, I understand the normal reasons but with this new wave they're not promoting their site. Click it, google it, whatever, it goes to the google corporate page. That's what I'm confused about. Why?

Look at the languages from those visitors

https://postimg.org/image/ypdzktwqr/

[GCG]

These Russian/Bulgarian linked domains try to do negative Seo to your website and get more traffic to their hacked sites.
These show up as xyz .info domains in GWT.
e.g.

betrugstest.com-all.info/page/top_10_online_slots_uk/

[santomarco]

I blocked all this sources of traffic from .htaccess with this code, until now: (x = Domain Name of site that send spam traffic)

## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} x.xyz [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} x.com [NC,OR]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

[baldidiot]

Look at the languages from those visitors

https://postimg.org/image/ypdzktwqr/

Ah, ok. I tend to use an app to see analytics stats (and clicky on a lot of sites) so didn't spot the language. Sneaky buggers.

[baldidiot]

I blocked all this sources of traffic from .htaccess with this code, until now: (x = Domain Name of site that send spam traffic)

## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} x.xyz [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} x.com [NC,OR]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

It's a pain to do that for every domain though. And doesn't stop sites which are spamming analytics directly (ie: that don't hit your site).

[PromoteCasino]

As I say, I solved this by using Cloudflare's option for a browser javascript challenge to target Russia, which still lets in genuine Russian users.

Hi iGamer can you elaborate more on setting up the JS challenge. I have Cloudflare but am not sure where to change the settings.

[PromoteCasino]

Scrap that iGamer found it. Doh!!!

[IWorg]

What do you suggest to solve this issue? I'm still building my website and receive a lot of this junk traffic and referrals!

[dfiocch]

Please, note:

-this scumbag is "simulating" traffic from legit social sites including Facebook, Reddit and Stack Exchange.
-check the real source of the traffic and be careful in blocking hosts

Just to say

[PromoteCasino]

Please, note:

-this scumbag is "simulating" traffic from legit social sites including Facebook, Reddit and Stack Exchange.
-check the real source of the traffic and be careful in blocking hosts

Just to say

Just come across the reddit an stack exchange in analytics today, filtered them out.

How exactly do they create negative seo?

[dfiocch]

Just come across the reddit an stack exchange in analytics today, filtered them out.

How exactly do they create negative seo?

It's not negative SEO, just SPAM, ghost traffic. They attack directly your GA account through the code, nothing more.