Fake Blog Visitors and Referer Spams

       Fellow bloggers, this is something we should all be concerned about.  I was checking my blog stats tonight and was kinda surprised to find out that I'm getting traffic from really strange sources.  Go check the screenshots and see for yourself.

       For this blog, here are the referring URLs and sites today:

     Even my other blog (Show Me Your Look Today) is getting the same treatment.

     My traffic is quite small so I can clearly see all that.  Those strange but valid-looking URLs got me curious so I followed the links and was mystified to find out that the sites did not yield anything.  Thus, I was prompted to investigate further and got the bad news. 

     When I googled about the sites, the info I got about them is that they spam, they bring virus and malware and that they're designed to make you curious so you will click on the link.  They are called REFERER SPAMS that's visible only to the blog administrator as you are the only one who can see your blog's stats.

     Referer spams, also known as log spam or referer bombing, is a kind of spamming that targets search engines.  The technique involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referrer URL that points to the site the spammer wishes to advertise.  Sites that publicize their access logs, including referrer statistics, will then inadvertently link back to the spammer's site.  These links will be indexed by search engines as they crawl the access logs.  (Definition from Wikipedia).

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     Referer bombing is said to be a tactic used by spammers to make webmasters curious so they will research their referrers and visit the specific website.  Anyway, I was a bit worried and checked my previous stats (weekly, monthly and all-time) to find out whether I have more referer spam on my reports.

     As it turned out, I actually do.  So far, I have these on my list:

• http://www4.savegco-antivir.com
• http://www3.personal-scanera.com
• http://www4.safe-vochecker.com
• http://www4.best-aruchecker.com
• http://www3.bestbxcleaner.com
• http://www4.strongdxgsoft.com
• http://www.googlecorrection.com
• http://www.justforlaughsgags.tv
• http://domar.ru

     They were the ones I found weird enough to be giving me so much traffic yet I barely know these sites.  Information about them throughout the web also confirms that they are indeed referer spams.  You can Google about them but no matter what, DON'T CLICK THEIR LINKS if you see them on your stats report.  One way to stop these referer spams is to COMPLETELY IGNORE them.  But if you're bothered that they will show in your Google Analytics Report, here's a SITE with the solution.

     Referer spams will reflect some figure on your stats report but they do not give your blog any actual traffic, thus your stats may fluctuate.  Webmasters are suggesting that you get a third party visitor log to have an accurate pageview count as they are not affected by these annoying referer spams.

     If you have suspicious looking URLs on your stats report, DON'T CLICK THEM.  Google about them instead just to be sure.  Other bloggers might've encountered them in the past, and the info you will get will save you some headache later.  By the way, if you have additional spam referer to add on this list, tell me so on the comments' section below.

     Be safe everybody and see you on my next wandering!