Read full details here: darodar.com referrer spam and What to do?
I had some interesting traffic showing up in my Google Analytics today. So far I’ve seen 21 referral traffic from forum.topic55798995.darodar.com to my home page http://www.blackmoreops.com/.
But the part that’s more disturbing is that anyone with some programming skill can actually create a tool to randomize Google Analytics code and send Fake visiting info back to Google. Followings are the implications:
This spam is too broad scale to be useful for BlackHAT SEO but if someone manages to do it carefully on Bing/Alexa/Yandex/DuckDuckGo or other search engines, then those sites will be ranked high on those services. Google unknowingly will pick up those search results and automatically give that website a higher ranking.
You know what? Someone is having a lot of fun and laughing at us all!!!
Update 20141219:1340: I just saw make-money-online.7makemoneyonline.com popping up in my referrers list. Use Google Analytics Filter to remove them from your reports. You can also apply the filter above to ban them if you feel like.
Read the rest of it here: darodar.com referrer spam and What to do?
I had some interesting traffic showing up in my Google Analytics today. So far I’ve seen 21 referral traffic from forum.topic55798995.darodar.com to my home page http://www.blackmoreops.com/.
What is more scary?
You know what? I am not worried about this darodar.com referral spam / referrer spam. The worst that can happen is you see some funny links in your Google Analytics. Just don’t browse to those sites.But the part that’s more disturbing is that anyone with some programming skill can actually create a tool to randomize Google Analytics code and send Fake visiting info back to Google. Followings are the implications:
- You can target a legit website and spam others using them as referrer. The result? Google demotes a perfetly good website because someone else spammed forged their GA code to spam others.
- You can target a website and spam using their GA code. The result? That website appears in millions of GA users and if even 5% of them visit that website, it might just overload their server and create a DDoS situation for them. I tested a tool named GoldenEye which was able to create 100’s of legit connections from same IP and GA thought they were real users. There’s obviously some more fine tuning required on Google’s behalf.
- Someone exploits your GA code and Google can just BAN your GA account, no explanations will be given. Your AdSense account can be exploited and banned in similar ways.
Open question to everyone
Anyone assessed this referrer spam on Bing/Alexa/Yandex?This spam is too broad scale to be useful for BlackHAT SEO but if someone manages to do it carefully on Bing/Alexa/Yandex/DuckDuckGo or other search engines, then those sites will be ranked high on those services. Google unknowingly will pick up those search results and automatically give that website a higher ranking.
Note: Piwik doesn’t report this SPAM which confirms that this is again just GA code abuse.
What do you do in the meantime?
Few options, some are just to make you sleep well!- You can block their IP – pointless, IP’s are dime a dozen.
- You can block them as a referrer – maybe good for your GA. See links above for the guides.
- You can filter them in your GA Account – Possibly a good idea.
You know what? Someone is having a lot of fun and laughing at us all!!!
Update 20141219:1340: I just saw make-money-online.7makemoneyonline.com popping up in my referrers list. Use Google Analytics Filter to remove them from your reports. You can also apply the filter above to ban them if you feel like.
Read the rest of it here: darodar.com referrer spam and What to do?
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