Check your Google Analytics! You might have been hit by a Referral Spam Bot
Heads up… check your Google Analytics, you might have been hit by a Referral Spam Bot.
We noticed a few of our websites over the past 2 days have been hit with a couple of random, completely useless Referral Spam Bots, which only target Google Analytics. There is a pretty easy fix moving forward.
These stupid bots are basically sending your website ‘bogus traffic’. Perhaps it is some dude in his basement with nothing better to do by make some people’s lives miserable for some strange reason. Who knows!? What we do know is that it is annoying, especially for those who monitor website traffic closely.
Anyways, back to how to fix it. Note, this only fixes this moving forward, and the original bogus traffic will still stay in your GA dashboard.
Step 1:
- Log into your Google Analytics Account.
- Click on ADMIN (bottom right)
- Click on your View Settings (typically the 3rd column – All Website Data)
- Scroll down and click on “Bot Filtering”.
- Click Save.
Step 2:
- While on your View Settings, click on Filters (left column menu).
- Click + Add Filter
- Add Filter Name: Exclude: Spam
- Filter Type: Choose Custom
- Filter Field: Choose Campaign Source
- Filter Pattern: bot-traffic/.inc|trafficbot/.life
(note, these seem to be the two top referral spam bots being used now). - Click Save
That’s it. These pesky bots may pop up from time to time, and they seem to be ever evolving, so the above mentioned should be an easy fix. If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to reach out to us by email at info@a3creativ -solutions.com