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I keep getting the same referrers on my blog such as digg.com student review consolidation; bloggerreviews; the best twitter; unlockertips.com are these spam referrers? How can I tell if referrers are spam? I also have sitemeter and sometimes my referrers don't show on my sitemeter and I was wondering if it's because they are spam and not real readers.
The blog I need help with is zana4.wordpress.com.
These are a new type of spam. Please report the sites to Staff without posting URLs that others can click and send traffic to the sites in question http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
I'm getting lots of these too. Don't these people realise that by spamming they just make themselves look like a bunch of crooks?
Actually very little human effort and connection is required when it comes to spamming. Once a robotic script is created it can go on into infinitude. The latest angle is hiring human being to generate spam. Can you imagine having a job like that?
I strongly encourage everyone to report the URLs of the referral spammers to WordPress support. I regularly get anywhere from 10 to 40 referral spams every day. It's a major problem if you want your stats to reflect real reader views. I have reported all of my problems to WordPress at least 10 times over the last couple months and I still get "we're working on it."
Does anybody out there know if this problem can be fixed? Is it technically possible? WordPress support doesn't offer any information except "we're working on it." But it never stops. In fact, mine is getting worse. I had 33 "views" from a single spammer today, plus a long list of others.
I like wordpress and I think they do a pretty good job. Plus, it's free. But I need accurate stats. If wordpress can't provide them, I'll gladly pay another provider for the service.
@imagepoint
Are you using a free statcounter or sitemeter?
timethief ...
No. Can it parse stats per day, week, total, average, etc? If so, I'd like more information. Thanks ...
Yes, most regular stat counters can do that. See TT's site for some reviews of different stats packages that work with WordPress.com blogs.
On days when I have heavy traffic, such as last Monday, I have practically no spam referrers at all. On days I don't post, spam happens. It seems mainly to target my home page.
It would be only annoying if it didn't skew my WordPress blog stats, which I have in the sidebar. It doesn't seem to affect the SiteMeter counter, which I've set to track Unique Visitors. I think the Pax counter might be picking them up, though; I'm about ready to delete it.
I reported it once, had a nice email from Hanni asking me to report more. I more but heard nothing back from that email.
I'm getting annoyed with my stats/referrers. They're almost all from spam sites/bots. I've checked out a few threads about this issue. I know that I need to report the sites - and I will - but, what are my options for keeping these guys from showing up in my stats? It makes it look like more people are reading than there actually are, and I'd like to have more accurate stats. Suggestions?
I don't believe we bloggers can come up with any viable suggestions. The links are coming in from somewhere and we don't have access to wherever that entry point is. I'm afraid that it's Staff who will have to come up with whatever they and the search engines can work out as a solution to this unwelcomed referral spam and stats skewing problem. Sorry I can't be more helpful. :(
A little suggestion: Never click those links, it's what they want.
@ludusnaturae
Thanks so much for the reminder.
Never click the links is an excellent point that cannot be emphasized enough!
Also share those links with staff by contacting them directly...
Of course, slikbonez.
My suggestion comes from a response from staff when I report a Referrer Spam:
"Spammers take advantage of the referrer logs and visit your blog from phantom URLs that they are actually trying to promote, in the hope that you see them in your logs and click them" (Hanni, Happiness Engineer).
Then: Never click & Report to staff
Thank you all, staff and forum volunteers.
Two questions for clarification here:
Does clicking on the spam referrers links actually increase the traffic coming in from them?
And: these spam referrers are computer generated, right, not real individuals reading the blog? (Aside from the people hired to do it as a job, which is mentioned here, who obviously don't care about the actual content) I guess I'm still struggling with how this works.
No, it doesn't.
They may be real individuals doing this, but even if they are, it's a simple spam technique. Rest assured they are not reading your content.
Hi, it's happening to me too. I have around 5 readers, and my daily bot visits are up to 32 today. How do I report these sites that have no relation whatsoever with the subjects of my blog?
Ta ta for your support.
i would only get about 2/3 spam a day i must be lucky , but i would get about 15/20
referrers a day but i know where they are coming from
Today I got a interesting method for whitening theeth.
Best I'll go to my pharmacist, if I need something.
Thanks for the info in this thread. I figured it must be spam (I get about 5-10 of these a day), but wasn't sure. Nice to be sure it is; hope the staff find a way to stop it soon.
Just sent five links to staff. Sigh!
how to post a article???
Please don't hijack threads with completely unrelated issues.
Read this thread:
Also, it says the blog linked to your name has been archived or suspended for a violation of the terms of service. You won't be able to make any posts until that is straightened out.
I think that if they just blocked the words loan, insurance, and sex, it would get rid of 90 percent of the "spammy" referrers -- at least of the one's I'm seeing.
I get referers like Alfa Inventions, but can't block them. Some of the referers on my blog are real, it's just the other ones I don't want, because then I'm certain that spammers use those referers to spam my comments. I have a spam cue so I'm not overly concerned, it's just that getting rid of false referals to my blog would make it less cluttered.
I've been getting a few of these from insurance companies-should I report the links to wordpress staff? (They're not really a nuisance at the moment, but I was wondering why they were referring to my blog?)
Could there be a column of boxes to check so one can mark a referral as spam? Akismet does an amazingly good job with comment spam – couldn't they step in here as well?
@mjtroygd ~ You can remove your blog from the Alpha Inventions rotation. There's information on the home page, or you can google a phrase like "remove alpha inventions" and there's a relevant link near the top of the page.
I'm of a divided mind about AI. The other side of the spammy coin is that some of my most faithful readers came to me through that service, and I do get comments from folks who say they found me there. So, there are some real people lurking around.
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