I am "Fed Up" with "Referrer Spam"!

[greeneagle]

I am "Fed Up" with Referrer Spam in my Stats

If anyone wants to start a Referral Spam “Black List”, I’ will sticky a "Referral Spam Black List" post so we can provide them all the links they want, straight to the point, declaring the games they are playing.

In the 1st 6 weeks of 2006 I have rcvd:

77 supposed referrals from http://www.spagack.com/
4 supposed referrals from http://www.xanga.com/
11 from http://adwarespywareblaster.info/
2 from http://www.best-of-marketing.info/ (why hasn’t their Adsense been stripped yet?)
11 from http://www.ding-dingringtones.co.uk/
11 from http://www.easykeywords.info/
11 from http://www.ezineking.com/
11 from http://www.golddustsupercasinosite.com/
11 from http://www.txsholdemhighpoker.com/
9 from http://news.netcraft.com/ (even reputable high ranking firms are starting to use this method of spam, if I missed it, show my link)
8 from http://www.proxyway.com/
8 from http://www.constantcashcreator.com/ (looks like it died though)
6 from http://www.topwebproducts.com/
4 from http://www.search-engine-optimization-solutions.com/ (they may have died too)
2 from http://www.webdesigngfx.com/
2 from http://www.woodhomebiz.com/
1 from http://10000hits.net/

There are many, many more at the 1 time spot including several big names!

I do not like my stats gummed up by “Referrer Spam” from anyone, I don’t give a rat’s ass who you are!

Referrer Spam is something the SE’s can’t really control… and it’s going to hell in a handbasket right now… more every day…big names included.

Can you guys just have enough respect for your fellow webmasters and their tools that provide “real time” feedback to not practice this deviant ultimate “Black Hat” SEM practice, as to not gum up our “works” with your webmaster direct garbage?

Shame on you, big names playing this game! Keep it up, and I will call you out too!

Ken

[greeneagle]

If you don't understand this post, most likely your hosting company doesn't provide stats, you don't know they do and haven't checked them, don't understand them or their value, if you have them etc...

Do we need to open a Website Statistical Analysis thread so that everyone realizes the "real time" value input from these tools?

There is NO EXCUSE for "big names" playing the "Referral Spam" game, and believe me, we can call out some bigger names than we have already.

Actually, we are approached by potential clients frequently that own up to hundreds of websites that don't even have "Stats" available! What the hell is the deal with that?

Hey, how do you check the oil in your car?

How do you expect us to SEO or SEM if we can't even "look under the hood"?

We don't do those kind of clients, because we can't operate "shooting in the dark", you can have them.

A real SEO/SEM company needs "real time" data "PERIOD"!, Whoever you decide to use.

I don't even know how many clients we have turned down that aren't ready to get serious.

And then there are these idiots "Big Names" included coming in and gumming up that important tool, with Referral Spam!

That's as bad as it comes, Webmasters spamming webmasters in one of their most valuable tools... shame on anyone, enticed into that low life groveling.

I am taking out my salt shaker for those slugs!

It shouldn't have come to this! Webmasters should not rape other webmaster's tools with "Referral Spam"!

That, in my opinion is a most grievous violation of existence together here.

Ken

[mike]

I have a pretty long list in my refer section of the logs myself.

I guess I'm setting myself up to look ignorant, but I don't know why it should bother me....


So... Um, why should it bother me?

[greeneagle]

Mike,

I have never rcvd referrer spam from WPW.

Why not?

Let's all gum up each other's "works" with it!

How effective is it?

That's the question, isn't it?

I will be posting a referrer spam black list on my site at least...

In my books, when webmasters spam webmasters through uncontrolled doors... there's just no lower life that can crawl out from under a rock.

It's a travesty that even "Big Names" in SEO and SEM are taking to.

There is no recourse except banning their sites from yours or dealing direct with your hosting company. It's not a spam that is under the SEs domain. They can't deal with it and never will. It is up to us to let other perps in our world know that it reeks of a rotten "Black Hat" stench that matches no other.

This particular brand of webmaster to webmaster web spam is obscene and the perps need to know that some of us don't want our stats (operational data) gummed up with it.

I don't want to have to pick through my referrers and dismiss half of them as webmaster to webmaster garbage.

This is an issue that hasn't been dealt with openly, but the time has come. It's getting worse by the day.

We have been asked; "What is Spam?", Let's explore it at all depths.

Ken

[greeneagle]

Tell me Mike, that you can't place some big names on a "Referral Spam Black List"...if it goes that far.

Most of us here probably could.

If they have already declared nothing "sacred" between webmasters, they deserve what they get in the end!

Yes, I am "bent out of shape" on this one.

This isn't about whether I am going to subscribe to the spammed Site's proposals... Most of us are too smart for that anyway...

It's about respect... webmaster to webmaster.

Don't send it my way. I don't want it, and I will "black list" you with every tool I have and then I will come back with more.

This is not a game we want to play... pack it up in your garbage can, where it belongs.

Disclaimer: This may or may not be WPW's opinion and shouldn't reflect on them - but it is mine, and I will stick by it! It's past time, spiraling out of control, check it now, or I will lead a drive to do so.

Ken

[ADAM Web Design]

Now you'd better calm down, Ken, or you're going to give yourself skin failure!

If it's really bothering you that much, I can help you get rid of it in no more than 2 steps:

1) Transfer the compilation of your raw logs to a directory outside of the structure of your website. The exact instructions on how to do so are server-type-dependent, but to the best of my knowledge all servers can do this.

e.g. if your site is at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\thisismysite.com , move your log files to C:\logfiles\thisismysite.com . You won't have them sitting anywhere near the root directory of your site that way, and no one can get at them.

2) Password-protect your stats app. If it's AWStats, password-protect the directory.

There's no point in posting referrer spammers. All you're doing is giving them credibility they otherwise don't deserve.

[incrediblehelp]

Right Adam that is the point of referrer SPAM they want to get that free posted link on the victim website.

[Papadoc]

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

If it's really bothering you that much, I can help you get rid of it in no more than 2 steps:

Neither of these stop the referrer spam. Protecting the logs is irrelevant except for as they count as a backlink for the spammer. Of course Ken just helped them out here a bit on his own by giving them one more link from WPW in this thread.

Even if you hide your stats, referrer spam still muddies them up because it pings your page. At most, all you can do is stop it from benefiting them, but then they don't go around finding which ones will or won't help them. They just hit everyone. Mine have and always will be hidden, but they still send referrer spam to the tune of several thousand per month. It's a small percent of my traffic, but it still has an effect when calculating various returns.

These idiots do this to other webmasters for their own benefit, screw what it does to the ability of the webmaster to analyze his data.

To those of us who try to really analyze our traffic patterns or use those stats in any kind of meaningful way, this is just trash that is thrown into the mix and has nothing to do with real traffic. When analyzing where your traffic does come from, these then dilute every other referrer, and you cannot show them to clients until they are cleaned up.

Chief amongst these is various holdem poker sites. Not only do they hit you with this bogus referrer crap, if you have something where they can sign up online for a link or for an account, they will pound these and not worry about whether they might screw up your database so long as they get a link out of it, even for a short period of time.

I'd just love to organize some kind of denial of service against these folks for about a month and then tell them to either play right or get knocked out for good.

[gr]

Can somebody help me understand please.

Apart from messing up my stats, what are these referrals actually trying to achieve?

[kgun]

Ken wrote:

There is no recourse except banning their sites from yours or dealing direct with your hosting company.

Yes that may be the best solution:

1. Use your robots.txt

Example:
http://multifinanceit.com/robots.txt

2. Use your .htaccess file

Examples:
http://multifinanceit.com/htaccess.txt
http://multifinanceit.com/htaccess1.txt

3. Set up a spider trap
http://techpatterns.com/downloads/spider_blocking.php
http://danzcontrib2.free.fr/en/pieges.php#bloquer

4. Related links
http://www.garykeith.com/browsers/downloads.asp

And they steal bandwith.

[freehits]

Well said Kgun

I found #2 helps best, but you can keeping adding disallow domains and such, and once your in their lists they tend to keep coming back.

[kgun]

Yes, it is an ongoing battle. That is why WPW should prioritize this and preferrably get a sticky post with updated IP's of bad sites.

A spider trap should also be very useful, since it identifies bad referrers that go around robots.txt.

My proposal to WPW. Set up a sticky post with the right text. I know there is a related post, but the heading of that post is not directly related to referrer spam and / or bad bots.

[freehits]

I had used some information from a post I found online on configuring the htaccess file to filter out bad keywords in referrer domains as well.

I imagine this was a bad programming appraoch as it meant having a htaccess file with about 70-100 lines, which doesnt seems like the best idea.

Here is a snippet and link from ilovejackdaniels.com

# Drugs / Herbal

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (sleep-?deprivation) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (sleep-?disorders) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (insomnia) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (phentermine) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (phentemine) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (vicodin) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (hydrocodone) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (levitra) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (hgh-) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (-hgh) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (ultram-) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (-ultram) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (cialis) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (soma-) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (-soma) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (diazepam) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (gabapentin) [NC,OR.........
etc etc

http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/apac...referrer-spam/

[freehits]

Wouldnt there be a creative way way to catch incoming requests from these referrers and redirect with rewrite back to their own domain so they referral spam their own sites for my sake?

[greeneagle]

I know there is some disagreement here, but they watch their stats to see who responds and where referals are coming from.

I had just as soon, they know about this thread.

Hardly anyone has broached this subject for what it is.

Ken