I need help with blocking spam referrer from my website.
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Google Analytics is showing the Spam referrer on my site: /youporn-forum.uni.me How can I blog that site and also how can I protect my website from scams like that since I cannot install any plugins for that? Please help! My website is http://www.olivseo.com
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hey there,
First off, I wanted to confirm with you that your site is on WordPress.com, because Google Analytics cannot be used on WordPress.com sites without the Business upgrade. The site, olivseo.com, doesn’t have the Business upgrade.
Next, regarding spam referrers on WordPress.com sites…you can mark them as spam so they no longer display as referrers to your site:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/stats/#marking-spam-referrersIf there is anyone spamming your site with unwanted comments, you can blacklist them, or change your settings to increase your security:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/unwanted-comments/
I hope this helps! If you have any other concerns, drop me a note. Thanks much!
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Thank you for your quick response. My site is definitely on wordpress.com, but I am still able to see a lot of details on Google Analytics. Stats page doesn’t show any Referrers listed. I was only able to see it on Google Analytics. From my research I can see that this seems to be common problem, but I don’t know how to stop it without plugins.
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Olivia,
I see! It sounds as if you’re using Google Webmaster tools. Thanks for clarifying!
From your description, I believe you’re not seeing the referrer on your stats page because we already filter that referrer from WordPress.com sites. While Google may be seeing that the referral occurred, it doesn’t appear as a hit on your site in your WordPress.com site stats, because our system knows not to register it for you.
There are no tools or plugins that you can install on your WordPress.com site to keep Google’s tools from “seeing” the spam referrer. I am not familiar with Google controls, but are you able to spam the referrer on their end as well?
If you’d like, you can tell me the spam referrer and I can see if it’s blocked on our end.
It sounds as if you already know this, but you CAN use plugins on WordPress sites that aren’t hosted here at WordPress.com. If you’re interested in learning more about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks very much.
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I really appreciate your help. I am using both Webmasters tool and Google Analytics. The information about spam referrer is on Google Analytics. If you have e-mail address, I can sent you the screen shot. The referrers name is /youporn-forum.uni.me It is showing me that there are 104 page views thru them.
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Hey there,
Thanks for the information. That referrer is not counted on your WordPress.com site’s stats.
However, there is no way to block Google Analytics from counting it. Additionally, we cannot completely block any referrers from public WordPress.com sites. If this is important to your site’s operations, you may choose to move to a WordPress.org site where you can add the plugins you desire.
Otherwise, you’ll have to use a combination of WordPress.com’s site stats AND Google’s tools to get a clear idea of your traffic.
Incidentally…
If there is ever anything you want us to look at, you can upload a screenshot to your Media Library, and let us know when we can take a look at your image(s).
Sorry I cannot be more helpful with this, but if I can address any other concerns, please do let me know. Many thanks.
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Thank you so much! One more questions, please. Since it is not counted on WordPress.com- does it mean that wordpress blocked it? I am just concerned if they are able to continue making spam referrals to my site. Also, I eventually want to upgrade to WordPress.org,but I have purchased Premium Membership thru WordPress.com and I don’t want to loose it’s benefits until it expires. That is my only concern.
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Hiya!
The idea behind spam referrers is that they show up in your analytics and you are tricked into visiting them. We block them from your view so they are ineffective, and you cannot fulfill their plan by clicking on their link.
The main inconvenience is that they mess up your analytics. Again, that’s why we hide known spam referrers, and why you can spam referrers that you think are invalid. Since the great majority of our users solely use WordPress.com stats and the supported webmaster tools, this is all that is needed.
The referrers can continue attempting this action. We will continue to block them so they don’t inconvenience you. But, they will continue to display on non-WordPress.com-supported analytics.
Should you choose to leave WordPress.com before the year is up, you can still use several components of your Premium upgrade with a Jetpack connected WordPress.org site (such as the custom domain name/mapping, and your VideoPress upgrade, and even the space upgrade can be handy for storage).
Again, drop me a line if you have questions! Cheers :)
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Thank you so much for all your help with this. After doing further research I was able to confirm that this particular spam only affects Google Analytics reporting. I posted that information on my blog if anybody else need help with that issue. http://wp.me/p5zyrt-4U
Thank you once again! -
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