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Referer Spam Is Here, To Stay

Why doesn't Blogger put an end to referer spam?
Some are angrier, and tragically so.

There are 3 ways that you may be able to see an end to this abuse of our patience, and our Stats displays.
  1. The spammers have to cease spamming.
  2. Google has to block the spam.
  3. You have to stop clicking on the links.

1. Referer spam, seemingly lame to us, is probably an excellent source of revenue for the spammers. Look at how easy it must be, to produce. All that is required is access to other peoples computers, to send the spam - and websites, with owners willing to pay for undeserved traffic. Minimum exposure - but constant income. What spammer, able to do this, will willingly stop?

2. Google is blocking referer spam - but it's a cat and mouse game. If you look at the referer spam which shows up in your Stats displays, you'll see that there is more than one spammer - and more than one spamming technique. Even as Google detects and blocks one specific technique, you can bet that another technique is being developed. As long as referer spam continues to produce income, spammers will continue to produce the spam.

3. Referer spam will continue to produce income, as long as blog owners continue to click on the links. And now, we are discussing the only way that referer spam will ever be stopped.

Don't click on the links.

That is the only way to make referer spam stop. Learn to use a proxy server, if you must check out your inlinks from Stats. Alternately, check out inlinks using a third party visitor information accessory, like SiteMeter or StatCounter, which is immune to referer spam.

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laura said…
Thank you for this post. It was most helpful to me in coming to grips with my frustration and my questions. Should be Required Reading.
oops. i totally clicked the link before coming here lol but thanks for the info!
Ifinder said…
Thanks a lot. I used to click to see who they are. Now stop. Thanking You again.
Pym Purnell said…
Hi Guys - not sure if I just managed to leave this question, so if I did ignore this 1 - I clicked on the link, have I done something terminal?

Anonymous said…
This is pathetic! There IS a way to somehow stop this crap. If I was Google, I'd simply insert a "delete/block this traffic source"-icon. There are 59875684589 different "traffic source"-sites, I know. But I'm willing to sit and click every one of those ****ing icons if they existed. You know? Because it's annoying to just see them in my logs... :(
Louise said…
thanks for this info, it's a really pathetic way to get clicks! I won't be clicking to see who they are anymore
Costume Lady said…
Why is it that my friends cannot post anything on my blog without typing a word verification, but the spammers can just skip over all the verification blanks and post all day, if they so choose!
Chuck said…

Simple - the spammers know how to setup security, on their computers!
Diane said…
Not good enough. Apart from anything else it's giving false readings for the stats, which makes them near useless.

It's up to Google and blogger to stop them, or like one of the other users, I'm moving to wordpress. Google isn't doing much to stop the worst one, which I won't name but it ends in .ru.

Most unsatisfactory.
Kate said…
If it's true that they stop visiting your site if you stop clicking on their links, how come I haven't clicked on any of the 'domar' links in a few months and yet they still keep visiting my site?
Chuck said…

The "Stop Clicking On The Links" campaign starts with you, and a few others - but the spammers will never go back to their day jobs until everybody stops clicking.
fatografi said…
Thanks for the info, so basically it will never stop is the real answer! People will always click on stuff and the spammers wont give up. I really don't want to move my blog as I have a loyal base of readers, I guess I'll just have to ignore it! Has google made any kind of comment on this? especially with regards to our friends in Russia?
yoetama said…
further clarifying, sometimes also there are sites that take keywords that are popular from a blog
md said…
Thanks i thought it was just me they were bothering!
Judy said…
Really appreciate this info that ease my concern. Darn I already click on these links. I hope they won't stay aftr I remove the stat feature. Thank agian.
Mark said…
Whether you click on the links or not, it doesn't "stop" the referrals. All it means is that the spam-du-jour goes away to make way for yet another site to send you referral spam. It kind of defeats the purpose of even being able to see your stats if essentially what is there is fake and meaningless. I never click the obviously fake links, but it doesn't make a difference because it's not like it ever makes it go away.
Chuck Croll said…

In reality, nothing will make spammers go away - we all know this. But if you don't click on the links, the spamvertised websites will get slightly less intraffic - and this may hasten the day when some of the spammers go back to their day jobs, asking "Can I soooper-size your order?".

And people who do click on the links endanger themselves and their computers - and possibly contribute to the bot population - and thus to the easier distribution of the spam.

So, Don't click on the links!!
This gave me insights I didn't have. Thank you!

Zoom Zoom Classroom
Ed Irkitated said…
Vampirestat are driving me insane. I get over 50 hits from them most days. Its really annoying that they are messing up my true stats
I don't click on the link.But it's increases very quickly. From 200 to 5000 in the first day, to 10000 in next day, and 15000 in the third day. And it's increasing every time. I am very worry about that.
Chuck Croll said…

I can think of some real problems to worry about - but if you wish to worry about non existent traffic, to your blog, so be it.
Naveed Ahmed said…
I am very much concerned as I am facing this fake traffic issue from the past 3 months or so. As and when I read your post in Google Product Forums, I stopped clicking or visiting those SPAM referral sites, but that hasn't helped me.

The problem is that I am continously getting fake referral traffic from the SPAM sites on daily basis, and my real traffic has dropped despite the fact that I continue to contribute valuable content to my blog. I am upset that I can't find a solution to this issue.

There is not much even in your guidelines that I can adopt and minimize my problem, as I already implementing your suggestions. So I can only ask how long should it take at maximum to stop this fake referral traffic?

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