What is it, where does it come from, and how do you stop it? I showed people how in this Google Spamalytics" presentation last week.

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Google Spamalytics
Presented by:
Scott Hendison

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Google Analytics Referral Spam
• What Is it?
• Where Does it Come From?
• Why Does it Exist?
• How Do You Get Rid Of It?

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What Is It?

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Where Does It Come From?

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Web Crawlers & Ghost Referrers

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Web Crawlers

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Ghost Referrers

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Google Analytics Measurement Protocol

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Ghost referrers fake
The data using the
Google Analytics
Measurement Protocol

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Why Does It Exist?

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data
• To build backlinks

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data
• To build backlinks
• To get you to click

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data
• To build backlinks
• To get you to click
• Inflates their own stats

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data
• To build backlinks
• To get you to click
• Inflates their own stats
• Can distribute malware

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Why Does It Exist?
• To gather data
• To build backlinks
• To get you to click
• Inflates their own stats
• Can distribute malware
• To drop FB or other ad pixels

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How Can You Get Rid of Them?

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How Can You Get Rid of It?

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How Can You Get Rid of It?

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How Can You Get Rid of It?

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How Can You Get Rid of It?

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How Can You Get Rid of It?

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Block with .htaccess?

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Block with .htaccess?

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters
Each reg ex filter pattern can have only 255 characters max,
so that means that you’ll have to create multiple filters.

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Done!

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Filters

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Exclusion Segments

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Exclusion Segment

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Exclusion Segment

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Exclusion Segment

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Exclusion Segment

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Exclusion Segment

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Exclusion Segment

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Click to rename or edit

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Referral Spam Removal
YOUR COMPANY NAME

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Take Aways
• Two Types - Spambots & Ghosts
• Ghosts are most common
• Don’t visit the websites!
• Use Google bot filtering, but *not* referral exclusions
• .htaccess is not effective, because most aren’t real.
• An Inclusion Filter is easy, but exclusions are better
• Referral Segment is best (in my opinion)
• Easy tools can make this all almost painless

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Thank You!
• Moz Post on an inclusion filter - http://bit.ly/1LNxXgn
• Luna Metrix Regexinator - http://bit.ly/1LNy2k6
• Matt Cutts 2012 Video explanation - http://bit.ly/1LNycYE
• Analytics Edge “Don’t Use the Exclusion List” -http://bit.ly/1LNBuez
• Google Measurement Protocol - http://bit.ly/1LNygI0
• Google Hit Builder Tool - http://bit.ly/1LNzEdP
• Hacking Universal Analytics video http://bit.ly/1LNyVZX
• Google Solution Gallery - http://bit.ly/1LNzdQL
• My filter tool and this presentation -http://bit.ly/spamalytics

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