Getting rid of spam referral hits on your website or blog

There are lots of reports from various webmasters and blog owner about the spam hits from unknown sources ruining the visibility of their website on the  search engines such as Google, Bing etc. They are getting hits from those websites, best known for spamming and Denial of Service Attack (DDoS).

Sources to find spam hits

There are two sources to identify spam referral hits on your website –

1. Google Analytics 
2. In-built analytic tool that comes with your control panel (which includes Awstats and Analog Stats)

Popular Spammer’s domain

• darodar.com (and various subdomains)
• econom.co
• ilovevitaly.co (and other TLD variations
• semalt.com (and various subdomains)
• buttons-for-website.com (and various subdomains)
• see-your-website-here.com
• floating-share-buttons.com (and various subdomains)
• free-social-buttons.com (and various subdomains)

Identifying Spam Hits with Google Analytics

• Go to google.com/analytics
• Sign in into Google Accounts using your account associated with it.
• Select the analytical account, created by you.
• Under Reporting tab in the left side panel click on Acquisition and
• Referrals under All Traffic

Blocking spam referrals from accessing your website using .htaccess

You can add following code into the file named .htaccess located under the root directory.

# Referrer SPAM
# semalt
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*semalt\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.semalt.com [R=301,L]
# semaltmedia
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*semaltmedia\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.semaltmedia.com [R=301,L]
# best-seo-solution
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*best-seo-solution\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.best-seo-solution.com [R=301,L]
# best-seo-offer
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*best-seo-offer\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.best-seo-offer.com [R=301,L]
# buttons-for-website
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*buttons-for-website\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.buttons-for-website.com [R=301,L]
# simple-share-buttons
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*simple-share-buttons\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.simple-share-buttons.com [R=301,L]
#buttons-for-your-website
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*buttons-for-your-website\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.buttons-for-your-website.com [R=301,L]
#Get-Free-Traffic-Now
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*get-free-traffic-now\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.get-free-traffic-now.com [R=301,L]
#sharebutton
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*sharebutton\.net [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://sharebutton.net [R=301,L]
#buy-cheap-online
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*buy-cheap-online\.info [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.buy-cheap-online.info [R=301,L]
#free-share-button
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*free-share-button\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.free-share-button.com [R=301,L]
#free-share-buttons
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*free-share-buttons\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.free-share-buttons.com [R=301,L]
#100dollars-seo.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*100dollars-seo\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.100dollars-seo.com [R=301,L]
#videos-for-your-business.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*videos-for-your-business\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.videos-for-your-business.com [R=301,L]
#success-seo
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://([^.]+\.)*success-seo\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.success-seo.com [R=301,L]

If .htaccess does not exist you can create it. Note: This works with Apache/Linux based OS.

Filtering spam referrals in your Google Analytics

Blocking spam referral from accessing your website is not the solution of getting rid of spam hits on your website. After blocking spam referrals from accessing your website, you need to filter the analytical data. This is to say Google, Hey! Hi, kick these spammers at least from my account.

Google have in-built feature to exclude things from your account. Hope you have not logged out yet from Google Analytics, if you had then re-login and go to Google Analytics account> Admin tab> and then All Filter. And follow below steps-

• Click on +New Filter
• Type anything in the field Filter Name lets say Spam Hits
• Chose Custom option
• Make sure Exclude is selected, and chose Campaign source from the drop down box Filter Type
• And input the following expression in the Filter Pattern field.

darodar\.|semalt\.|buttons-for.*?website|blackhatworth|ilovevitaly|prodvigator|cenokos\.|ranksonic\.|adcash\.|share.?buttons\.|social.?buttons\.|hulfingtonpost\.|free.*traffic|buy-cheap-online|-seo|seo-|videos-for

• From the option Apply Filter to Views select the sites you would like to protect
• And click on Add button.
• Now save it.

Well, that’s all!

Your feedback and questions will be appreciated in the comment below