How To Block Referral Traffic In Google Analytics

by Vishal Negal · Published February 19, 2017 · Updated April 20, 2017

How To Block Referral Traffic In Google Analytics | Referrer Spam Blocker

Referrer Spam Blocker :- In today’s post I will share the information about “How to block referral traffic in google analytics” and will tell you the steps to block the unusual traffic on your website. Nowadays, Referral spam is a common technique which is used by other people to use your website’s bandwidth. This unusual traffic on your website uses all your bandwidth such that users are not able to use your bandwidth.

Main focus of this article is on two topics :-
1. How To Block Referral Traffic In Google Analytics
2. Referrer Spam Blocker

Many of the webmasters gets frustrated with this type of traffic and wants to block this spam. And I think you are also one of them, that’s why you are reading this article right now. Many of the small business, startups and other large business websites getting this type of traffic which spoils the reports of google analytics.

Must Read :
How To Target Country Specific Website Traffic | Increase Website Traffic
How To Do SEO And Improve Ranking

So, Today I’ll tell you the procedure to block this type of traffic on your website. I’ll will help you to get rid of this spammed traffic using google analytics. Because google analytics consist of lot of features due to which it can also act as Referrer Spam Blocker.

So… Let’s Start With Step By Step Guide For Blocking Unusual Traffic..

1. You can exclude all the bots and spiders using google analytics
As we know, google analytics provides many features to get rid of this traffic. The first one is to filter the bots i.e, Bot Filtering. In this method, you are able to block non-human referral traffic. This method includes only three steps.
– Go to “admin” tab
– Now, Click on “View Settings”
– Now, just check the box for bot filtering (as shown in the picture given below)

There are two types of spams which can attack your website :-
1. Ghost Spam
2. Referral Spam

So, It’s important to know the difference between ghost spam and referral spam traffic.

Ghost Spam – It is an type of spam which hits directly on your google analytics.
Referral Spam – It is an type of spam which hits your website to get fake visits.

You can easily stop these type of spams upto some extent. But some of the website can not be stopped by Bot filtering method, So you have to try another methods also.

How To Block Semalt, Lifehacker & Darodar forums Referral Spam :-
2. In this step, I will tell you that how you can block the traffic from particular domain. Admin Filter method will help you to block any specific domain using campaign source. This method includes only four simple steps.
– Go to “admin” tab
– Now, Click on “filters”
– Create a “New Filter”
– Now, Follow the steps according to the picture given below

This method is useful in case of spam referrals but in case of ghost spam it’s not useful. If you are getting unusual traffic from many different websites, then you can add more then one URL’s using pipe operator “|”. Using pipe operator, you can separate the URL’s (Don’t use spaces).

You Can Block Ghost Spam Using Hostname Filter

– If you are getting direct hits on your google analytics, then it is known as Ghost Spam.
– To block traffic from Ghost Spam, you have to use all valid domains and add them in hostname filter – include

Steps To Find Valid Hostname Using Images :-

Here’s the list of all valid hostnames :-
www.yourdomain.com
webcache.googleusercontent.com
www.youtube.com
translate.googleusercontent.com

Now, Patterns for filtering hostnames :-
.*yourdomain.com|.*googleusercontent.com|.*youtube.com (without spaces)

1. Use hostname filter
2. If you are still getting unsual traffic on your website, then use campaign source filter

Here’s the List of Major Spam Websites :-
blackhatworth.com
atl4i3util01.web.web.com
semalt.semalt.com
buttons-for-website.com
forum.topic38699690.darodar.com

You Can Also Block Unusual Traffic Through .htaccessfile

This is the best method to block spam referral traffic. You can block this traffic by just fixing simple code in .Htaccess file. Just check this code in the image.

Now, I’ll show you how to block spam traffic from specific Region/City/Country in analytics
Most of the spam traffic comes from Russia, So you can block this unhuman traffic to your website by just following these simple steps :-
1. Open your Google Analytics account
2. Go to “Admin” Tab
3. Now, click on filters
4. Now, click “New Filter” and then follow these steps