Google Analytics Referral Spam - Pubcon Las Vegas 2015

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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 RemovalYOUR 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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