Referrer spam is such a pain in the neck when using Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic. There is a way to manually filter out all of the dung-hole sites that are just trying to get more traffic by having us, out of curiosity, type in their site name and only then realizing we’ve just been had by another jackass who only knows how to use devious, unprofessional, and juvenile ways to get more traffic to their site.
I’ll bet if you landed on this page on purpose, you are looking for a way to get rid of referral spam in a inexpensive (or free) and easy way. Well, I know just the cure for you and your Google Analytics account.
Introducing the Referrer Spam Blocker service
I only found this service about a week ago but I’ve used it almost every day since then. They keep an updated list of referral spam and will update your filters in your Google Analytics account for free. That’s right, for free. On the Referrer Spam Blocker website, they state that it’s a free service because they want to give back to the community. I for one think that they are doing more than their share to host such a great service. What a classy group of individuals.
How to use the service
To use this free referral spam blocking service, simply log into Google Analytics, select Views, follow them on Twitter, and each time you visit their Twitter account, which I suggest once every day or two, click the referral spam blocker link in their latest tweet and it will automatically connect to your Google Analytics account (you must be logged in and give them permission to connect), and automatically update your referral spam blocking filters.
They also ask that you share the service with your colleagues through social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), install Segments to view your historical data, donate to compensate for the cost of an intern to continue development, and submit feature requests.
This short 6 minute YouTube video will explain it better than I:
So start using Referrer Spam Blocker and get rid of those dirt-bag spam referrers for good. Well, at least out of your website’s Analytics.