Filter Out Google Analytics Referrer Spam from Analytics Reports
Ever have nasty “referrer spam” show up in your Google Analytics reports?
These spam words and links show up in the Organic Search and Referral reports.
The items that show up probably look something like this…
google-analytics-referrer-spam-filter
eu-cookie-law.info eu cookie law
sharebutton.org share buttons
share buttons sharebutton.org
sharebutton.to
website buttons sharebutton.to
share buttons sharebutton.to
sharebutton.to sharebutton.to
share this button sharebutton.to
free share buttons sharebutton.to
social share buttons sharebutton.to
fix-website-errors.com
keywords-monitoring-your-success.com
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
traffic2cash.xyz
share-buttons.xyz
site-52920917-1.snip.tw
top1-seo-service.com
eu-cookie-law-enforcement-6.xyz
socialbuttons.xyz
free-social-buttons6.xyz
abc.xyz
free-video-tool.com
net-profits.xyz
It would be the world’s worst game of whack-a-mole to try and filter these off one-by-one.
There are two filters you can add in Admin>> VIEW >> Filters. These are pretty effective at eliminating these spammy requests that are polluting your reports.
1. Hostname Only
This one only allows traffic that includes the hostname of your site.
- Make sure to escape the period with a backslash like
limecuda\.com - If you use a subdomain (www counts) then you can be more specific
e.g. www\.limecuda\.com
2. Screen Size Exclusion
This filter looks at the screen size of the visit and if it isn’t set (meaning it is likely a bot) then it will exclude it.
Use this RegEx string: ^\(not set\)$ and Exclude visits as shown below…
Deeper Reading
- Basic Google Analytics Filters for Every Site – LunaMetrics
- How to Remove Referral Spam from Google Analytics