Bullshit Referrers

LowryBigwood · 2007-12-25, 12:55 PM

Hey Art, this thread will shed some light on it.

Emerald, I took this bit of text from the page that I linked to in the thread above.

Why do people do this? There are two main reasons.

The first is to get you to follow an affiliate link, in the hopes that you just might like what you see on the page you view, and be enticed to follow it. You will often see referral spam for products / sites that are somehow related to your own.

Another reason for log spamming is for the backlink or pagerank factor. If your stats are available on a publicly viewable page (ie. if you go to www.yourdomain.com/stats/ to view your stats without having to enter a username and password) you are a much greater target. Some stats pages have a pagerank value to them, and a backlink to the site can help with the search engine rankings.

Hope this sheds some light on referral spam.

Edited to add: This tactic most likely doesn't work very well now, but a few years back it was probably more effective. IMHO these guys are wasting their time with the fake hits.

Emerald · 2007-12-25, 05:01 PM

Thanks LowryBigwood for the explanation .. it does help to understand it better.. now I just need a way to stop it so my stats reflect properly.

I'm guessing .htaccess is the only way?

ponygirl · 2007-12-25, 07:01 PM

I've been seeing a ton of this in my stats too...is it a good idea to block them or is it harmless other than skewing stats?

LowryBigwood · 2007-12-26, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerald

I'm guessing .htaccess is the only way?

As far as I know yes.

Ponygirl - Other than messing up your stats I don't believe you have much to worry about.

ArtWilliams · 2007-12-26, 10:31 AM

Thanks Lowry!

2007-12-25, 12:55 PM	#1
LowryBigwood Don't get discouraged; it's usually the last key that opens the lock... Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Dallas, Tx Posts: 1,203	Hey Art, this thread will shed some light on it. Emerald, I took this bit of text from the page that I linked to in the thread above. Why do people do this? There are two main reasons. The first is to get you to follow an affiliate link, in the hopes that you just might like what you see on the page you view, and be enticed to follow it. You will often see referral spam for products / sites that are somehow related to your own. Another reason for log spamming is for the backlink or pagerank factor. If your stats are available on a publicly viewable page (ie. if you go to www.yourdomain.com/stats/ to view your stats without having to enter a username and password) you are a much greater target. Some stats pages have a pagerank value to them, and a backlink to the site can help with the search engine rankings. Hope this sheds some light on referral spam. Edited to add: This tactic most likely doesn't work very well now, but a few years back it was probably more effective. IMHO these guys are wasting their time with the fake hits. __________________ Free Porn Buddy \| Porn Buddy Blog Last edited by LowryBigwood; 2007-12-25 at 12:58 PM..

2007-12-25, 05:01 PM	#2
Emerald If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Ontario, Canada eh! Posts: 915	Thanks LowryBigwood for the explanation .. it does help to understand it better.. now I just need a way to stop it so my stats reflect properly. I'm guessing .htaccess is the only way? __________________ http://www.smutgremlins.com Submit your Free Sites to Smut Gremlins

2007-12-25, 07:01 PM	#3
ponygirl on vacation Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 2,095	I've been seeing a ton of this in my stats too...is it a good idea to block them or is it harmless other than skewing stats? __________________ Submit Your Porn I do CSS coding Hosting - JMB Scripts - Tube Site Resources

2007-12-26, 10:31 AM	#5
ArtWilliams You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 6,244	Thanks Lowry!