Receiving referrals from strange domains and creating a referral exclusion list

Loading data from Talking to Chatbots Dataset reddgr/talking-to-chatbots-chats

😎 Why am I suddenly receiving referrals from strange domains?

Suddenly, the traffic to my website shown by Google Analytics spiked (it’s generally very low traffic), and most of it came from untrustworthy domains (they don’t show up on Moz, and I didn’t try accessing any of the URLs) like ‘.store’, ‘.website’, ‘.site’, or ‘.online’. I guess this is an easy question for those with SEO experience, but it’s the first time it happened to me. Should I care? Is there anything I’m supposed to do?
🤖 Seeing a sudden spike in referral traffic from unfamiliar or untrustworthy domains can be concerning, especially when these domains don’t have any relevance to your website or industry. This phenomenon is often related to spammy referral traffic, also known as “referral spam” or “ghost traffic.” Here’s what you should know and some steps you can take:

### Why It Happens
1. **Spamming Techniques**: Some spammers send fake referral traffic to websites in the hope that the website owners will visit these spam domains out of curiosity.
2. **SEO Manipulation**: By making it look like their sites are linking to many websites, spammers attempt to manipulate search engine algorithms to favor their websites.
3. **Data Skewing**: This kind of spam can skew your website analytics, giving you a misleading representation of your actual traffic.

### Should You Care?
While this traffic typically doesn’t harm your website directly, it can distort your analytics data, making it difficult to understand your website’s real performance. Accurate data is crucial for making informed decisions about your SEO and marketing strategies.

### What to Do
1. **Filter in Google Analytics**: Set up filters in Google Analytics to exclude traffic from these domains. This won’t stop the traffic but will prevent it from skewing your data.
2. **Check Your Site’s Security**: Ensure your website’s security is up to date. Although referral spam doesn’t directly harm your site, it’s good practice to check for vulnerabilities.
3. **Do Not Visit Unfamiliar Domains**: Avoid visiting these suspicious domains, as they might be harmful or part of phishing schemes.

### Long-term Solutions
– **Create a Referral Exclusion List**: Google Analytics allows you to exclude referrals from specific domains.
– **Use Advanced Segments**: Create advanced segments in Google Analytics to view your traffic without the spam.
– **Stay Informed**: Keep up with SEO and Google Analytics forums and discussions. These platforms often provide early warnings and solutions for widespread issues.

### Summary
Referral spam can be annoying, but with proper filtering and monitoring, you can mitigate its impact on your website’s analytics. Focus on securing your site and ensuring your analytics reflect genuine user engagement. If the issue persists or you suspect it’s affecting your site’s performance or ranking, consider consulting with an SEO professional for more tailored advice.
😎 That’s a very lengthy response with lots of obvious information. Explain how this is done:

“Create a Referral Exclusion List”
🤖 Creating a Referral Exclusion List in Google Analytics helps prevent data from spammy or irrelevant referral sources from skewing your analytics. Here’s a straightforward way to do this:

1. **Log in to Your Google Analytics Account**: Go to the Google Analytics website and log in with your credentials.

2. **Select the Property**: In the Google Analytics interface, make sure you’re viewing the correct account and property where you want to exclude the referrals.

3. **Admin Settings**: Navigate to the “Admin” section at the bottom left of your screen.

4. **Property Settings**: In the “Property” column, look for “Tracking Info.” Click on it, and a dropdown menu will appear.

5. **Referral Exclusion List**: Within the dropdown menu, find and click on “Referral Exclusion List.”

6. **Add Referral Exclusion**: Click on the “+ Add Referral Exclusion” button.

7. **Enter Domain Name**: Enter the domain name you wish to exclude. For example, if you’re receiving spam traffic from “example.store,” you would enter “example.store” into the domain field.

8. **Save**: Click on the “Create” or “Save” button to add the domain to your exclusion list.

By doing this, traffic coming from the specified domains will no longer be considered referral traffic in your reports. Instead, if a previous session from this domain exists, it will be continued; if not, a new direct session will be started. This helps keep your analytics data cleaner and more accurate by excluding known spam sources or irrelevant referrals.

Hugging Face Dataset Metrics

All the conversation prompts, responses, and metrics are available to download and explore on Hugging Face dataset reddgr/talking-to-chatbots-chats: