Strange Referrers - Where are they coming from?

[gariben]

The referrer log is showing strange numbers for my japan related website. When I check the referrers' website.. I don't see my links. Where are they coming from? Any clues? Thanks



# Hits Referrer
1 36666 24.98% - (Direct Request)
2 616 0.42% http://v-online-casino.win-2005.com/
3 605 0.41% http://v-party-poker.win-2005.com/
4 577 0.39% http://emergent.brynmawr.edu/emergent/ACM_20SIGCSE_20Local_20Chapter
5 470 0.32% http://wiki.cs.uiuc.edu/CampSmalltalk/VERSION/33/Guerilla+Marketing
6 292 0.20% http://www.thecdpoker.com/cd-poker.html
7 289 0.20% http://www.umbc.edu/ddm/wiki/index.php
8 275 0.19% http://www.partyshopcentral.com/party-poker.html
9 271 0.18% http://www.partyshopcentral.com/
10 258 0.18% http://www.thecdpoker.com/
11 216 0.15% http://search.yahoo.co.jp/search
12 191 0.13% http://www.aonlinepokerrooms.com/
13 188 0.13% http://www.anobelpoker.com/nobel-poker.html
14 185 0.13% http://www.acasinopokerroom.com/
15 185 0.13% http://www.theinternetpokerroom.com/internet-poker-room.html
16 178 0.12% http://www.thecasinopokerroom.com/
17 177 0.12% http://www.ainternetpokerrooms.com/internet-pokerrooms.html
18 177 0.12% http://www.akingsolomonpoker.com/king-solomon-poker.html
19 177 0.12% http://www.apokerroomcasino.com/pokerroom-casino.html
20 177 0.12% http://www.atitanpoker.com/titanpoker.html
21 176 0.12% http://www.onkspoker.com/ks-poker.html
22 174 0.12% http://www.apokertitan.com/
23 173 0.12% http://www.theinternetpokerrooms.com/
24 173 0.12% http://www.thekspoker.com/kspoker.html
25 172 0.12% http://www.akingssolomonspoker.com/kings-solomons-poker.html
26 171 0.12% http://www.akingsolomonpoker.com/
27 171 0.12% http://www.time4noblepoker.com/noble-poker.html
28 170 0.12% http://www.apokerroomsonline.com/pokerrooms-online.html
29 170 0.12% http://www.thepokercd.com/poker-cd.html
30 170 0.12% http://www.thepokerroomcasino.com/poker-room-casino.html

 

[whitebark]

It's classic referrer spam.

 

[DNjet]

yup, they get you to click to see what is going on.

 

[gariben]

yup, they get you to click to see what is going on.

Is that it? I just checked two sites to see if my links was there.. :greensighw:

but some of the links are .edu links...


anyways.. how to stop referrer spam?

 

[Olney]

From what I know about it I think it's random.
You might want to search on a SEO site for more info on referral spam

 

[dcristo]

From what I know about it I think it's random.
You might want to search on a SEO site for more info on referral spam

A blackhat SEO site you mean

 

[droplister]

never heard of that sort of spam. So basically they make their url show up in your stats, as if you were driving traffic to them, and in turn you get curious and visit? Thats lame.

 

[dcristo]

never heard of that sort of spam. So basically they make their url show up in your stats, as if you were driving traffic to them, and in turn you get curious and visit? Thats lame.

I'm not condoning it, but it get's them traffic, and that's the whole point.

 

[David G]

A tip I can offer is that if you are curious and want to look at the referrer site never click on the link from within your stats program as they will then know you did that and possibly use that information to send you even more referrer log spam or other unwanted stuff.

Instead, copy and past the referrer URL into a new browser window so your numerical IP address will show in their own stats report rather than your domains URL.

 

[David G]

never heard of that sort of spam. So basically they make their url show up in your stats, as if you were driving traffic to them, and in turn you get curious and visit? Thats lame.

They don't think it is lame because it gets them some real traffic and possible clicks on ads. It costs them nothing to have a bot visit a million sites and if only 1/10 of 1% of the referrer log viewers do that it means 1,000 free visits to their website, at basically no cost, and they may do that repeatedy over time. If they get a 20% CTR from the 1,000 visits that results in 200 clicks and the income adds up.

 

[whitebark]

They do that hoping like some bloggers that you make your refferer logs public and thus indexed by the search engines.

.htaccess is one way of stopping them.

 

[Axioma]

A friend of mine had lots of referral spam. Turns out his web host was running Plesk (old ver.) as control panel, and it had "open statistics" (webalizer). Since that directory was crawled by google, it was like an invitation for referral spammers.

 

[playpics]

damn .... i got as same as these things ...
i have to checked my sites again .... for securities!

 

[playpics]

thanx, guys!

 

[RepCentral]

It's amazing to learn about the clever things people do to drive traffic.
What's ever funnier, is that people will then sell the domains that have lots of reverse traffic from the referrer spam. Once the person buys this domain, the referrer system begins to run down because it is not kept up. Buyer beware!

 

[gariben]

It's amazing to learn about the clever things people do to drive traffic.
What's ever funnier, is that people will then sell the domains that have lots of reverse traffic from the referrer spam. Once the person buys this domain, the referrer system begins to run down because it is not kept up. Buyer beware!

yes.. that is why you should never buy expensive sites without looking at all the stats.

alot of people give you just screenshot of the total amount of visitors.. that can be wildly wildy inflated by referral spam. Buyer beware!

 

[labrocca]

Refferer spam has been around for years. To get rid of it .htaccess your logs. I think their intention is not visitors (that's just a bonus) but search engine links.