How can I Block Language Spam in Google Analytics
Everyone hates spam, but it's a real pain for website owners since it typically involves taking the time to create filters and then figuring out the most effective strategies to avoid it.
Many of you started to see this in the time of the 2016 US elections. Learn from our article below regarding the most efficient strategies to stop messages coming from foreign languages, as well as stop it from distorting the data of your traffic and analytics. It is crucial to take care of problems like this when they first start appearing.
What is Language Spam?
The majority of referrer spam concentrated on targeting web search engines, however, language spam can be employed by spammers to fulfill a certain agenda or to promote their own goods or websites. What happens is they manipulate the language used by real sites like motherboard.vice.com, thenextweb.com, lifehacker.com, reddit.com, etc. It is also common for them to just record pageviews on the home page of your site.
What do they gain? Peter Velchev from Dowser describes it in detail:
The reason for this is that once you have a glance at the site of the user browsing your website, it's possible to trace the visitor back to the source it came from. It will result in authentic web-based visits on the hackers' website and thus advancing it on the scale of ratings...
- Secret.google.com We invite you! Enter only using the ticket's URL. You can copy the URL. Don't forget to choose to vote for Trump!
- We send the President Trump as well as all Americans
- Vitaly is Google's king *:.;**"(^^)no **;. :* -\_(tsu)_/-(tthYi tth)(th_th)(@[email protected])l(tth_tthl)( deg ? deg)"(;D;)no?**? ool(=^ ^=)oO
- o-o-8-o-o.com the search shell is superior to Google!
- Google has officially accepted o-o-8-o-o.com Search Shell!
Google appears to be involved in solving this issue however, the problem is constantly arising. When one problem has been solved the other one appears to be on the verge of being resolved.
This screenshot was of the new website. And as you can see Between November 1st to the 17th of December 929 of the 1 377 sessions were attributable to language spam! Talk about skewing your data.
The issue of spamming language was discussed at the Google Search Engine Roundtable in the 9th of November. If you go through Google Trends, it's evident that beginning in November 2016 , the number of searches in the area of "google analyze spam" has increased significantly.
Why Should You Block Language Spam?
Another factor that many people don't be aware of this is that Google Analytics filters don't work retroactively. The filters apply only to data gathered prior to when they were developed. It is crucial to deal with the issue of spam as soon as possible. It is impossible to fix the past data using filters. But the drawback to this is that if you do not implement the correct filtering, you may be unable to retrieve valuable information for a long time. There are sophisticated segments that could help users with their historical data, of which we shall discuss further below.
How do you block Language Spam in Google Analytics
- Option 1: Block the Language Spam By Filtering
- Option 2. Blocking language spam using an Advanced Segment
- Option 3. Blocking Spam Language with Third Party Lists
Option 1. Block language spam with a Filter
One of the first, and possibly most effective method to prevent spam from appearing in Google Analytics is to use the filter. Filters permit you to alter the content and make it more difficult to restrict. In particular, you could restrict certain subdirectories or filter traffic only to certain IP addresses or IP addresses for instance. It is recommended to set up a new view every time you create filters. If anything goes wrong, you should always be able to access your initial documents in their original state. Once you have applied all of your customized filters in the view you have created to your new one.
1. (Optional)
First, you must take a copy of your current view, so you can sort the data only on a separate view. This is optional for your security. It is possible that you have an additional view, and in that case, you could skip Step 2. In any case you must go into the Admin section within Google Analytics and into your view's "View Options." Next, select "Copy View." The reason why you must duplicate your view is that it will be carried all different filters and other purposes that there may be within your site.
Choose your view. For our scenario, we pick "filtered domain.com." Click on "Copy lookup."
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Step 2.
Go to the view you want to see (or your original view) and then click on "Filters." Once there, click "+ Add Filter." Then, you'll require "Edit" access at the "Account" section within Google Analytics in order to set up new filters, or else, you'll be unable to have the ability to carry out these steps.
3.
You can give your filter the name (ex for example: Filter Spam by Language). Choose a customized filter among the Filter types. You should then choose the "Language Setting" filter. Then, add the following information into the filter Pattern field: . 15,|\s[^\s]*\s|\.|,|\!|\/
Then, click"verify" or "verify" button to see an image of the results that the filter has found within the last seven days. Then click "Save" to save the filter.
It's that all that is needed! There are only genuine and valid languages in your Google Analytics.
Option 2: Block language Spam by using an advanced segment
Another option to combat languages that are spammy in Google Analytics is to use an advanced segment. They work on your historical information and can be considered to be an alternative that does do not change the information you have because they do not alter the data in any way. They can be disabled anytime to go back to the situation that you had before. If you're using the distinct view that has a filter like we did in the past, you are secured.
Step 1. Step 1.
For a segment to be created, go in the Admin area of Google Analytics and into "Segments." Then click on "and Create Segment." Similar to filters, you'll need "Edit" access on the "Account" levels of Google Analytics in order to make new filters or else you'll not have the ability to follow through on the next steps.
Step 2. Step 2.
You can give your segment the name (ex Segment Language Spam) in the Language field, switch the drop-down menu on "does not have a regex" and then enter the following data: . 15,|\s[^\s]*\s|\.|,|\!|\/
Once you have done that, simply then click "Save."
Once you're done, it's time to go. After that, you'll be able to select the right language segment on your Analytics dashboard and remove "All Users." Be aware that segmentation changes the data immediately. Ideas: Make a custom shortcut or dashboard using the newly added segment for quick viewing in the future.
Option 3. Block the Spam Languages from 3rd Party Lists
One of the most annoying features of spam is the fact that it is time-consuming for us as website owners. It is imperative to keep changing our filters and segments to make sure that the information we provide is as accurate as it could be. There are a variety of third-party tools and resources to help speed the process up if you're in a hurry. There are a variety of options to consider:
- Analytics-Toolkit: This business offers what they call an Automatic Spam filter which is constantly updated to assist you.
- Analytics Edge has free segment templates that you can use just by clicking a mouse. The segments are updated regularly.
And if you are looking to know more about the best way to eliminate unwanted spam from Google Analytics, these following steps are great:
- Ultimate Guide for Eliminating All the Spam within Google Analytics
- A Complete Guide for Getting Free of the Google Analytics Emails
Summary
You can see that it's pretty simple to stop this latest technique of spamming with language. We suggest looking over the data on your websites to ensure that your data isn't distorted. What is your opinion on the issue of language spam? It's really frustrating, and are hoping that in the future Google will be able to help combat the spreading of this useless data that businesses currently have to deal with.
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