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More often than not, when I check the traffic source on my google analytics page, I find some malicious referrals to my website. Some examples: site4.free-floating-buttons.com / referral get-free-social-traffic.com / referral

I try to filter these out by adding a custom filter in Admin> all filters. This way:

My question is: What is the correct filter name and filter pattern in these cases? chinese-amezon.com / referral or simply chinese-amezon.com I ask because i think I might have seen some of these traffic sources get in even with a filter format of (www.example.com/referral) . Here is snapshot of traffic:Filter

Traffic

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Additionally Google Analytics also provide first layer exclusion from Bot and Spiders Visits.

Go to Admin >> Account >>Property >>View >>View All settings and You can see filter options

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  • This works really well and is super fast.
    – walbuc
    Jan 27, 2016 at 5:31
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There are several things you could do, which all come from this article: http://www.analyticsedge.com/2014/12/removing-referral-spam-google-analytics/ (I have no affiliation with this site.)

The fastest way is to create a "valid hostname filter". This a filter that is configured to accept traffic from only valid domains that you specify. The advantage of this is that it is fast and easy to configure. The disadvantage is that you need to maintain this list. The way it works is that only traffic from whitelisted sites will be recorded, so you need to make sure that your list is up to date (more details in that link).

But to answer your question regarding the format of the filter, the filter name can be anything. It should be configured to be just "chinese-amezon.com" for the source. The "referral" is the medium.

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  • Thank you. I did read about "valid hostname filter" but I dont know how I could possibly maintain a good list of valid hostnames to my site. Site is very new and my knowledge limited. Moreover, I am still learning my traffic sources. I will try to read more about it.
    – shrbisht
    Aug 11, 2015 at 12:08
  • The important question i want to ask is: 1. The filter name can be anything but important is filter pattern and I have to write only the website name in pattern ( eliminating the "/referral" at the end.) Sounds right? 2. I see 3 -4 of these new bots everyday in my traffic sources. Do these bots visit my GA because my website is new and less secure maybe or these bots always visit GA no matter how old or secure a website is? I ask because i read somewhere that Bots attack newbies more often.
    – shrbisht
    Aug 11, 2015 at 12:47
  • These bots target any site that uses GA, and some don't even visit your site at all, which is why some filters to not work. If you follow the guide, then you will have covered most forms of bots. If your site is new and limited then your valid hostnames filter should be easy to maintain and may simply consist of just your own hostname.
    – nyuen
    Aug 11, 2015 at 14:08
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your step is right, on filter pattern use this to remove those junks referral

.*((darodar|priceg|semalt|buttons\-for\-website|makemoneyonline|blackhatworth|hulfingtonpost|bestwebsitesawards|o\-o\-6\-o\-o|simple\-share\-buttons)\.com)|(econom\.co)|(ilovevitaly(\.co(m)?))|(ilovevitaly(\.ru))|(humanorightswatch(\.org)).*

for chinese-amezon.com, create new filter and use this

.*chinese\-amezon\.com.*
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