How to block Pinkduck.ga referrals in Google Analytics

Pinkduck.ga

What is Pinkduck.ga?

Pinkduck.ga is a referrer spam URL that is currently utilized by a potentially malicious advertising platform. In July of 2016 we broke the story concerning malicious referral links targeting Google Analytics data and Pinkduck.ga is one of the latest URLs in this category.

pinkduck.ga referral

Pinkduck.ga referral spam in Google Analytics can be an issue for anyone who values their website’s real data. Pinkduck.ga referrals are designed to mix fraudulent web traffic data into Google Analytics reports. If you visit the referrer spam URL in your web browser you will be forwarded through an advertising network’s websites and onto another random website that may promote malware and rogue programs.

If you notice Pinkduck.ga referrals in Google Analytics it does not mean that anyone was referred to your website from Pinkduck.ga. The referral traffic does not actually land on your website. It is a type of web traffic known as ghost traffic that creates phantom web hits.

Referrer spammers typically target your website’s data for several reasons:

  • Referrer spammers want to promote a website and want you to visit the webpage or search for it online through Google search engine results pages.
  • Referrer spammers want to boost their rank on Google search engine results pages by creating backlinks. They do this by logging requests into your website’s access log, which is then crawled by Google’s indexing bots and seen as a backlink to the spam site.

Pinkduck.ga Google Analytics referrer spam can ruin your website’s analytical data measured by Google Analytics. It can affect most of the data in your reports with fake web traffic and data. For example, Pinkduck.ga referrals will appear to land on a single webpage on your website and leave from the same website, which will create a 100% bounce rate. If your website is targeted by referrer spammers you may not be able to identify your website’s bounce rate. The same can be said about other data measured in most Google Analytics reports.

How to block Pinkduck.ga referrer spam

Stop Pinkduck.ga referral spam in Google Analytics by creating an exclude filter to block Pinkduck.ga referrer spam at the campaign source. This is the method recommended by Google to block referrer spam in your Google Analytics account.

1. Open your Google Analytics account and go to the Admin tab> Cick Filters on the right side in the VIEW section.

2. Click the + ADD FILTER button to create a new exclude filter.

3. Add Pinkduck.ga or something you can easily remember as the Filter Name.

4. Select the Custom Filter Type.

5. In Filter Field, find and select Campaign Source in the list. In the Filter Pattern text box, add Pinkduck.ga and click the blue Save button on the bottom of the webpage. To add multiple URLs to the same filter you can make a Filter Pattern similar to this with a | between each URL: Example.com | Example\.com | Pinkduck.ga

Also See: How to exclude all hits from known bots and spiders in Google Analytics (Bot Filtering)

Sean Doyle

Sean is a distinguished tech author and entrepreneur with over 20 years of extensive experience in cybersecurity, privacy, malware, Google Analytics, online marketing, and various other tech domains. His expertise and contributions to the industry have been recognized in numerous esteemed publications. Sean is widely acclaimed for his sharp intellect and innovative insights, solidifying his reputation as a leading figure in the tech community. His work not only advances the field but also helps businesses and individuals navigate the complexities of the digital world.

1 Response

  1. Lydia Kamau says:

    Thank you so much, you have really helped me a lot.

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