ǧ.com

Learn what ǧ.com is, why it is spamming you, and how to filter ǧ.com referral traffic in Google Analytics. Links on this page

Campaign Source Filter
Campaign Referral Path Filter
Language Settings Filter

What is ǧ.com?

ǧ.com (XN--JKA.COM) is a domain name owned by an unknown Russian entity. The ǧ.com domain name is used to spam your Google Analytics data with fake referral traffic in order to catch your attention and persuade you to visit ǧ.com in your browser. This type of spam is called referrer spam. XN--JKA.COM whois

When you visit ǧ.com you will be directed to Gmail and your account will open on a draft of a composed letter. The web page is https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?view=cm&fs=1&to=You&su=Vote+for+Republicans!&body=Google+officially+recommends+vote+for+Republicans!%0A%0ABest+regards,%0AGoogle%0A%C7%A7.com&bcc=i@%E1%B8%B7.com;support@google.com&tf=1. vote for republicans gmail spam

The ǧ.com domain name is used to open your Gmail and compose an email message to Google support and others from your Gmail account that says "Vote for Republicans!" in the subject. The body of the email is pasted below:

Google officially recommends vote for Republicans! Best regards, Google ǧ.com

This type of Russian spam promoting Republican politics is nothing new. Before and during the presidential election of 2016 Russian spammers were also using this same tactic to bolster Donald Trump and the Republican party. ǧ.com employs various blackhat methods to make it appear as if someone was referred to your website from the domain name. However, no visitor was actually referred to your website from the URL. It is simply a gimmick that spams Google Analytics without affecting your website or server. Website owners and other people who monitor Google Analytics data will notice real-time and historical referral traffic coming from ǧ.com mixed in with real analytical data. Most of the time the spam will make it appear as if someone was referred to your website multiple times in order to position the referral traffic data at the top of the accumulated list in your reports. Although this sort of traffic might sound harmless, referrer spam can actually ruin your website's analytical data and make it difficult to understand your website's exact traffic metrics. The traffic acquired from fake referrals can affect most of the data in your GA reports. For example, the fake referrals will appear to land on a single web page on your website and leave from the same website and this will create a 100% bounce rate. If your website is targeted by referrer spammers you may not be able to identify your website's actual bounce rate unless you filter the traffic out.

Campaign Source Filter

A campaign source filter can be used to block all ǧ.com referral traffic in Google Analytics.

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

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

3. Add ǧ.com 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 ǧ.com 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 | ǧ.com

Campaign Referral Path Filter

A campaign referral path filter can be used to block single webpages.

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

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

3. Add ǧ.com or something you can easily remember as the Filter Name.

4. Select the Custom Filter Type.

5. In Filter Field, find and select Campaign Referral Path in the list. In the Filter Pattern text box, add a permalink from the referred URL and click the blue Save button on the bottom of the webpage

Language Settings Filter

Some spam may appear in your language settings as keywords, phrases, and searched terms. A language settings filter can be used to block language spam in Google Analytics.

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and go to the Admin tab

2. In the “View” column select Filters and then click + Add Filter

3. Add a Filter Name: Language Spam (or something you can easily remember)

4. Go to: Filter Type > Custom > Exclude

5. Select Filter Field: Language settings

6. Add a Filter Pattern: \s[^s]*\s|.{15,}|\.|,

7. Click on the blue text that says Verify this filter to see a preview table of how this filter will work in your account. You should only see language spam on the left side of the table: filter-verification-language-spam

8. After you verify the filter click the Save button on the bottom of the page