Block 3-letter-domains.net referral spam in Google Analytics

3-letter-domains.net

3-letter-domains.net is a referrer spam URL that mixes fraudulent referral traffic data into your website’s Google Analytics reports. The website will utilize various black-hat SEO tactics in order to make it look like you received referral traffic from 3-letter-domains.net even though the referral traffic does not actually land on your website.

3-letter-domains.net referral

This type of web traffic is known as ghost traffic. It creates phantom web hits in your website’s data and makes it appear as if someone visited your website from the referral URL.

3-letter-domains.net spam

BY PURCHASING A 3-4 CHARACTER DOMAIN TODAY, YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO SELL IT AGAIN IN A YEAR OR 10 YEARS FOR A DIFFERENT PRICE. FOR INSTANCE, THE PRICE FOR SUCH DOMAINS IS ESTIMATED TO START AT $1500 IN THE MIDDLE OF 2017. IN 2020, THEY ARE GOING TO COST $15000 EACH. FOR EXAMPLE, IN A .COM ZONE THE PRICES FOR SIMILAR DOMAINS STARTS AT $10000 (SEE GODADDY.COM & GODADDY.COM ) THERE ARE NO FREE 3-CHARACTER DOMAINS IN THE .NET ZONE AS WELL. THE PRICES AT GODADDY ARE THE SAME..

The reason why 3-letter-domains.net is spamming your website’s Google Analytics data is to get your attention and persuade you to visit the URL in your browser. If you visit the URL in your browser you will be forwarded to another website, such as fb3.org. The website that 3-letter-domains.net forwards to contains information about purchasing a 3 letter domain.

It is not recommended to trust known spammers and websites that engage in referrer spam. Referrer spam is a blackhat SEO tactic that disregards your website’s data in order to promote spam content. Someone who engages in referrer spam does not care about ruining your website’s analytical data. They would rather promote their website despite the repercussions and acquire you as a customer by any means necessary. Referrer spam is not a tactic used by legitimate and trustworthy companies and websites.

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.

3-letter-domains.net 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, 3-letter-domains.net 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 3-letter-domains.net referrer spam

Stop 3-letter-domains.net referral spam in Google Analytics by creating an exclude filter to block 3-letter-domains.net 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 3-letter-domains.net 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 3-letter-domains.net 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 | 3-letter-domains.net

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.

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