How to block copyrightinstitute.org referral spam

This page explains what copyrightinstitute.org is, why you see it in Google Analytics, and how to block copyrightinstitute.org referrer spam in Google Analytics data.

• Campaign Source Filter
• Campaign Referral Path Filter
• Language Settings Filter

Copyrightinstitute.org referral spam in Google Analytics

Copyrightinstitute.org is a domain named used to referrer spam your Google Analytics data with fake referral traffic. If you notice copyrightinstitute.org referral traffic in your Google Analytics data it means that your website was targeted by the spammer. No one actually visited your website from copyrightinstitute.org, it’s just spam.

Website owners and people who monitor Google Analytics data will notice real-time and historical referral traffic from copyrightinstitute.org and might assume that it is legitimate. 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. The referring URL might also look similar to “complaint28709263.copyrightinstitute.org” to make it seem like a copyright complaint was filed against you.

When a website owner or someone monitoring the analytical data sees the fake referral traffic from copyrightinstitute.org they might be suspicious as to why someone is visiting their website from copyrightinstitute.org. If you visit the URL you will be forwarded to a chrome.google.com webpage that promotes a browser extension called o-o-0-o-o Search Bar. The spam is designed to promote this browser extension.

Although this sort of traffic might sound innocent (or annoying), referrer spam can actually ruin your data and make it difficult to understand your website’s exact information. 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 webpage 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 copyrightinstitute.org 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 copyrightinstitute.org 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 copyrightinstitute.org 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 | copyrightinstitute.org

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 copyrightinstitute.org 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