How to block ghostvisitor.com referrals in Google Analytics

Ghostvisitor.com referrals in Google Analytics

This guide on this webpage shows you how to block ghostvisitor.com referrals (referrer spam) in Google Analytics by creating an exclude filter.

What is ghostvisitor.com?

Ghostvisitor.com is a referrer spam URL that fills your Google Analytics account with fraudulent web data in order to get your attention and provoke you to visit the URL in your browser. If you notice ghostvisitor.com referral traffic mixed in with Google Analytics reports it means that your Google Analytics account is being targeted by a specific referrer spammer. It should be noted that this type of web traffic does not mean that someone from ghostvisitor.com was actually referred to your website. Ghostvisitor.com referral traffic does not actually land on your website. It is a type of web traffic known as “ghost traffic.”

Ghostvisitor.com referrer spam is not harmful to your website and it will not affect your rank in Google Search Results Pages; However, referrer spam can ruin the data provided in your Google Analytics reports. For example, ghostvisitor.com referrals will appear to land on a single webpage on your website and leave from the same website. This will create a 100% bounce rate.

Why is ghostvisitor.com spamming my website?

The reason why ghostvisitor.com is spamming your website’s Google Analytics account is to get your attention and persuade you to visit the URL in your web browser. If you visit the URL you will be redirected to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ilovevitaly/. This webpage promotes a Mozilla Firefox plugin associated with spammers from the ilovevitaly.com website.

We do not recommend services or products provided by websites that engage in referrer spam. Referrer spam is a blackhat SEO tactic that completely disregards your website’s data in order to desperately and recklessly promote online content.

How to create an exclude filter

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

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

3. Add ghostvisitor.com or something else that you can remember as the Filter Name. If you plan to add more spam URLs to the list you can name the list something like “Referrer Spam Filter.”

4. Select the Custom Filter Type from the two options.

5. In Filter Field Field select Campaign Source.

6. In the Filter Pattern box, add ghostvisitor.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 | ghostvisitor.com

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Ghostvisitor.com WHOIS information

Domain Name: GHOSTVISITOR.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1947357496_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.regtime.net
Registrar URL: http://www.webnames.ru
Updated Date: 2015-07-17T00:45:05Z
Creation Date: 2015-07-17T00:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-07-17T04:00:00Z
Registrar: REGTIME LTD.
Registrar IANA ID: 1362
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: 
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +7.8463733047
Domain Status: OK
Registry Registrant ID: 
Registrant Name: Vitaly A Popov
Registrant Organization: Private person
Registrant Street: Aurory str. 70-141
Registrant City: Samara
Registrant State/Province: Samara
Registrant Postal Code: 443070
Registrant Country: RU
Registrant Phone: +7.9608143259
Registrant Email: 
Registry Admin ID: 
Admin Name: Vitaly A Popov
Admin Organization: Private person
Admin Street: Aurory str. 70-141
Admin City: Samara
Admin State/Province: Samara
Admin Postal Code: 443070
Admin Country: RU
Admin Phone: +7.9608143259
Admin Email: 
Registry Tech ID: 
Tech Name: Vitaly A Popov
Tech Organization: Private person
Tech Street: Aurory str. 70-141
Tech City: Samara
Tech State/Province: Samara
Tech Postal Code: 443070
Tech Country: RU
Tech Phone: +7.9608143259
Tech Email: 
Name Server: NS1.NAMESELF.COM
Name Server: NS2.NAMESELF.COM
DNSSEC: Unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/

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