One of the latest referrer spam websites that spams Google Analytics accounts around the world is smartphonediscount.info. Unlike most referrer spam websites that usually promote disreputable advertising platforms, untrustworthy search engines, and desperate blackhat SEO companies like semalt.com, smartphonediscount.info directs users to an affiliate link for work-at-home schemes that claim people can earn money at home if they pay an advance-fee first. These types of schemes are usually linked to advanced-fee fraud and scams.
If you notice smartphonediscount.info referral traffic and other data from the domain name mixed into your Google Analytics reports it means that your Google Analytics account is being targeted by spammers. The referrer spam wants it to appear as if someone was referred to your website from the website; However, no one was referred to your website from smartphonediscount.info. No one even took a step on your website’s server. Web traffic from smartphonediscount.info does not actually land on your website. It only appears in your Google Analytics reports. This is a type of web traffic commonly known as ghost traffic.
Why are smartphonediscount.info referrals spamming my website?
The reason why your Google Analytics account is being targeted by smartphonediscount.info referrer spam is to get your attention and persuade you to visit the URL in your web browser. If you visit the URL you will be directed to a webpage that claims it can show you how to learn to make money working online. If you follow the links on the website you will be directed to http://www.legitonlinejobs.com/offer.php?hop=kingfranek, which is an affiliate link to a work-at-home website. It does not seem that legitonlinejobs.com is behind the spam because an affiliate named kingfranek is being used. However, the website does nothing to stop the spam or their affiliates from abusing their services.
We do not recommend 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.
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.
Is smartphonediscount.info referrer spam harmful?
Smartphonediscount.info referral spam is not essentially harmful to your website and it will not affect your rank in Google Search Results Pages; However, smartphonediscount.info referrer spam can ruin the data collected in your Google Analytics reports if you do not block it from targeting your account. For example, if smartphonediscount.info referrals appear to land on a single webpage on your website and leave from the same website it 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 smartphonediscount.info referrer spam
These instructions show you how to block smartphonediscount.info referral spam and other referrer spam URLs in Google Analytics by creating an exclude filter. This is the method recommended by Google to block this type of referrer traffic.
1. Open your Google Analytics account and go to the Admin tab. Click All Filters on the left side.
2. Click the + ADD FILTER button to create a new filter.
3. Add smartphonediscount.info 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 smartphonediscount.info 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 | smartphonediscount.info
smartphonediscount.info WHOIS information
Domain Name: 6HOPPING.COM Registry Domain ID: 1855834288_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.tldregistrarsolutions.com Registrar URL: http://www.tldregistrarsolutions.com Updated Date: 2016-04-15T09:15:39Z Creation Date: 2014-04-23T09:51:10Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-04-23T09:51:10Z Registrar: TLD Registrar Solutions Ltd. Registrar IANA ID: 1564 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@tldregistrarsolutions.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.5167401179 Reseller: Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited - http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Vitaly Popov Registrant Organization: Registrant Street: Aurory 70-141 Registrant City: Samara Registrant State/Province: Registrant Postal Code: 443070 Registrant Country: RU Registrant Phone: +7.9608143259 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: povitaly@mail.ru Registry Admin ID: Admin Name: Vitaly Popov Admin Organization: Admin Street: Aurory 70-141 Admin City: Samara Admin State/Province: Admin Postal Code: 443070 Admin Country: RU Admin Phone: +7.9608143259 Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: Admin Fax Ext: Admin Email: povitaly@mail.ru Registry Tech ID: Tech Name: Vitaly Popov Tech Organization: Tech Street: Aurory 70-141 Tech City: Samara Tech State/Province: Tech Postal Code: 443070 Tech Country: RU Tech Phone: +7.9608143259 Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: Tech Fax Ext: Tech Email: povitaly@mail.ru Name Server: ns-canada.topdns.com Name Server: ns-uk.topdns.com Name Server: ns-usa.topdns.com DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/ >>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2016-04-17T22:00:08Z <<<
smartphonediscount.info Technical Information
Registrar: TLD REGISTRAR SOLUTIONS LTD Whois Server: whois.tldregistrarsolutions.com Creation Date: 23-APR-2014 Updated Date: 15-APR-2016 Expiration Date: 23-APR-2017 Nameserver: NS-CANADA.TOPDNS.COM Nameserver: NS-UK.TOPDNS.COM Nameserver: NS-USA.TOPDNS.COM Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
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