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Stop share-button.xyz referrals in Google Analytics

Share-button.xyz is a referrer spam URL that forwards to sharebutton.to if you visit it in your browser. Sharebutton.to is notorious for using the referrer spam tactic and utilizes various URLs that forward to the domain. If you notice share-button.xyz referral traffic in your Google Analytics reports it means that your Google Analytics account is being targeted by spammers. It does not mean that someone was referred to your website from share-button.xyz. It’s actually quite the contrary; share-button.xyz referrals do not actually land on your website’s server. The spam simply targets your Google Analytics data. This is a type of web traffic known as ghost traffic.

share-button.xyz referral

Why is share-button.xyz spamming my website?

The reason why share-button.xyz is spamming your website’s Google Analytics data is to get your attention and persuade you to visit the URL in your web browser. As previously mentioned, the URL forwards to sharebutton.to, which is a website well-known for employing aggressive spam tactics. The sharebutton.to website contains various scripts that when embedded can be used to display buttons on your website. But in doing so, your website will establish links to the known spam website and this can be harmful.

share-button.xyz

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 share-button.xyz referral spam harmful?

Share-button.xyz referral spam is not essentially harmful to your website and it will not affect your rank in Google Search Results Pages; However, if you do not block share-button.xyz spam from accessing your account it can ruin the data collected in your Google Analytics reports. For example, share-button.xyz 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 stop share-button.xyz referral spam

These instructions show you how to stop share-button.xyz 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 share-button.xyz 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 share-button.xyz 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 | share-button.xyz

Share-button.xyz WHOIS information

Domain Name: SHARE-BUTTON.XYZ
Domain ID: D19564027-CNIC
WHOIS Server: whois.1und1.de
Referral URL: http://1und1.de
Updated Date: 2016-04-09T10:44:50.0Z
Creation Date: 2016-04-09T10:44:48.0Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2017-04-09T23:59:59.0Z
Sponsoring Registrar: 1&1 Internet SE (TLDs)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 83
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: addPeriod https://icann.org/epp#addPeriod
Registrant ID: C37214707-CNIC
Registrant Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Registrant Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Registrant Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Registrant Street: ATTN
Registrant City: Chesterbrook
Registrant State/Province: PA
Registrant Postal Code: 19087
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.8772064254
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: 
Admin ID: C37214707-CNIC
Admin Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Admin Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Admin Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Admin Street: ATTN
Admin City: Chesterbrook
Admin State/Province: PA
Admin Postal Code: 19087
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.8772064254
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: 
Tech ID: C37214707-CNIC
Tech Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Tech Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Tech Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Tech Street: ATTN
Tech City: Chesterbrook
Tech State/Province: PA
Tech Postal Code: 19087
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.8772064254
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: 
Name Server: NS-US.1AND1-DNS.COM
Name Server: NS-US.1AND1-DNS.US
Name Server: NS-US.1AND1-DNS.DE
Name Server: NS-US.1AND1-DNS.ORG
DNSSEC: unsigned
Billing ID: C37214707-CNIC
Billing Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Billing Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Billing Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Billing Street: ATTN
Billing City: Chesterbrook
Billing State/Province: PA
Billing Postal Code: 19087
Billing Country: US
Billing Phone: +1.8772064254
Billing Phone Ext:
Billing Fax:
Billing Fax Ext:
Billing Email:

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

Sean Doyle

Sean is a tech author and engineer with over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, privacy, malware, Google Analytics, online marketing, and other topics. He is featured in several publications.

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