Semalt: Getting Rid Of Social Buttons, Darodar.Com And Buttons For Website Referral Spam
Lisa Mitchell, the Semalt Customer Success Manager, said "In the last few months, I have been getting referral traffic coming from these sites: Darodar.com, buttons-for-website.com, and social-buttons.com. After a little investigation, I realized that they have a 100% bounce rate after literally spending 0 seconds on sites. On Google, I couldn't find any meaningful advice on how to get rid of this traffic. I did come across many people experiencing the same issue. I had to find a way of blocking them".
What exactly is Darodar?
A deeper look at the website reveals that Darodar is an agency offering SEO services. They have premium services as well as free ones. Just like other search engines, they crawl the web for content using bots. It is worth noting that Google Analytics is flagging these bots as real uses. Jetpack Site stats sees them as bots. From my first experience with them, I wouldn't want their services. Thankfully, they offer a way for you to have your website deleted from their crawling list.
Once you submit your website through a form that they offer, their spiders will no longer go through it. Go to Google and search for their website. This form is located at the bottom of their site. I would have included a link to this but then, why should I give them backlink juice? Before you proceed, it is worth noting that a few users were complaining of their analytics not working as expected after opting out. They were complaining back then in 2015. Personally, I did not experience any problems after getting my domain off their crawler's list.
Guide to getting rid of referral spam.
Up to now, we are not sure where the other two referral spammers (buttons-for-website and social-buttons) come from. This doesn't mean we can't get rid of them. One way of keeping them out is through the admin panel on your analytics page. Head over to the tracking info. We are going to add these domains to the exclusion list so that from now on, their traffic won't be counted
Using filters
Another way to rectify this issue is to resort to filter section. You will be required to create a new filter that excludes the domains you want to blacklist: Darodar.com in our case. Sadly, this will not affect your past stats; referral spam will still be an eyesore. It takes effect from then onwards.
Using Apache/ NGINX
Use NGINX Rewrite rule to turn away darodar.com referral traffic:
if ($http_referer ~* (darodar.com)) { return 444; }
Besides, you can use Apache htaccess rule to get rid, for example, of buttons-for-website referral traffic:
# block referer spam
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} buttons-for-website.com
RewriteRule ^.* – [F,L]
However, mind that this NGINX rule doesn't stop all ghost referrals. I've compiled this (short) guide hoping it will help webmasters keep off spam referrals like Darodar, social buttons as well as buttons-for-website.com