Referral Spam - Will this work to stop it?

lenashore

• July 10, 2015 13:42

I have been reading up on referral spam and how to eliminate it or at least slow it down. Looks like one of the best ways is to keep an htaccess file with a list of "bad guys" and keep it updated. But, the problem is I have a lot of websites and don't relish the idea of doing this on all of them individually. I read a suggestion that claims you can add an htaccess file in the folder above your sites and it will get read. Is this true? Each of my websites has it's own cPanel. So, this would be in the home folder. So, the htaccess file would be something like this:
# Stop Referral Spam SetEnvIfNoCase Referer semalt.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer humanorightswatch.org spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer o-o-6-o-o.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer onlineprofitscode.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer blackhatworth.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer bestwebsitesawards.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer priceg.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer ?????.?? spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer econom.co spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer darodar.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer iloveitaly.ru spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer shopping.iloveitaly.ru spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer iloveitaly.co spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer shopping.iloveitaly.co spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer buttons-for-website.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer iloveitaly.com spambot=yes SetEnvIfNoCase Referer shopping.iloveitaly.com spambot=yes Order allow,deny Allow from all Deny from env=spambot
Any thoughts or new ideas would be appreciated. Thanks, Lena :)

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  sarhosting

  • July 11, 2015 14:10

  The method we have been using for a few years is below.
  # [ CP Global Ban - Open ] RewriteEngine on Options +FollowSymlinks RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} 100dollars-seo\.com [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} semalt\.com [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} savetubevideo\.com RewriteRule .* - [F] # [ CP Global Ban - Close ]
  Keep in mind, a bloated .htaccess file will slow down the performance of the site(s) so use with care. The best thing do (in our opinion) is to ignore the visits and make sure your stats are not public because if the stats can be accessed by anyone (including Search Engines), you will be creating FREE backlinks back to the spammer. Since your stats changes daily and the data gets overridden, this is the reason they keep hitting you every few days as not to be pushed out of your logs..

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  lenashore

  • July 13, 2015 14:26

  Thanks Sarhosting! Do you know off-hand on how to make your stats non-public? Do you know if you can put an htaccess file above the root folder? I really need something server-wide.

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  sarhosting

  • July 31, 2015 01:14

  It should NOT be accessible outside of cPanel by default. You can verify by adding /stats/ after your domain name. It will either load, ask for credentials, or give a 404 error. If you query the following in Google, you will see affected sites.
  "semalt.com" "/stats/ref"
  Fortunately, most of the results are text so a backlink is nonexistent.

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  cPanelMichael

  • July 31, 2015 16:33

  Do you know off-hand on how to make your stats non-public? Do you know if you can put an htaccess file above the root folder? I really need something server-wide.

  
  Hello :) Yes, as mentioned, statistics are not available to the public by default. Thank you.

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  sarhosting

  • August 19, 2015 02:25

  A domain moved up to a PR2 rank and got slammed by video--production.com. If you are still blocking, you can try adding that before they get to you.

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