The Google-Liar.Ru referral spam in Google Analytics is a new breed of problem. This page is dedicated to eradicating it from your GA statistics.
If you have run into Google-Liar.Ru and your website has become targeted by it, there’s no need to worry. We have just the thing for you and can help you successfully remove this nuisance from your GA statistics. Below this article you will find a detailed removal guide with step-by-step instructions that will show you exactly how to block the spammers. However, dealing with referral spam can be tricky business, if you aren’t quite sure what you’re up against. That is why we highly recommend that you spend extra two minutes to read through the following information and gain a better understanding of what Google-Liar.Ru is and what it’s after. Furthermore, we’ve also described a very common mistake that may have dire consequences for you if you venture into making it.
Why is Google-Liar.Ru targeting me and what does it want?
First up, let’s define Google-Liar.Ru more specifically as ghost spam. This is important, because ghost spam is actually the successor of another type of referral spam nowadays known as classic referral spam. The two are both essentially after the same things and even apply the same tactic of achieving those things. But they do differ in the means they use and that is what essentially led to the near full extermination of one and the birth of the other. Let us illustrate.
Classic referral spam would manifest in bots and crawlers that would be sent to large numbers of different websites, much like your own. They would simulate traffic and the website owners would see it as numerous views from a given website (that of the spammers) with little to no session time and a near 100% bounce rate. So, those curious enough to get to the bottom of this odd behavior would click back on this strange site to check it out and perhaps gain some insight as to why it might be interested in your website. And that would be precisely what the spammers would be after: traffic for their own website, which you will have essentially generated. However, this couldn’t last for too long and Google eventually found a way to combat classic referral spam, putting a stop to its activity. And that’s when spammers found a workaround, in effect creating a more advanced version of referral spam – ghost spam.
That is what Google-Liar.Ru is. And what makes it different from its ancestor is the way it operates. Instead of using bots to create visits on various pages, ghost spam just goes straight the GA statistics of those sites and manipulates the data in them. It adds fake data that shows visits from the spamming website, and again they are shown to be numerous and very short-lived. So it basically follows the same principle as we already described above, only minus the crawlers/bots. Now, as opposed to the older method, this one doesn’t harm your traffic count or anything else, save for your stats. So the only thing that over time will be suffering is your perspective over your website’s audience – which isn’t good either. Now here’s how you can make it worse: go to the Referral Exclusion list tool and enter the spammers there. This is a guaranteed recipe for disaster and there are thousands of misinformed users to testify. Unless you want to make the situation far more problematic, do NOT by any means use the Referral Exclusion list for the purpose of blocking Google-Liar.Ru. Not only will the visits continue, Google Analytics will start seeing them as real traffic and you will end up having to pay for that, too.
The only certain way of ridding yourself of the issue is by following the instructions presented below. And better yet, once you’re done with them, it could help to invest in some better hosting. As a rule of thumb, the more expensive the hosting is – the better it will protect you from spammers and malicious threats. You see, higher quality hosting usually suggests higher quality spam-blocking mechanisms and filters. So, if you would like to ensure that your website doesn’t soon get involved with this kind of stuff again, this is certainly something you ought to consider. And this should especially be true for any websites involved in affiliate marketing networks, as these are usually an easy target for spammers.
Block Google-Liar.Ru in Google Analytics
Instruction #1: Enter your Analytics account.
After that load Admin and then – All Filters.
Instruction #2: After that, hit New Filter.
Next, add Google-Liar.Ru in the Filter Name value.
Instruction #3. Choose the Custom Filter Type.
Once you see the Filter Field, go with Campaign Source.
Next, when you see the Filter Pattern text box, enter Google-Liar.Ru. Confirm by clicking the Save button you will see at the bottom.
How to block Google-Liar.Ru referrer spam using your .htaccess file
If you are aware of a way to access your .htaccess file, you will just have to write the code below in there:
## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} Google-Liar.Ru [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} Google-Liar.Ru
RewriteRule .* – [F]
In case you are not aware of a way to access it, follow these instructions:
Access your cPanel account,
the go to File Manager.
After that you should mark the check-box ‘Document Root for’.
Then go to your webpage.
Another important tip: choose ‘Show hidden Files’.
After that select Go.
Look for the .htacess file.
Once you find it, right–click it.
From the options that appear, select Code Edit.
Enter the code above and Save Changes.
Hopefully, we have been helpful! Tell us in the comment section. We will be glad to read what your opinion is!