: How do I identify fake referrals? I went on Google Analytics and I am trying to find out whether I am getting fake or genuine referrals. I found it a bit weird because yesterday i got 17

@Lengel546

Besides landing on the home page /, Others signs of Referrer Spam are:


% Bounce Rate of 0% or 100%
AVG session time of 0s
%new sessions 0%
If you try to access the Referrer site(not recommendable) you will be redirected to another suspicious one (like darodar).


Any of this can point to a Referrer Spam, especially if it has 2 or more of this signs.

Simple-share-buttons.com is definitely a Referrer Spam is the same as the more known buttons-for-website.com

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@Cofer257

Referrer spam typically has the following characteristics:


The reported page title is fake ("Home Page" in the case of simple-share-buttons.com).
The host name is fake or not set (while it should be one of the host names under which your Web site is reachable).
Only / is targeted.


This answers your question about what you can do to determine whether referrals are genuine or fake.

If in addition you want to understand how this referrer spam is produced and what options you have to eliminate it, you may want to look at the following article I wrote some time ago:
veithen.github.io/2015/01/21/referrer-spam.html
In particular it explains the reason why referrer spam typically has the characteristics enumerated above.

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