Today I have just noticed that the below event in your Google Analytics event tracking reports is actually spam.
I did actually notice it a few days ago on another clients profile but it just so happens that there was some event tracking integration going on at the same time – so i just put it down to user error (developer not following instructions).
Anyway, I’ve decided to check across a few other profiles and it seems as though it’s spreading. Spotted it in a few other profiles too.
Below is a screenshot for an e-commerce site fetching around 20,000 sessions per month. So this isn’t just impacting small sites, it’s of all sizes. Here we can see 218 spam events in 3-4 days.
If for any reason, you are measuring “total events” on your site then the number is going to be skewed.
Keyword Spam Too
Not sure if anyone had spotted these too…..
Not a huge one as the keyword report in GA is almost useless anyway.
Dirty Data for Small Website Owners
Anyway, if you are small business with a small amount of traffic – then Google Analytics is becoming a less and less valuable tool in my opinion. The data will inflated massively – due to referral spam showing up in your referral reports.
It’s now becoming a painful job managing analytics profiles for small sites – almost everyday there’s more and more spam appearing in all sections of reports.
What next?
Spam conversions?
[callout icon=”comments” title=”Subscribe to my Weekly Newsletter” buttontext=”Subscribe Now” buttonlink=”http://priteshpatel.me/subscribe/”]If you’re in construction then you may find my ‘5 things you must read this week’ newsletter useful.[/callout]
It’s all getting a bit frustrating really. Do you use any of the alternatives or do the same problems arise with them?
Hi Duddy,
I’m not sure, I only use Google Analytics. I’ll see if I can find out.
Spam in analytics is becoming a bane in my life!! I had to youtube a tutorial to get rid of it, but then more appeared a few days later!