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Support #6081

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Non-Commons Analytics Entries

Added by Luke Waltzer about 8 years ago. Updated about 7 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority name:
Normal
Assignee:
Category name:
-
Target version:
Start date:
2016-09-23
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Deployment actions:

Description

Perusing Google Analytics on the Commons, I see that two of the top 10 most visited sites on the CAC in the past year are /inst.webinstantservice.com/ (~10% of visits over past year, though beginning only in March) and /4webmasters.org/ (.65% of visits in past year, though ending in January).

Is there an easy explanation for these domains drawing such heavy traffic?

I've attached relevant exported data as PDFs.


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Actions #1

Updated by Boone Gorges about 8 years ago

  • Target version set to Not tracked

It appears that this is a known issue in Google Analytics, known as "ghost spam". Here's a guide for how to stop it. https://www.ohow.co/ultimate-guide-to-removing-irrelevant-traffic-in-google-analytics/

Given the dynamic nature of our domains - both the *.commons.gc.cuny.edu wildcard and our ever-growing list of mapped domains - it may be easier to maintain a blacklist of invalid hostnames.

I'll have a first pass.

Actions #2

Updated by Boone Gorges about 8 years ago

I've written a Ghost Spam filter that should prevent future instances of these hits. Let's keep an eye on it and come back in a few weeks.

Actions #3

Updated by Boone Gorges about 7 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Resolved

Haven't seen this problem recur, so I guess that means I hit it out of the park on my first try. No surprise there.

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