Is Your Web Traffic Spam or Legit?

You have noticed that you are getting more and more traffic to your website. That sounds like a great thing. After all, the goal is to get more web traffic, and usually more is better…right?

What Is Spam Web Traffic?

The truth is that it all depends on whether the traffic you are getting is legitimate or if it is spam. Ideally, you will have more traffic because you have been working on improving your marketing, but even then, you might discover that you have spam traffic.

Spam website traffic is the result of bots or other sources sending fake traffic to your site. Although it might not damage your site, it will affect your Google Analytics data. It could even cause Google to view your site negatively. You may find that it skews your marketing results, too. You will not know what is and is not working.

How Can You Know?

The best way to find spam is by checking your Google Analytics data. Below are some of the things you will want to look for.

You will want to check the average duration a visitor is on your list for starters. Most of the time, spam traffic is not going to spend a lot of time on your site. It will typically hit a page and then leave.

Therefore, you should also check your bounce and engagement rates to get a better idea of what people, or spam, are doing when they are on your site. Additionally, the number of pages viewed per session will help.

If you find that there are a lot of new visitors to your site, such as 100% new users, then you might want to check to see if it is spam. Check the traffic sources to see where all of that new traffic is coming from. You will want to know the sites, as well as the countries of origin.

What Can You Do?

It’s a good idea to check your data regularly and to look for any signs of unusual activity. You will want to use spam filters specifically for traffic, and you will need to disavow spam backlinks, which can be done through Google Analytics.

If you aren’t certain how to do this, you can have a professional at Search SEO Chicago handle the spam traffic, it is possible. Talk with marketing and SEO pros about the things they can do to help alleviate this type of traffic for your site.