This blocks semalt.com, buttons-for-websites.com and others with a 403 Forbidden message.
This blocks semalt.com, buttons-for-website.com and others with a 403 Forbidden message so that they no longer show up in your Google Analytics stats. This won’t block ghost referrals (no plugin can do that), but this short video will walk you through that process in Google Analytics.
Once installed, this plugin will run automatically in the background; there is no options panel or anything to see in your dashboard.
Other sites will be added to the block list over time via updates to this plugin.
For more information, visit us at GreenMellenMedia.com or find us on Twitter @GreenMellen.
Current list of blocked bots: All sites ending in .xyz, 100dollars-seo.com, 4webmasters.org, 7makemoneyonline.com, adviceforum.info, aliexpress.com, amazonaws.com, anticrawler.org, avtlg.ru, bashtel.ru, best-seo-offer.com, best-seo-solution.com, bestsub.com, bestwebsitesawards.com, blackhatworth.com, burger-imperia.com, buttons-for-website.com, buttons-for-your-website.com, buy-cheap-online.info, chinese-amezon.com, clicksor.com, copyrightclaims.org, corbina.ru, cpty.com, darodar.com, depositfiles-porn.ga, domination.ml, e-buyeasy.com, ebin.cc, econom.co, erot.co, ertelecom.ru, event-tracking.com, fix-website-errors.com, free-floating-buttons.com, floating-share-buttons.com, free-share-buttons.com, free-share-buttons.top, free-social-buttons.com, free-video-tool.com, get-free-social-traffic.com, get-free-traffic-now.com, ɢoogle.com, googlsucks.com, guardlink.com, guardlink.org, hol.es, hongfanji.com, how-to-earn-quick-money.com, howtostopreferralspam.eu, hulfingtonpost.com, hvd-store.com, ilovevitaly.*, is74.ru, kabbalah-red-bracelets.com, kambasoft.com, kes.ru, keywords-monitoring-your-success.com, lifehacĸer.com, magicdiet.gq, makemoneyonline.com, monetizationking.net, mts.ru, mts-nn.ru, nationalcablenetworks.ru, netbynet.ru, o-o-6-o-o.com, pizza-tycoon.com, pogodnyyeavarii.gq, pornhub-forum.ga, priceg.com, qualitymarketzone.com, rank-checker.online, ranking2017.ga, rankings-analytics.com, rankscanner.com, ranksonic.org/info, sanjosestartups.com, sashagreyblog.ga, savetubevideo.com, search.myway.com, search.tb.ask.com, semalt.com, seo-platform.com, sexyali.com, simple-share-buttons.com, site-16528012-1.snip.tw, site-auditor.online, sitequest.ru, snip.to, social-buttons-*, social-s-*, success-seo.com, theguardlan.com, top1-seo-service.com, torture.ml, traffic2money.com, trafficmonetizer.net, uni.me, uptime.com, video–production.com, videos-for-your-business.com, webmonetizer.net, website-analyzer.info, works.if.ua, wow.com, youporn-forum.ga, yourserverisdown.com
Screenshots
Activation link. There are no other screenshots, because the plugin works silently behind the scenes.
Installation Instructions
- Upload the GM Block Bots plugin to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- That’s it! No options to configure; semalt and their friends will start being blocked immediately.
Nothing changed on my site
That is by design. This is a silent plugin, and there are no options to configure. Leave it enabled to block the bots, or disable it to let them back in.
The bots are still getting through
This plugin only blocks them based on their http_referer, which may not catch everything. In addition, some bots are “ghost referrals” that ping Google Analytics directly (without ever visiting your site) and the only way to stop them is via filters in Google Analytics. This short video will show you how to set that up.
Can you also block another bot?
Absolutely! We’d love to add more to the list of bots being blocked. Please email us at plugins@greenmellenmedia.com and we’ll look into it.
ChangeLog
2.0.2
Fixed a bug that may have caused tracking issues for a very small percentage of sites.
2.0.1
We’ve now blocked from the following TLDs:
.ru .ua .cf .ga .ml .re .tk .kz .ro .pl
In addtion, we added approximately 200 more sies to the list, which are not listed here because it’s getting a bit crazy. You can view the source code of the main gm-block-bots.php file to see them all.
2.0.0
We made the decision to block ALL sites on the .xyz TLD, as they are simply coming in too quickly to keep playing whack-a-mole.
In addition, we also added pogodnyyeavarii.gq, free-share-buttons.top, cpty.com, ɢoogle.com, lifehacĸer.com
Note that ɢoogle.com is the one using the strange Unicode “G” and lifehacĸer.com uses the odd Unicode “K”
1.3.0
Added some simple regex for repeat offenders, such as social-buttons-*, social-s-*, ilovevitaly.* and *-flummox.ml
Also added ranking2017.ga and magicdiet.gq
1.2.23
Added pizza-tycoon.com, hvd-store.com, burger-imperia.com, ebin.cc and site-auditor.online
1.2.22
Added fix-website-errors.com and law-enforcement-check-five.xyz
1.2.21
Added law-enforcement-bot-ii.xyz, cookie-law-enforcement-dd.xyz, and social-buttons-gg.xyz
1.2.20
Added social-buttons-ii.xyz and monetizationking.net
1.2.19
Added social-traffic-*.xyz (covering all of those) and uptime.com
1.2.18
Added free-video-tool.com, keywords-monitoring-your-success.com and works.if.ua
1.2.17
Added rank-checker.online
1.2.16
Added website-analyzer.info
1.2.15
Added share-buttons.xyz, traffic2cash.xyz and site-16528012-1.snip.tw
1.2.14
Added rusexy.xyz
1.2.13
Added top1-seo-service.com
1.2.12
Added amazonaws.com, snip.to
1.2.11
Added copyrightclaims.org
1.2.10
Added rankings-analytics.com
1.2.9
Added best-seo-software.xyz, seo-platform.com
1.2.8
Added free-floating-buttons.com, how-to-earn-quick-money.com, qualitymarketzone.com
1.2.7
Added video–production.com, rankscanner.com, yourserverisdown.com
1.2.6
Added sexyali.com, get-free-social-traffic.com, chinese-amezon.com, erot.co, hongfanji.com
1.2.5
Added webmonetizer.net, trafficmonetizer.net, e-buyeasy.com, traffic2money.com
1.2.4
Added ertelecom.ru, corbina.ru, floating-share-buttons.com, mts-nn.ru, kes.ru, bashtel.ru, is74.ru, netbynet.ru, avtlg.ru, mts.ru, nationalcablenetworks.ru, videos-for-your-business.com, success-seo.com
1.2.3
Added sanjosestartups.com, 100dollars-seo.com, howtostopreferralspam.eu
1.2.2
- Added event-tracking.com, free-social-buttons.com, kabbalah-red-bracelets.com, guardlink.org
1.2.1
- Added uni.me, sashagreyblog.ga, search.myway.com, guardlink.com
1.2
- Added hol.es, domination.ml and free-share-buttons.com
- Confirmed compatibility with WordPress 4.2
1.1.9
- Added pornhub-forum.ga, depositfiles-porn.ga, theguardlan.com, torture.ml, youporn-forum.ga
1.1.8
- Added best-seo-offer.com, buttons-for-your-website.com and googlsucks.com
1.1.7
- Added buy-cheap-online.info and get-free-traffic-now.com
- Added strtolower to make sure oddly cased referrals (such as Get-Free-Traffic-Now.com) are still blocked.
1.1.6
- Added search.tb.ask.com, wow.com, adviceforum.info, makemoneyonline.com and best-seo-solution.com
1.1.5
- Added o-o-6-o-o.com and sitequest.ru
1.1.4
- Added 4webmasters.org, anticrawler.org and bestsub.com
1.1.3
- Added blackhatworth.com, econom.co, hulfingtonpost.com, kambasoft.com, priceg.com, ranksonic.org/info and savetubevideo.com
1.1.2
- Added bestwebsitesawards.com and aliexpress.com
1.1.1
- Minor update for compatibility with older versions of PHP
1.1
- Added simple-share-buttons.com, clicksor.com, 7makemoneyonline.com and ilovevitaly.com
1.0
- Initial Release, blocking semalt.com, buttons-for-websites.com, darodar.com and social-buttons.com
