top referrer is unknown site

[loki]

the top referrer to my personal site (in profile) for this month is http://www.couga.de/goto.php

i've had a quick look at their site and can see no obvious reason why (or where) they link to me.

i tried a search on "couga.de + craigmclaughlan" but got zip.

i'm curious as to what this means... (i assume it's not good!)

[Bernard]

I would guess they either have a search function or it is referrer spam. Usually referrer spam points to an actual page (and not a 404 page), so I'm guessing there is a search function somewhere - perhaps someone was thinking of registering the same domain?

[loki]

with 22 referrals in 14 days, doesn't really 'gel'?

(it's a site entirely in german, hard to tell what it's about. i've made/optimised sites in spanish, catalan, french, even english, but never german)

[Hope]

They are a hosting company. I would say that either it is referral spam or one of the sites they host has a link to your site. Most likely it is spam though.

[loki]

i don't 'get' what referral spam is. how do they profit from it?

[Bernard]

referrer spam (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9595)

[loki]

thanks bernard.

i had read that but don't see how it applies in my case. i'm not buying/selling text links, nor likely to.

:-(

[Bernard]

Did you follow the link from your log to their site? Guess what? They got traffic and a potential customer viewing their site. At least that is one principle.

Most referrer spam is handled by automated agents (programs/spiders). The owners don't care to check if your logs are public or not. It is easier to just spam everyone.

[loki]

i'm misunderstanding something or perhaps i haven't explained myself:

these referrers are pages that refer visitors *to* me, so they're sending me visitors. how does that help them?

[Bernard]

The entry in your log file is bogus. They are spoofed. There is no page referring visitors to you.

An automated program is requesting pages from your site and faking the referral information. They are stealing your bandwidth in order to advertise their site in your referral logs. At a minimum, they get a webmaster to visit their site. If they are lucky, the referral logs are published publicly and Google et. al. spiders it and they get a cheap backlink.

In the case you mentioned, the referrer resolves to a 404 page though. I'm not sure why they would do that unless it is to get people like you (who are unfamiliar with referrer spam) to contact them (are you linking to me?) and then they get the sales people on you....

[loki]

blimey, the things people will do to make a buck! are things really that tough out there?


thanks bernard for the explanation.

ps oh, in my robots.txt file i have

Disallow: /logs/

[Hope]

Referral spam is a PITA, but there is little we can do about it. Just be aware that there are people who find this acceptable. This means that a lot of log entries are bogus. It is frustrating for sites with low traffic because you are going to notice it a lot more than if you have 10K uniques a day.

[Connie]

I realize this is some what of an old post but I do have a question.

The only log files in my public_html files are pass word protected.

The server log files are above the public_html files. I thought files above the public_html files were safe.

Are you all saying that files above public_html files can still be accessed?

[Blue]

No. Those log files above your public_html directory should not be accessible.

This is of course dependant upon how your server is set up. If you're worried about it, ask your host.

What's happening here with referrer spam is someone is hitting any old page (within or below the public_html dir) on your site, which then shows up in your logs. You then check your logs, see the strange referrer, click on it, and in doing so, you drive a hit to that spammer.

<edit>

Some log files are publically accessible though, and these are dangerous. But it doesn't sound as if yours are.

</edit>

[Connie]

Thanks Blue.

:cheers:

[Blue]

You're welcome! :cheers: