Lately, I seem to be getting a lot of referrer spam as I mentioned in my article titled, “How to Stop Guardlink & Other Referrer Spam“. Now, in today’s article, I’ll be going over how to block 4webmasters.org Russian referral traffic and why it occurs.
How To Block 4webmasters.org Russian Referral Traffic: Filter Method
The easiest way to filter out 4webmasters.org referrer traffic & other spammed referrer traffic sources is to simply follow the instructions below:
1. Log Into Your Google Analytics Account
2. Go To Your “Admin” Tab
3. Click On “Filters” Under The “View” Section
4. Click On “+New Filter”
5. Enter The Information Shown In The Image Below And Click “Save”
How To Block 4webmasters.org Russian Referral Traffic: Htaccess Method
As I mentioned before, I don’t recommend using this method as the traffic from 4webmasters doesn’t actually affect your website. If you want to try it anyway, you can add this code to your .htaccess file to prevent 4webmasters from registering itself on your site as a referrer:
## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} 4webmasters.org [NC,OR] RewriteRule .* – [F]
How To Block 4webmasters.org Russian Referral Traffic: Deflecting Method
Again, not a recommended method, but you can create a text file called “deflector.map” and add the following code to it:
#
## deflector.map
##
##referer –> redirect target
http://4webmasters.org http://4webmasters.org
After that, you’re going to want to add the following code to your .htaccess
RewriteMap deflector txt:/path/to/deflector.map
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !=””
RewriteCond ${deflector:%{HTTP_REFERER}} =-
RewriteRule ^ %{HTTP_REFERER} [R,L]
Why Does 4Webmasters Referrer Spam Occur?
If you visit 4webmasters.or, you’ll notice that it immediately 301 redirects you to a Russian website called “traffic-paradise.org” that advertises pop-under software. Based on the obvious name “4webmasters”, it’s easy to conclude that the spammer wants webmasters to visit the URL so that they can purchase pop-under software.