Deskripzioa

Block Referer Spam stops the bots that fake an HTTP_REFERER header to advertise their own site in your traffic logs and analytics. They’re good enough at simulating real visits that they show up in Google Analytics right alongside genuine traffic — this plugin blocks the known offenders before they’re ever logged, and needs no configuration to start working.

Two blocking modes cover different hosting setups:

Rewrite mode (Apache only) — adds RewriteCond rules to .htaccess so spam requests are rejected by the web server itself, before WordPress even loads. Fastest option, and the default when your host is detected as Apache.
WordPress mode — checks the referer during normal WordPress request handling and returns a 403. Works on any host, including nginx, but can’t intercept a request that’s served entirely from a full-page cache (see the FAQ below) — the plugin will warn you on its settings page if it detects an active caching plugin while running in this mode.

The block list itself is a mix of several public spam-referer sources, merged and refreshed automatically once a day (or on demand from the settings page). You can also add your own domains to block, including internationalized (non-ASCII) domain names — they’re normalized automatically.

From Wikipedia:

Referrer spam (also known as log spam or referrer
bombing) is a kind of spamdexing (spamming aimed
at search engines). The technique involves making
repeated web site requests using a fake referer URL
to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that
publish their access logs, including referer statistics,
will then inadvertently link back to the spammer's site.
These links will be indexed by search engines
as they crawl the access logs.

This benefits the spammer because the free link improves
the spammer site's search engine ranking owing
to link-counting algorithms that search engines use.

Features

Automatic daily updates of the referer spam block list, or trigger an update manually
Add your own custom domains to the block list, with automatic IDN/Punycode normalization
Two blocking modes to fit Apache or non-Apache hosting: mod_rewrite or WordPress-level
Warns you if a caching plugin is likely to interfere with WordPress-mode blocking

Pro

Pro plans start at $2/mo. Visit BlockReferSpam.com for more information.

Sync your custom block list across all of your registered sites
Access to additional curated block lists

Examples Blocked

semalt
buttons-for-website
floating-share-buttons
4webmaster
ilovevitaly
… and many more!

Found a bug, or want to contribute? Get in touch — support / supersoju.com

Cover photo by Lukas Budimaier

Pantaila-argazkiak

Instalazioa

Install Block Referer Spam automatically, or upload the plugin ZIP file.
Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.
Go to the “Referer Spam” admin menu to review your blocking mode and options — the defaults work for most sites without any changes.

Using WP-CLI

wp plugin install block-referer-spam --activate

MEG

What sites are blocked?

This plugin merges several public referer-spam block lists rather than relying on just one, refreshed automatically once a day, to keep coverage broad.

I still see those websites in my Google Analytics history!

Block Referer Spam prevents new spam hits from being logged — it doesn’t retroactively clean up analytics data you already have. To filter out existing spam entries in Google Analytics, see this tutorial.

I tested my site and a known spam referer can still get through!

A few common causes:

The site isn’t on the block list yet. The list refreshes once a day, so very new spam domains may take a little while to be added. In the meantime, add it as a custom block yourself.
A caching plugin is serving the request from cache. In WordPress blocking mode, a full-page cache (e.g. WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, LiteSpeed Cache) can serve a cached page before WordPress — and this plugin — ever runs. Switch to Rewrite mode (Apache only) if you’re using a caching plugin, since it blocks at the web-server level before caching applies.
Your host doesn’t support Rewrite mode. If .htaccess isn’t writable, or you’re not on Apache, use WordPress mode instead.

Does this work with caching plugins?

Rewrite mode does, since it blocks before caching applies. WordPress mode can be bypassed by full-page caching — the plugin detects common caching plugins and shows a warning on its settings page if you’re running WordPress mode alongside one, so you can switch to Rewrite mode if your host supports it.

I found a bug!

Please report it — we aim to fix reported issues quickly.

Berrikuspenak

scutterfly 2022(e)ko ekainaren 7(a)

The second I installed this plugin I lost access to my dashboard. Main site was running but all dashboard pages returned an error caused by too many redirects. You need to rename the plugin folder and delete the various lines of “stuff” the plugin adds to your .htaccess file. A tense and stressful few minutes while I figured out how to undo the damage this plugin did. It’s not worth the risk of installing it so stay away from it.

lily1969 2019(e)ko otsailaren 28(a)

Thank you

craighobson 2017(e)ko ekainaren 14(a) 1 reply

Awesome, thanks!

infinitybassuk 2016(e)ko abenduaren 24(a) 1 reply

I’ve tried quite a few of these referrer SPAM blocker plugins before – and I was not expecting much – but I have been converted !! :+) I don’t like messing with htaccess (I’m accident prone), so I thought I would give it a try.. I use this plugin in WordPress Block mode, and over the last week or so, I’ve had ZERO referrer SPAM, on two analytics plugins I use. I have also been researching and adding my own list of ghost websites to the one provided by the plugin – including a devious one via twitter from that guy who claims he is doing nothing illegal (!); There are over 600 sites in my list, and it’s growing day by day. Keep doing what you guys are doing – a great job !! :+)

Seolotsen 2016(e)ko azaroaren 25(a) 2 replies

I have installed it – and get a 403 as results for all my pages. Worst Plugin. And Referrer is written with double “r” – experts

Jeff Rudd 2016(e)ko urriaren 14(a)

When it comes to getting rid of www1.free-share-buttons.top – its COMPLETELY useless.

Irakurri 21 berrikuspenak

Laguntzaileak eta Garatzaileak

“Block Referer Spam” software librea da. Ondoko pertsonek egin dizkiote ekarpenak plugin honi.

Itzul zaitez Block Referer Spam zure hizkuntzara.

Garapena interesatzen zaizu?

Araka kodea, begiratu SVN biltegia edo harpidetu garapen erregistrora RSS bidez.

Aldaketen loga

1.2

Security: added a CSRF nonce check to the manual list-download action
Security: enabled TLS certificate verification on the pro license request
Security: fixed stored XSS in the Blocked Sites list and the pro key status message
Security: replaced a raw PHP stream request with the WordPress HTTP API for list downloads
Fix: flash messages no longer rely on PHP sessions (which were never actually started)
Fix: uninstall now removes all plugin options, .htaccess rules, and the scheduled cron event
Fix: scheduled cron event is now cleared on deactivation, instead of left running
Fix: daily cron now respects the Auto Update setting instead of ignoring it
Fix: PHP notice when no HTTP referer is present on the request
Fix: removed unused/dead code left over from the bundled IDN library that failed to parse on PHP 8
Improvement: .htaccess rewrite rules are kept ahead of caching-plugin rules, so Rewrite mode still blocks spam when a caching plugin is active
Improvement: new admin notice when WordPress Block mode is active alongside a known caching plugin
Improvement: the merged block list is now cached instead of re-parsed on every request
Improvement: custom-block domain normalization now uses PHP’s native IDN support when available, only falling back to the bundled library on hosts without it
Tested up to WordPress 7.0.3

1.1.9.3

Tested for WordPress 5.0
Fix issue where updated list sometimes does not get written to .htaccess when called via cron

1.1.9.1

Cleans up after itself on deactivation

1.1.9

Pro version available

1.1.8.5

Readme typo fixes
Blocklist back to using custom solution

1.1.7

Readme typo fixes
Blocklist back to using custom solution

1.1.6

Updated blocklist provider

1.1.5

Added functionality to backup previous .htaccess in case something goes wrong.

1.1.4

Tested successfully on WordPress latest version (4.4).
Fixed a bug where other plugins could prevent Block Referer Spam from working.
Added box to honor contributors of this plugin.

1.1.3

Added Spanish translations!
If you would like to help and translate this plugin, get in touch!

1.1.2

Bugfix! Sorry guys! 🙂

1.1

Major update!
Fixed some critical bugs that could break the site.
Fixed some more bugs that could have produced notices.
Added validation and support for international domains!
Added cloud-feature to learn from all installations worldwide!
Fixed some mistakes in the German translation.

1.0.4

Fixed the plugin to run on PHP versions lower than 5.4. It should now work on older providers and servers that have not been updated for a while.

1.0.3

Fixed a bug that in “Rewrite Blocking”, rules were not actually enforced. Sorry about that!

1.0.2

Improved FAQs
Added writable check for .htaccess
Added WP-CLI installation instructions
Added part of Wikipedia about referer spam

1.0.1

Added German localization
Updated screenshot and fixed typos
Added frequently asked questions

1.0

Initial version

Instantly killed my dashboard 302

It is works !

Great!

Yes! this REALLY does work

WTF? Must role off a backup

No good whatsoever