Direct traffic spam - How to Stop?

[RTT_STILLEN]

My site has seen a spike in direct traffic over the past two weeks that I believe is spam - the bounce rate has taken a hit, average page/sessions has dropped and average time on site is nearly half of what other mediums of traffic are.

Using Analytics, I've been able to pin down culprit to for the strange traffic to Internet Explorer Browser Version 7. During this time period, the bounce rate for this browser is in the high 90s, the pages per session is just above 1 ("visit" the home page and then leave), and the time on site is a few seconds. In terms of location, the traffic seems to becoming from all over the US, so I can't tie it back to any one location.

My question is this, have you experienced this before? And what did you do to stop it?

[edited for formatting]

[Bryan_Loconto]

Hey Stillen!

You should create a filter in your analytics account and exclude all traffic from those domains and or IP address. This will eliminate it from tracking that data.

Google Analytics Property > Admin > View > Filter

Hope this helps!!!

[CommT]

Hi,

Bryan's idea seems good. I'd also check how your site resolves in IE if that's the problem. Maybe an update to IE has caused your code to fall down?

best wishes,

Amelia

[Travis_Bailey]

I would look at your server log file to get a better idea of what's going on. Simply filtering the traffic in GA is basically sticking your head in the sand while what sounds like a DDoS or attempted hack is happening. So definitely have someone look into this deeper, rather than just filtering your data.

Considering IE7 is one of the oldest user agents imaginable, you could selectively block IE 7 user agent string at the server level. Though they could modify their user agent at a later date.

The only reason, that comes to mind, you wouldn't want to do this if your site is meant to target local/state governments. I've heard horror stories where one state required IE 5 Support, but that was some kind of ERP deal. Other than that, I haven't seen legit IE 7 traffic in years.

If your server is running Apache, you can give this a try. Also, it's possible you're using WordPress, so give WP Secure a glance. I would not advise that you do this on your own if you're unfamiliar with .htaccess and you can't push and pull from a test environment. It can knock the site down.

[Bryan_Loconto]

I agree Travis! Stillen, you would certainly want to look deeper into this to rule out any possibility of an attack. Once that is ruled out (hopefully), if it continues, go ahead and filter it out!

[Travis_Bailey]

I've seen spikes like this quite a few times. Most of the time it's a drop in the bucket and a note to the client telling them why traffic spiked, and why over-all traffic is lower now - as well as a note in Analytics for future reference. But if it gets to the point where it's hampering site performance/eating bandwidth and RAM, then it's a major concern.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Absolutely! Your are on point with your suggestion. Better to play it safe than to just filter the data out of the gate. I jumped the gun with my original comment and should have played it a little safer haa

[KeriMorgret]

Lots of people are seeing this at the moment. Still no reason has been identified, but you're not alone. Barry has a few more details on SER at http://www.seroundtable.com/direct-traffic-ie7-analytics-18897.html.

[Travis_Bailey]

Yes, I felt myself move from total obscurity into obscurity. It was... different. There was a little more discussion about it on Barry Schwartz's Google+. I don't know how useful this is, but one Riccardo Mares & associate report that 'Media Center PC' is common in the user agent string.

[KeriMorgret]

AdRoll is the culprit it seems. If you've seen increased spend, contact them, they are quite aware of the issue. More in a new post by Barry at http://www.seroundtable.com/adroll-invalid-traffic-18922.html