What is Semalt?

[DimasoftTeam]

I have noticed Semalt appearing on my traffic stats for several clients. I have had a look online and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of information. Is this ssomethingto be worried about. Apart from anything else, it is affecting my data.

[GPainter]

I wouldn't worry about them. In theory they track your serp placement but they do a bad job of it. I suspect the get a link and then people pay for a trail to see what its all about and thus they make money.

It shouldn't be affecting your traffic in anyway. Ignore it for now and they will go away.

In short- Semalt tracks serp placement If you're worried you can look here-

http://logorrhoea.net/2014/01/how-to-block-semalt-com-referrer-traffic-using-htaccess/

[Chris661]

Also seeing hits from these guys. 9 so far today from Viet Nam, Brazil, India, Turkey and Colombia.

Very annoying. I sent a note to Alex@Semalt.com requesting they remove me from their crawlers. I guess the consensus is they are harmless from what I have read on the web, but it messes up your analytics.

[BBuck]

I just noticed this in my GA. They are dramatically increasing my bounce rates!!! Blocking now!

[TerabitJoe]

Hello Buck,

How would you block them? You mean removing their data from GA? Or truly blocking their bots?

[BBuck]

I added code to block them from accessing the site. Is my assumption correct? That they essentially click on the site, then becuase they don't actually view the site, it causes the bounce rates to skyrocket? That's what the GA shows. So, won't google at some point, downgrade the site in the SERPS due to high bounce rates? Or am I not understanding that correctly?

[firecatsue]

On this page of the Semalt site, they offer a form to remove sites from their crawler list, promising removal within 30 minutes.

http://semalt.com/project_crawler.php

I just removed one of our sites as a test - because they're showing up as our #2 referrer. I don't recommend using the above link and know no more than the page says - just sharing info.

[BBuck]

Great. Let us know what happens.

[BBuck]

Here is more info on them:  http://www.slideshare.net/MyLocalBusinessOnline/how-to-block-semalt-crawler-and-clean-up-your-analytics

[Sernukers]

I have a new website (https://sernukers.com/) and there is only 1  article published. I saw some traffic from different countries for last few days. Yesterday I checked my email I find an email from semalt. Should I reply to them or ignore ??