[GEEK] Site Referral Log Mystery: How does this happen?
Can someone explain why my referrer log for this site is full of spamish-looking like urls, none of which actually have a link to it? For example:
texasholdemcenteral.com, www.freewebs.com, skate.cyberfreehost.com, google.co.uk/search, www.myspace.com/nyjeter2ox, images.google.ca/imgres, images.google.co.uk/imgres, evilplots.com/texas-holdem, www.texasholdemcenteral.com, online-casino.blest-casino.com/ , www.favorite-casino.com/online-casino, www.sportscribe.com/poker-party, com/texas-holdem.html, favorite-casino.com/casino.
And so on? It's got to have something to do with page rank and Google, but I would love to understand HOW and WHY they do it.
Comments
Some web sites list referrers publicly on their front page, so that gives them some Google-juice, or so they think. (I imagine Google is getting better at filtering that stuff out themselves.) I get a fair amount of this stuff on Live From Arlington from time to time too.
Posted by: David Coletta | July 25, 2005 02:09 PM
Another reason why: in the hopes that curious webmasters will visit the pages to see if there are links.
As to how they do it: a web agent requesting pages from your site can claim anything they like as a referrer. Write a spider, have it claim to be IE6, and have it claim your URL as a referrer. It's very straightforward.
Posted by: Ned Batchelder | July 25, 2005 04:44 PM
Yup, called referer spam. Huge problem.
Posted by: Barry Briggs | August 10, 2005 02:49 PM