Get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam (Improved Instructions)

What is get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam?

Why do I need to block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam?

You should block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam URL because it can easily pollute your Google Analytics data. Also, referral spam URLs are considered insecure because they seek to “invite” websites’ owners and admins to unknown domains and increase their visitors’ traffic. Unfortunately, but there is no guarantee that each of such sites is harmless. So, if you thought that your website received some traffic from get-your-social-buttons.info because it shows up in your Google Analytics, we will have to disappoint you. In reality, you are dealing with spam bots that can add such referrals without a need to visit a site. Such referral spam technique is also known as Blackhat SEO or Ghost Referral strategy. Unfortunately, but it has been steadily growing while trying to increase visitors’ traffic to needed websites and improve their position in Google Search. That’s why the biggest amount of referral spam is noticed before the biggest feasts, such as Christmas, New Year, Easter and similar occasions.

As we have already mentioned, you should stop get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam because it may pollute your Google Analytics data. How? As soon as this referrer spam starts compromising your bounce rate, the audience and similar statistics, you may find problems while trying to use this information for improving your site. Also, your site may start loading much slower than previously. Unfortunately, but each of these issues cannot be solved by resetting web browsers or removing malicious files from your device. While it is recommended to make sure that your computer is free of malware, a full system scan cannot protect you from get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam attacks. They can be prevented by creating an exclude filter and using the .htaccess file.

Why spammers spread referral spam and disrupt websites’ owners?

The secret behind get-your-social-buttons.info and similar referrer spam URLs is very simple. Once spammers corrupt them as sites where the traffic to your website comes from, these URLs show up in Google Analytics data. As the owner of the web site, you may be tricked into thinking that this site is giving you visitors and click the URL, which is provided for you. Unfortunately, but this is dangerous because you can never know which website you can be redirected to. To stay safe, you should ignore such referrals.

How to block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam?

If get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam is compromising your Google Analytics data, you should know that you need to block it to prevent the damage, which it may cause for you and your site. For that, you should follow a guide given below. Unfortunately, but there is no guarantee that get-your-social-buttons.info referrer is harmless. At the moment of writing, it redirects people to sharebutton.to but there is no guarantee that you won’t get an “invitation” to an infected website. To protect yourself, you should scan your computer with FortectIntego or Malwarebytes. Now it is time to block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam in your Google Analytics. For that, please follow these steps:

How to block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam in Google Analytics

Step 1: Stop get-your-social-buttons.info referrer spam by creating an exclude filter

1. Open your Google Analytics account. Go to Admin → All Filters.
2. Click Add Filter button and add get-your-social-buttons.info to the Filter Name.
3. Now select the Custom in Filter Type section and set Campaign Source in the Filter Field. Finally, add get-your-social-buttons.info to the Filter Pattern.
4. Click Save to save these changes.

Step 2: Block get-your-social-buttons.info referral spam by using .htaccess file.

1. Access your .htaccess file.
2. Add the code, which is provided below:

## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} get-your-social-buttons\.info [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} get-your-social-buttons\.info
RewriteRule .* – [F]

If you don’t know how to access the .htaccess file, follow these steps:

1. Log into cPanel and go to Files section. Here, click the File Manager icon.
2. Now check the box with Document Root for, select your domain name and click Go.Warning! Make sure you check Show Hidden Files.
3. Wait for a new tab or window and find the .htaccess file. Right click it and select Code Edit.
4. Now copy and paste the code that is given above and click Save Changes.