Title: WP referrer spam blacklist (fight 2040+ Referrer Spammers in (Google/Matomo) Analytics)
Author: Umbrovskis.com
Published: <strong>9, Xunetu de 2015</strong>
Last modified: 27, Avientu de 2020

---

Guetar plugins

![](https://ps.w.org/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=2446537)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2446537)

# WP referrer spam blacklist (fight 2040+ Referrer Spammers in (Google/Matomo) Analytics)

 By [Umbrovskis.com](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rolandinsh/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist.1.3.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/#installation)
 * [Development](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/)

## Description

List of spammers in [FAQ](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/faq/).

No need for configuration! Plugin in background redirects referral spammer to blank
page ( about:blank ). Redirect link can be altered via filter `wp_referralblock_redirect_uri`.

NO auto update, as we see that as possible as security hole. We do not wan’t Your
site to get hacked.

Plugin is for sites that can’t edit their `.htaccess` or configure NGINX or Apache
servers.

Via [my LinkedIN post](http://go.mediabox.lv/1LbSuKq): Few months ago I started 
to collect referral spam pages in private file un bitbucket.org. Problem was that
I did not know all spammers. Then, few weeks ago, I found that Matomo (Open source
analytics) started their own “project”, and they did the same thing I did – collected
referral spam sites to block them from Your website.

On my own server I do that at server level, but some of my clients have hosting,
where You can not edit server settings. This week I came up with another solution–
WordPress plugin “WP referrer spam blacklist”. I will update list every week from
[Matomo’s community-contributed list of spammers](https://github.com/matomo-org/referrer-spam-blacklist).

If You have WordPress site and no knowledge about or access to server settings, 
I made that for You!

From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam):

    ```
    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.
    ```

Other plugins by author: [itemprop WP for SERP/SEO Rich snippets](https://wordpress.org/plugins/itempropwp/)–
Add schema.org itemprop code to the (custom) post content for search engines and
bots for better SERP results

## Installation

 1. Upload to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
 2. Activate the WP referrer spam blacklist plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
 3. Done

WP-CLI

    ```
    wp plugin install wp-referrer-spam-blacklist --activate
    ```

## FAQ

### What sites included?

These from [Matomo’s referrer-spam-blacklist](https://github.com/rolandinsh/wp_referrer_spam_blacklist/blob/master/spammers.txt):

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3964017a0c9cb4a5c46f2dd61832eeb9bd75fa30bfc6969bfe65dd01b346e430?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Stopping using it.](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stopping-using-it/)󠁿

 [bcarney](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bcarney/) 5, Ochobre de 2016 2 replies

I stopped using it when people that typed "www.mysite.com" in the URL field of their
browser saw the site but if they typed "mysite.com" they saw a "Stop Spamming!" 
message. This plugin is the only one with that text in all the plugins that I use,
so it is clearly the cause of the problem.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9eac656a335e4a0673c5a0a54f4b9d6cece19c13f48d1738f2bde7f2b888239c?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Awesome!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/awesome-3785/)󠁿

 [craighobson](https://profiles.wordpress.org/craighobson/) 3, Setiembre de 2016

Finally! I love that this plugin is regularly updated and pulling it's blacklist
from the community-contributed list of referrer spammers maintained by Piwik, the
leading open source web analytics platform. Thank you for doing this right!

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/380665b6253bd6fe1191d6305ac78557d0b87a2a2534906a5b3bd68adb9f9c61?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[No more updates needed?](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/no-more-updates-needed/)󠁿

 [Webtaurus](https://profiles.wordpress.org/and_or/) 3, Setiembre de 2016 3 replies

The plugin seems to work, though it takes a while for the spammers to disappear 
from the top 5 list. Also I still see sessions from domains that are on the list
when I check the recent Analytics, is that normal? (so in stats from after the plugin
install) I also would have expected more frequent updates, since the referrers seem
to be using new domain names all the time…

 [ Read all 3 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“WP referrer spam blacklist (fight 2040+ Referrer Spammers in (Google/Matomo) Analytics)”
is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Umbrovskis.com ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rolandinsh/)

[Translate “WP referrer spam blacklist (fight 2040+ Referrer Spammers in (Google/Matomo) Analytics)” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.3.0

 * Enhance: read spammer list from file (list version 1.4.0)

#### 1.2.201801281

 * Piwik => Matomo
 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.30)

#### 1.2.201707101

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.29)

#### 1.2.201705311

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.28)

#### 1.2.201701181

 * EXPERIMENTAL: W3 Total cache DONOTCACHE if hit by spammer
 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.27)

#### 1.2.201612101

 * FIX: [PHP Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER; Issue #7](https://github.com/rolandinsh/wp_referrer_spam_blacklist/issues/7)
 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.26)

#### 1.2.201610241

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.25)

#### 1.2.201610061

 * Enhance: better way to get domain name

#### 1.2.201610051

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.24)

#### 1.2.201609061

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.23)

#### 1.2.201608031

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.22)

#### 1.2.201607041

 * BUG fix: whitescreen ([issue #5](https://github.com/rolandinsh/wp_referrer_spam_blacklist/issues/5))

#### 1.2.201606241

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.21)

#### 1.2.201605231

 * FIXED: PHP 5.5+ Warning: Missing argument 1 for wpReferralBlacklist::wpReferralblockRedirectUri()
 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.20)

#### 1.2.201605111

 * FIXED: missed spam domains
 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.19)

#### 1.2.201604171

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.18)

#### 1.2.201604111

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.17)

#### 1.2.201603251

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.16)

#### 1.2.201602241

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.15)

#### 1.2.201602141

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.14)

#### 1.2.201601131

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.12)

#### 1.2.201512301

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.11)
 * Enhance: check if PHP class exists

#### 1.0.13

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.10)

#### 1.0.12

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.9)

#### 1.0.11

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.8)

#### 1.0.10

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.7)

#### 1.0.9

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.6)

#### 1.0.8

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.5)

#### 1.0.7

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.4)
 * Enhance: compatibility with WordPress 4.3
 * Enhance: information about auto update of list

#### 1.0.6

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.3)

#### 1.0.5

 * Enhance: spammer list updates (list version 1.3.2)

#### 1.0.4

 * Enhance: spammer list updates

#### 1.0.3

 * Enhance: spammer list updates + extra spammers which are not in Matomo’s list

#### 1.0.2

 * Enhance: minor updates

#### 1.0.1

 * Enhance: Better naming, code comments and my wishlist
 * FIX: E_WARNING Missing argument 1 for wpReferralBlacklist::referral(),

#### 1.0.0

Proof of concept

## Meta

 *  Version **1.3.0**
 *  Last updated **6 años ago**
 *  Active installations **700+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.0 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **5.6.21**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/)
 * Tags
 * [anti-spam](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/anti-spam/)[antispam](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/antispam/)
   [comment moderation](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/comment-moderation/)
   [comment spam](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/comment-spam/)[referral spam](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/referral-spam/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://ast.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.3 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  2 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Umbrovskis.com ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rolandinsh/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-referrer-spam-blacklist/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=Z4ALL9WUMY3CL&lc=LV&item_name=Umbrovskis.%20WordPress%20plugins&item_number=004&currency_code=EUR&bn=PP-DonationsBF:btn_donate_SM.gif:NonHosted)