Last Updated on 2024/10/22 by BrieferBob
Stopping Spammers Using Free Practical Methods
Stopping spammers is simple with these easy to follow steps contained within the content of this article. Whether you own a website for business or a site from whence you blog, stopping spammers is likely a major concern for you.
The Issue
If you’ve had your website up for any length of time, you have most likely experienced the annoyance of dealing with pesky spammers hitting your subscriber list or leaving non-commenting comments awaiting moderation. If nothing else, these spammers have succeeded in at least steeling you of time that could have been spent on more valuable productivity. So before we go anywhere else on this issue, scan your site for malware with a free tool now! Bookmark it and use it often. Sucuri SiteCheck is absolutely free!
In the world of search engine optimization and social media competing for drawing traffic to a given website, many blogs have started publishing referrer information as a way of linking back to people who are linking to them. We all do this as a way of hopefully broadening the conversation. But along with every meaningful strategy comes the other side of the coin. As a result, all of us sooner or later experience a rise in what is called referrer spam.
HTTP Referer Explained
Originally a misspelling of the word referrer, among techies it’s known as HTTP referer, an HTTP header field. For the purpose of this article, from this point going forward I will refer to it as the misspelled version “referer.” This HTTP referer identifies the address of the webpage, typically known as a URI or IRI that linked to a specific page or resource existing on the other end. By checking the HTTP referer, the “other end” (your webpage) can track where the request for opening your page came from.
Stopping spammers from what has become known as “referer spam” should be considered a critical part of securing your website. Referer spam is simply sending fake referer information to popularize a given spammer’s website at your website’s expense. If left unattended, the clutter of such spam can lead to all kinds of functionality problems on your own site, let alone that you’re jeopardizing your own subscriber list in too many ways to go into within the context of this article.
Security Solutions for Stopping Spammers
Security measures for stopping spammers from forging a referer have proven to be limited. Let’s face it! There is no security mechanism anywhere that is 100% effective! If it claims to be, it’s being oversold and for security, I’d forgo it. But there are measures you can take depending on a few variables that can be as high as 99% effective. Continue Reading
