{"id":2542,"date":"2024-02-29T17:30:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T17:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/?p=2542"},"modified":"2024-02-29T17:30:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T17:30:31","slug":"huge-traffic-increase-from-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/niche-websites\/huge-traffic-increase-from-poland\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Traffic Increase from Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Huge Traffic Increase from Poland! \ud83e\udd28\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3KBaKPdDAwQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group popcorn-error-alert has-popcorn-error-text-color has-popcorn-error-background-background-color has-text-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-radius:5px;border-left-color:var(--wp--preset--color--popcorn-error-text);border-left-width:8px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n<p class=\"popcorn-alert-text-error\"><strong>Warning.<\/strong> I advise you not visit the websites that appear to be sending you this traffic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you checked your Google Analytics recently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have you might of spotted that you&#8217;ve had a bit of a traffic boost&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost-1024x430.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2545\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost-1024x430.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost-300x126.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost-768x323.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost-1536x645.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Traffic-Boost.jpg 1562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However when you look into it, all is not as it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The extra traffic is coming from Poland! (not really one of my target locations)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"984\" height=\"784\" src=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Poland-is-the-top-country.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2546\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Poland-is-the-top-country.jpg 984w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Poland-is-the-top-country-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Poland-is-the-top-country-768x612.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When you drill down into where the traffic is coming from, it appears to be coming from some very suspicious-looking websites&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"792\" src=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Dodgy-Polish-Siites-1024x792.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2547\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Dodgy-Polish-Siites-1024x792.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Dodgy-Polish-Siites-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Dodgy-Polish-Siites-768x594.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Dodgy-Polish-Siites.jpg 1288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s going on?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I did some searching around online and it appears that a lot of others websites have also seen a sudden increase in traffic from Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The main theory seems to be that a group of hackers in Walsaw have got hold of lots of Google Analytics IDs and are firing them on their servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that it&#8217;s not actually real traffic. Or even bot traffic. It&#8217;s fake traffic that doesn&#8217;t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why are they doing this?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>No one really knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a few theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1) To boost their own exposure and rankings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>By making their URL show up in Analytics reports it sparks curiosity and people ar likely to visit the websites listed. This in turn could have a positive effect on their rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2) To hack or install Malware<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This is probably the most likely reason. The websites look suspicious and they probably want to install something nasty on to your computer. <strong>Don&#8217;t visit these websites!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to clean up your Google Analytics Reports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been affected, your reports are going to be skewed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luckily, there is a filter you can use. Probably the easiest way is to filter out the traffic from Poland (unless, of course, this is usually a large percentage of your traffic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find it at the top of most reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/add-an-analytics-filter.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2548\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/add-an-analytics-filter.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/add-an-analytics-filter-300x161.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/add-an-analytics-filter-768x413.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also stop Analytics tracking the sites in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s buried away in the Google Analytics settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find it in <strong><em>Admin > Data Streams > Your Stream > Configure Tag Settings > Show More > List Unwanted Referrals<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enter the domains that appear in your source \/ medium reports. The main one is <strong><em>news.grets.store<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group popcorn-box-shadow has-popcorn-secondary-color-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-radius:5px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do you think? \ud83e\udd14<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you experienced this surge of fake traffic from Poland?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you have any ideas on what they&#8217;re up to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me know in the comments. I read all the comments I get.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you seen an increase in traffic from Poland to your website? It&#8217;s not all that it seems&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpeagle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}