What if Fake Traffic?

byverna8767

2K followers

7 years ago

The term "fake traffic" refers to website visits and page views that are never performed by real humans. Instead, these pages and views are performed by fake traffic "bots" and other fake traffic generating software.

Now that I’ve explained what fake traffic is, let’s take a look at what can result from its use.

People desperate for page views sometimes purchase fake traffic from third parties in order to increase the rankings of their web pages and make their sites look more attractive to would-be advertisers.

These third parties then utilize bots, pop-up generators, virtual browsers and other dubious tools to quickly generate page views for their customers. While this practice of purchasing fake traffic isn't exactly illegal, it is obnoxious and unsavory at best.

At worst, if you use these nefarious means to garner page views, it could spell the death of your online business.

Use of fake traffic bots and fake traffic generating software have cost advertisers untold billions of dollars over the years as they dumped money into advertising that very few people, if any, actually looked at. As a result, advertisers are becoming savvy at spotting fake traffic.

Simply using Google Analytics can tell them anything they need to know about your website's traffic. They can quickly get to the bottom of whether your traffic is real, fake, or a little bit of both.

If you are found to be a fraud, advertisers will avoid your website like the plague. Google Adsense can become suspended. What's more, Google Analytics and other analytics software programs are fairly easy to use, usually free, and widely available.

This means many people will be able to take a peek behind the proverbial curtain and see if there is a human at the controls, or a machine. If you are found to be using fake traffic generators, this will hurt your credibility, your trustworthiness, and your reputation.

A customer might wonder what other shady dealings you would be willing to engage in, if you are willing to deal in fake traffic. Suddenly your brilliant start-up may face a slow but steady demise. What is truly dangerous about fake traffic bots is that you may be utilizing them without even knowing it. There have been reports of competitors buying fake traffic for their competition in order to ruin their businesses in the ways I just mentioned.

These unscrupulous parties who supply the fake traffic do not generally care where they apply their unsavory craft, just as long as the money is good. You must keep a watchful eye on your website's stats in order to keep your counter on the level.

Utilizing Google Analytics, you can gain all sorts of insight on who is visiting your page. Things you want to look out for to make sure your numbers are not driven by fake traffic include:

• looking for a large number of visits from mostly the same browser,
• looking for high "bounce rates" (which means how often a "person" opens your landing page and goes no further),
• how long people (or non people) spend on your site.
• Of course, you will want to look for an insane spike in traffic.

You might WANT to believe that you went from hundreds of visitors to thousands overnight, but things don't usually work this way. If you suspect you are being sent fake traffic, there are a few things you can do.

• You can block all access from certain browsers. The drawback is that you may be blocking legitimate customers in the process.
• You can contact an internet security specialist who can apply all sorts of filters and plugins that are well beyond my pay grade, so I will spare you the butchering that would be my explanation.

The simple truth is, the solution is not easy, nor is it foolproof. There will always be an amount of fake traffic on your site. However, now that you know what fake traffic is and what to look for when monitoring it, you will be able to get a handle on it.

You just have to be vigilant and proactive. Learn how to use Google Analytics because it will help. I would suggest the security specialist route if you find something out of the ordinary, but don’t know how to correct it. It is going to cost you, but it may well prove worth it in the long run.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this blog article. Hope you found it useful. I am very appreciative of getting “likes”.

Cheers,

Verna