Google Analytics referral spam has long been a pain point for Google Analytics users. While Google had previously promised a solution last year, until now, users had to resort to many workarounds in an attempt to sanitize Analytics from showing all the spam. But as of this weekend, many people were reporting that Google Analytics referral spam is no longer showing up in reporting. Unfortunately there is nothing formal yet from Google on the issue.
The change does not appear to be retroactive, as we do see referral spam still in Google Analytics in January 2016 and before. But as of February 2016, it seems that Google has finally solved the Google Analytics spam problem, as it appears no referral spam shows up – at least none of the commonly known ones.
One effect this will have on your overall traffic is a marked decrease in total visits and page views. This traffic was never from people anyways, so it is a better indication of real traffic from humans (rather than spam robots!).
