WordPress Optimisation: Block WordPress Referral Spam

Matt from Digital9 has been helping to fix my poor site that despite many people trying to help is still struggling along. He’s currently working wonders with the mysql process. I’ve asked him to keep a list of the changes he’s making so that I can share them with other WordPress users.

So far he’s got my average load down from the crazy peaks of around 3-4 (caused by Extended Live Archives which is a massive resource hog, but I really want it!) down to just under 1. Things are a lot better already, but Matt says my mysql database is still a mess and needs a lot more work. Once he’s done tweaking mysql he’s going to optimise my theme and pages to make them load faster. Can’t wait!

One problem he identified was that although I’d got my comment spam (was peaking at 350 per min) and trackback spam problem under control using SK2, a clever tweak on the comment form and the math comment spam plugin, I was still getting hit with hundreds of referral spams.

If you haven’t come across referral spams yet, it’s when a site creates a fake referral which appears to come from a certain site. What they are hoping is that for servers that publish their top referrals, then their site will be featured and will get picked up by search engines. Unfortunately, when these ‘referrals’ hit a certain level like on my server, they can almost bring it down like a denial attack. Pretty dumb really, and ineffective.

What Matt did to fix this problem was to install Angsuman’s Referral Bouncer Plugin. What this plugin does is basically turn the fake referrers away like a bouncer at a club. Or, as Matt described it:

Matt: lets say my site was bobs-sexy-goblins.com and we’d banned goblins :P….i’d be told to f off and sent (back) to bobs-sexy-goblins.com, and your site doesn’t accept it, they dont see your site, apache is at ease :) oh and please don’t think i have a sexual infatuation with goblins – that was purely random and meant to be slightly amusing
Everton: that’s one clever plugin

Related Posts

• Guide To Reducing WordPress Trackback Spam And Comment Spam
• Added Two New Plugins To Increase WordPress Spam Protection
• Is Akismet The Best Tool To Block WordPress Comment Spam?
• WordPress Optimisation: Control When Plugins Are Loaded
• How To Reduce WordPress Trackback Spam
• I Need Help With Spam Karma
• Testing New Beta Comment Guard Plugin – Please Help

Subscribe To RSS Feed Updates (What is RSS??)