I know it can be done, as I've seen it done before my very eyes. And I'm fairly convinced you don't know the answer and certainly convinced you won't post it here. But for the sake of clarity, the reason I want it is because I feel like I've been scammed in this very fashion, and cannot provide a suitable explanation of how it's been done now I've been challenged by my SEO company. Although I'm fairly certain my increase in website traffic has been completely falsified, I'd like to replicate the results myself in order to demonstrate I know what I'm talking about with the hope (what little there is) of claiming my money back. It would also be nice to know these things in the hope I can prevent such things happening to me in future.
How to fake Google as referer?
- Thread starter krabople
- Start date
I know it can be done, as I've seen it done before my very eyes. And I'm fairly convinced you don't know the answer and certainly convinced you won't post it here. But for the sake of clarity, the reason I want it is because I feel like I've been scammed in this very fashion, and cannot provide a suitable explanation of how it's been done now I've been challenged by my SEO company. Although I'm fairly certain my increase in website traffic has been completely falsified, I'd like to replicate the results myself in order to demonstrate I know what I'm talking about with the hope (what little there is) of claiming my money back. It would also be nice to know these things in the hope I can prevent such things happening to me in future.
Thanks, but if you're suggesting you can't fake a Google referral in Google Analytics and get particular search keywords to show up (and as a relative newbie myself to this entire subject I'm not sure you are necessarily saying this) you're categorically wrong.
phpbuilt
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That's actually a pretty good reason. 
So there's 2 things. Webmaster tools and analytics.
First, regarding webmaster tools.
You can't easily fool webmaster tools because its all internal at Google (best you could do is mass fake the statistics that generate those internals). For instance, if a certain website exists for which you want to generate fake activity for it ... lets say its average searches 800 per month, and you're in the top 20 (which means maybe 200 people would see that link). You could brute-force a ton of searches from various IPs, have them view the 2nd page, and this would influence webmaster tools to show the increased impressions. You could take it a step further by having those bots actually click your link, and it would influence webmaster tools to show the clicks as well. This requires a bot that scrapes and interacts with Google.
Second, analytics.
Google has no idea who visits your website, this isn't an internal functionality with Google. Thats why you got to put analytics code on your pages, so that Google gets told who is visiting your website. If you want to fake Google analytics, all you need to do is fake traffic to the analytics code.
Now, most of the traffic that Google sends a page nowadays is anonymous ... like 90% of it. 10% actually shows the keywords, because searches are being performed in unencrypted mode (the person isn't logged in to Google, etc.) If you're getting like 10% anonymous and 90% showing keywords, that at face value is fake.
You could automate a bot, where you have access to a number of proxies. Now whether you're using PHP cURL, or directly using internet explorer (through VB6 or VB2012 which I'm accustomed to) and certainly through any other scraping software ... you've got access to headers. Referrer (actually referer as it was incorrectly spelled when it was added to web protocols), is a CGI variable available to methods. I can formulate a PHP cURL request or an internet explorer request that, as it loads a page, emulates the referer variable. So then, with 1000 proxies ... I could trick analytics into thinking that 1000 different people were visiting your client's website, and fake Google as a referer as I sent my request header for the page.
For a proof-of-concept, I'm sure if you google it there's a firefox plugin that would allow you to simulate a referer as you load a page. Change your proxy in firefox. Load said website, boom you just faked a referer that shows as visit from Google in analytics.
So there's 2 things. Webmaster tools and analytics.
First, regarding webmaster tools.
You can't easily fool webmaster tools because its all internal at Google (best you could do is mass fake the statistics that generate those internals). For instance, if a certain website exists for which you want to generate fake activity for it ... lets say its average searches 800 per month, and you're in the top 20 (which means maybe 200 people would see that link). You could brute-force a ton of searches from various IPs, have them view the 2nd page, and this would influence webmaster tools to show the increased impressions. You could take it a step further by having those bots actually click your link, and it would influence webmaster tools to show the clicks as well. This requires a bot that scrapes and interacts with Google.
Second, analytics.
Google has no idea who visits your website, this isn't an internal functionality with Google. Thats why you got to put analytics code on your pages, so that Google gets told who is visiting your website. If you want to fake Google analytics, all you need to do is fake traffic to the analytics code.
Now, most of the traffic that Google sends a page nowadays is anonymous ... like 90% of it. 10% actually shows the keywords, because searches are being performed in unencrypted mode (the person isn't logged in to Google, etc.) If you're getting like 10% anonymous and 90% showing keywords, that at face value is fake.
You could automate a bot, where you have access to a number of proxies. Now whether you're using PHP cURL, or directly using internet explorer (through VB6 or VB2012 which I'm accustomed to) and certainly through any other scraping software ... you've got access to headers. Referrer (actually referer as it was incorrectly spelled when it was added to web protocols), is a CGI variable available to methods. I can formulate a PHP cURL request or an internet explorer request that, as it loads a page, emulates the referer variable. So then, with 1000 proxies ... I could trick analytics into thinking that 1000 different people were visiting your client's website, and fake Google as a referer as I sent my request header for the page.
For a proof-of-concept, I'm sure if you google it there's a firefox plugin that would allow you to simulate a referer as you load a page. Change your proxy in firefox. Load said website, boom you just faked a referer that shows as visit from Google in analytics.
That's actually a pretty good reason.
So there's 2 things. Webmaster tools and analytics.
First, regarding webmaster tools.
You can't easily fool webmaster tools because its all internal at Google (best you could do is mass fake the statistics that generate those internals). For instance, if a certain website exists for which you want to generate fake activity for it ... lets say its average searches 800 per month, and you're in the top 20 (which means maybe 200 people would see that link). You could brute-force a ton of searches from various IPs, have them view the 2nd page, and this would influence webmaster tools to show the increased impressions. You could take it a step further by having those bots actually click your link, and it would influence webmaster tools to show the clicks as well. This requires a bot that scrapes and interacts with Google.
Second, analytics.
Google has no idea who visits your website, this isn't an internal functionality with Google. Thats why you got to put analytics code on your pages, so that Google gets told who is visiting your website. If you want to fake Google analytics, all you need to do is fake traffic to the analytics code.
Now, most of the traffic that Google sends a page nowadays is anonymous ... like 90% of it. 10% actually shows the keywords, because searches are being performed in unencrypted mode (the person isn't logged in to Google, etc.) If you're getting like 10% anonymous and 90% showing keywords, that at face value is fake.
You could automate a bot, where you have access to a number of proxies. Now whether you're using PHP cURL, or directly using internet explorer (through VB6 or VB2012 which I'm accustomed to) and certainly through any other scraping software ... you've got access to headers. Referrer (actually referer as it was incorrectly spelled when it was added to web protocols), is a CGI variable available to methods. I can formulate a PHP cURL request or an internet explorer request that, as it loads a page, emulates the referer variable. So then, with 1000 proxies ... I could trick analytics into thinking that 1000 different people were visiting your client's website, and fake Google as a referer as I sent my request header for the page.
For a proof-of-concept, I'm sure if you google it there's a firefox plugin that would allow you to simulate a referer as you load a page. Change your proxy in firefox. Load said website, boom you just faked a referer that shows as visit from Google in analytics.
While this seems partially true, what makes you think that it's actually this way on Google Analytics?
Did you see the referrer when you open up a website from a search?
https://www.google.com/url?url_with_a_shit_load_of_parameters
So, what kind of problem would they have validating that the url from their own website isn't actually real? If I have to bet, none, because they will always try to have consistent information on their systems and this would hardly work by setting "Google" as the referrer.
The only real way that I see through this is performing natural searches through Google itself, and that will take not only time but probably a bit of money.
Long story made short: you can do it, if you have the tools and the money.
Last edited:
phpbuilt
Account compromised December 2025
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Like I said, Google has no idea who visits your site (unless maybe through Chrome). If they knew, they wouldn't have you install analytics code. Simulating traffic on that analytics code (different IPs/proxies/user agents) will show those stats in Google analytics. And even if it didn't ... even if Google only counts what is actually searched for and exited from Google, then all you need to do is simulate that for the same effect.
@ttrox, What it seems you are implying is this ... what if Google Analytics uses its analytics code to record every single person who visits your website (along with their referer), except when it comes directly from Google (in which case it never relies directly on its Analytics code, and somehow reverts back to its measuring the click-out of Google into your website). That seems to me ridiculously complicated for them to try to piece together ... and for no reason.
I don't know exactly what to do to get Google to show the q=keyword in the URL. I just did a search logged in, it wasn't there. I logged out and searched again, wasn't there. It could be that it only gets recorded when javascript isn't enabled or some other situation. I do know when it disappeared though, and people started calling it doomsday for SEO providers because they couldn't show exact traffic to their clients anymore.
Thats why this whole thing is moot, the keywords show 10% of the time at best now. Google screws everyone's security with the NSA, it goes public, Google freaks out and rips out and encrypts their referring urls in some odd logic that Google is now somehow more secure and private because, while it gives the Feds carte-blanche with all your data, you're so much more secure because random internet marketers don't know what already-anonymous stats they were getting from your searches.
Though to combat someone who is trying to pull one over on you by falsifying stats, its good to keep all this in mind, because they might be using old methods of generating URLs and showing keyword traffic that still trick-out Google's analytics into thinking those keywords were used from a Google search.
@ttrox, What it seems you are implying is this ... what if Google Analytics uses its analytics code to record every single person who visits your website (along with their referer), except when it comes directly from Google (in which case it never relies directly on its Analytics code, and somehow reverts back to its measuring the click-out of Google into your website). That seems to me ridiculously complicated for them to try to piece together ... and for no reason.
I don't know exactly what to do to get Google to show the q=keyword in the URL. I just did a search logged in, it wasn't there. I logged out and searched again, wasn't there. It could be that it only gets recorded when javascript isn't enabled or some other situation. I do know when it disappeared though, and people started calling it doomsday for SEO providers because they couldn't show exact traffic to their clients anymore.
Thats why this whole thing is moot, the keywords show 10% of the time at best now. Google screws everyone's security with the NSA, it goes public, Google freaks out and rips out and encrypts their referring urls in some odd logic that Google is now somehow more secure and private because, while it gives the Feds carte-blanche with all your data, you're so much more secure because random internet marketers don't know what already-anonymous stats they were getting from your searches.
Though to combat someone who is trying to pull one over on you by falsifying stats, its good to keep all this in mind, because they might be using old methods of generating URLs and showing keyword traffic that still trick-out Google's analytics into thinking those keywords were used from a Google search.
Hey, thanks for the response and apologies for the delayed reply. Apart from anything else you've confirmed what I was already pretty sure of, in that my stats have been faked, as 90% of them do have keywords. But in any case, the fact that the bounce rate is practically 0% and that nearly all visitors have clicked exactly two links and remained on each page for roughly 10 seconds every time is a bit of a give away as well. I also asked them to target keywords I knew they would have no chance of ranking for and funnily enough within a couple of days I was getting loads of hits for those keywords.
However, when I've tried to falsify a referrer as being Google it doesn't show up in Analytics as Google. If I fake it as being from anywhere else it shows up but if I try and spoof it as Google it won't. My SEO company has told me it's impossible to spoof hits from Google but I know for a fact it's not, because they've been doing exactly that, but I can't seem to demonstrate how.
However, when I've tried to falsify a referrer as being Google it doesn't show up in Analytics as Google. If I fake it as being from anywhere else it shows up but if I try and spoof it as Google it won't. My SEO company has told me it's impossible to spoof hits from Google but I know for a fact it's not, because they've been doing exactly that, but I can't seem to demonstrate how.
I actually found a way to do this in the end, and it was a lot easier than I'd thought.
Wilson Grant Fisk
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I tried but this website won't let me post URLs as I haven't been a member long enough
helloworld2014
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Can you PM me with your contacts?