For those of you that tried to visit our website during the past few days, you might have seen an “account suspended” page. This is because our blog was recently “attacked” by referrer spam.:(
Definition of Referrer Spam:
Referrer spam is a kind of search engine-targeted spam. The technique involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer url pointing to a spam-advertised site. Sites that publicize their referer statistics will then also link to the spammer’s site. This benefits the spammer because of the free link, and also gives the spammer’s site improved search engine link placement due to link-counting algorithms that search engines use.
Why was this so bad? Well, these spammers were not only effecting our bandwidth usage (how many page loads per month we’re allowed, etc.), they also caused a heavy load on our web host. That was the main reason our account was suspended. Our web host was able to block spammers, and enable our account again.:)