# Could Someone Explain These Mysterious Visitors in My Web Logs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395 "2013-10-04T21:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MorrisCody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MorrisCody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MorrisCody)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395/1 "2013-10-04T21:06:54Z")
I have a ~14 page portfolio website that may get one or two visitors on a busy day—and I generally know exactly who is looking at the site on a specific day. The last two days, however, there have been some unusual visitors, and I’m curious whether there’s a nefarious reason. According to Google Analytics, [www.seoanalyses.com](http://www.seoanalyses.com) has reffered visitors from the domains iptv.by, [kyivstar.net](http://kyivstar.net), next-gen.ro, [triolan.net](http://triolan.net) and vessobel.by in Homyel, Minsk, Ploiesti, Zaporizhzhya, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Kharkiv and Mytishchi. The weirdest part is that the titles of the page they visited were 2, 220, 257, 390, 422, 471, 529, 662, 68 and 702. There are no pages in my directory with those titles. Could someone explain who these visitors are and what they’re doing? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395/2 "2013-10-04T21:27:26Z")
Spam. Successful in this case since they got you to look. ---
**Author:** ![dejandex86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@dejandex86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dejandex86)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395/3 "2013-10-04T22:00:09Z")
hi guys I also get a 5 visit almost on every site two days in a row. whether it is just spam ? Or something worse ? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395/4 "2013-10-05T07:56:55Z")
Have a look at this article: [Referrer spam - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam) > [@](#): > > Referer spam (also known as log spam or referer bombing) is a kind of spamdexing (spamming aimed at search engines). The technique involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer URL that points to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that publicize their access logs, including referer statistics, will then inadvertently link back to the spammer’s site. These links will be indexed by search engines as they crawl the access logs. > > This benefits the spammer because of the free link, which gives the spammer’s site improved search engine ranking due to link-counting algorithms that search engines use. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-explain-these-mysterious-visitors-in-my-web-logs/670395/5 "2013-10-06T03:26:57Z")
The URL is “[seoanalyses.com](http://seoanalyses.com)” hence SEO Analyses. SEO stands for search engine optimization. They are checking your site to see whether or not they can try to use it to boost their search engine results. They can do this by putting in spam links in any comments section you might have, or, yes, by the referrer spam method mentioned above. I don’t think the pings are spam in and of themselves, really. I mean, I don’t think they expected you to check your referrals and then go to the site. It’s just for SEO purposes.