On one of the websites being analyzed, suspicious ad-driven sessions were detected. This was unusual because the site was not running any advertising campaigns, and previously all traffic had been organic. How is this possible? It is highly unlikely that someone would spend money to run ads for someone else’s website. Most likely, this is an indication that your site has become a target of behavioral signal manipulation. This practice is prohibited and may have negative consequences: the site may be subject to search engine filters (for example, Yandex), and restoring its reputation can be difficult.
Which UTM parameters were suspicious?
Each suspicious visit contained a referrer from Yandex and included various UTM parameters such as:
This data suggests that attackers are trying to simulate ad traffic in order to mislead Yandex.Metrica algorithms and distort web analytics metrics. As a result, they may negatively affect the site’s positions in search results.
What can be done in this situation?
The first thing to do is to contact Yandex Support and describe in detail which UTM parameters were associated with the suspicious traffic. Once you reach out, Yandex’s team will note it and assure you that everything will be resolved.
