We all know the feeling too well. You’re browsing your favorite blog for interesting highlights or perhaps clicking on some intriguing headlines as you scroll through your Facebook feed, but instead of being directed to the article you would like to read, you are redirected to a pop-up ad informing that you are today’s lucky visitor. While the offer for a free gift card or iPhone may seem enticing, you know this to be SPAM and are immediately frustrated that you cannot access the content you’d like to peruse.
The feeling for an unlucky site owner is mutual. SPAM ad redirects hijack users from hardworking bloggers and site owners every day. They have quickly become a literal plague on the internet, affecting everyone from small blogs to larger publications like UPROXX and Huffington Post.
What Causes These Spammy Ads?
In short, a blog or publisher uses ad networks to display ads on their website. These ad networks run ads from within their own networks as well as other third-party networks. Advertisers pay these ad networks to serve their ads across the web, and have to go through a screening process to ensure no spam, malware or otherwise harmful things are added in the process. Unfortunately, some enterprising individuals sneak these spammy ads into the mix by either slipping past undetected or inserting malicious code into an ad that already passed through screening.
These spammy ads hurt the end user’s experience and can result in lost loyal visitors and eventual profits. Most site owners are powerless to preventing these treacherous bugs from entering their ad network and many times the only way to detect it is a visitor experiencing a redirect and complaining.
How Did We Fix This?
Once the spam ad redirect issue was detected on Larry Brown Sports, we cleaned up his WordPress site by updating all plugins, removing unused plugins and any malicious code found in the core WordPress files. However, the core of the issue was not fixed until we were able to work directly with their Google AdSense and DoubleClick accounts to identify and block the publishers who were infected by the malicious code and ads. This blocked any malware ads from running on the ad networks servicing Larry Brown Sports.
The result? The publisher and users of Larry Brown Sports are no longer reporting signs of spam ad redirects and users can get their daily dose of sports from the best independently owned sports blog in the country.
Need Help Ridding Your Site of Spammy Ad Redirects?
If SPAM ad redirects are hijacking your hard-earned users, don’t hesitate to reach out to a digital marketing agency (Hint: Us) to help you remedy the issue. Even if your ad network rep has assured you there’s nothing you can do, know that there certainly are ways to block these ads from running on your site.