Semalt Expert: How To Make Website Traffic Unavailable To The Google Analytics Reports

Nik Chaykovskiy, the Semalt Senior Customer Success Manager, states that it is possible to set up an exclusion filter while using a browser cookie. The intention here is to make all website visits unavailable to the reports in Google Analytics.

Method 1

Google Analytics help forum includes an advice on to how to exclude internal traffic. This process is intended to filter out the traffic directed to the website, away from the people in a corporate network. Analytics usually tracks all actions to create a perception of how external customers and users interact with the site. Internal traffic patterns are different from those coming from the external source. If the two data combine, it may become difficult to determine how many of the customers genuinely interact with the website.

For example, in an e-commerce website, some of the traffic emanates from internal activities like stress testing. These tend to send a large number of hits to a particular page. A large number of hits on this page may make it difficult to discern which were from the customers and those from the stress testing.

  • Come up with a filter to prevent internal traffic from affecting the data. Search the current public IP address from "what is my IP address." The administrator will inform on the company's IP address and its subnets.
  • Leave the filter type box.
  • Select Exclude from the select filter type.
  • Select traffic from the IP address the box that asks for the source or destination.
  • The appropriate expression goes into the select expression drop down menu.
  • One can either insert an IP address or a regular expression.

After one completes this, make sure that the filter works. There is an option of verifying most of the types of filters before one can save them. It is not possible to use the same way to confirm an IP filter. The Google Tag Assistant serves this purpose.

  • Install the extension to your browser to begin recording the flow to the website.
  • Open analytics report and navigate to change locations in the left-hand panel.
  • Include the IP address that one wishes to exclude from the report.
  • Update and save the new settings.

Tag assistant recordings conducts a re-evaluation with the new filters entered. The code for excluding traffic for cookie content thus follows the following format: &It;body >

Method 2

If the code does not work, forums on the same suggest using a slightly different codes. Google recommends using the pageTracker._setVar('test_value'), which some users claim not to have worked for them. The alternative is to use _gaq.push(['_setVar','test_value']

If it does not work, then move to the third method.

Method 3

On researching stack overflow, the suggested examples from online users is to add the following codes:

  • var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  • _gaq.push(['_setVar', 'exclude_me']);
  • _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x']);
  • _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

The second method indeed works according to one user who had previously used the three methods in vain previously.

Conclusion

These methods are the ways through which one can use to exclude their activities off the Google Analytics report by using a cookie for the browser. If they do not work, try adjusting and appropriately applying the filter settings to the profile one uses.