Semalt: Importance Of Filtering Out The Admin Traffic From Google Analytics

Have you checked the Google Analytics and noticed that some uncertain things are happening? Well, it happens to all of us, so you are not new to this thing. There are times when we set up some things on our website and change its design or layout, but the results are not as expected. All this can affect your visits and quality of your website traffic. In such circumstances, you should filter out the admin traffic from your Google Analytics, and this can be done when you use a variety of WordPress plug-ins. And if you don't use a plugin, then you would have to do that thing manually. Google Analytics lets you filter the traffic when you exclude your IP address or exclude the traffic by cookies content.

Most often it is believed that the first method is far better and comprehensive than the second method. Lisa Mitchell, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt, states that if you have IP addresses that are dynamically generated or if you are using a laptop or device of a coffee shop, then you should stop your own visits from being counted on the Google Analytics. Both of these methods have their own advantages and disadvantages and can be chosen based on your requirements.

Exclude your IP address

This method lets you set your Google Analytics in a better way. That will help you to improve the quality of your traffic, and you can stop receiving views from specific IP addresses or a range of IPs. However, this can be done only when you are using a laptop and are ready to adjust the settings from the same device. And if you leave for office or are outside your house, this method cannot give any benefit. In that case, you should try to use the second method. For excluding traffic by specific IPs, you should create custom filters that can analyze the quality of your traffic in a better way. Log into your Google Analytics account and click the settings option on the top right corner. Then you should press the new filter option and add information such as filter name, type of filter, IP address, and others.

Exclude traffic by Cookie Content

You must exclude traffic by cookie content and create filters that don't get locked during this process. The downside of this method is that you can exclude one IP address at a time and cannot perform this task on multiple IPs all of a sudden. Plus, it is mandatory to clear your cookies before your setup this method. First of all, you should create files that will add the cookies to your browsers. Then you should create HTML files and add them in this format: filter-traffic.html. The next step is to instruct the search engines not to index your site's content for some time. This is a major step as it will ensure the quality of your website and its overall visitors. Once you have excluded it, the next step is to adjust the cookies' settings in your browser. Finally, you should add the tracking codes in the tag of JavaScript and set custom variables, which can be filtered in Google Analytics later on.