One of the most underrated tools in Google Analytics is the ability to completely filter out data from your account. If you regularly visit your own website to check on offers and/or make updates, or simply you have it as your home page, then your Analytics data could get very diluted and ruin some potential good customer data.
So, what can I do about it?
Luckily for everyone Google thought about this problem and they have included traffic filters into Analytics. This functionality allows you to filter out any traffic which you do not want to be stored. By removing internal office traffic you can get a much better and more accurate impression of your visitor’s interactions with your site.
How do I do that then?
Simple, when you log into your account you will find three options below the list of your website(s), as can be seen below;
If you chose the ‘Filter Manager’ section, you will have the option to add a new filter.
Once you have browsed to the ‘Filter Manager’ you need to click on ‘+ Add Filter’, as can be seen below;
You will now be able to enter your filter information, if you would like to filter out any traffic coming from your computer/office you need to select ‘Exclude all traffic from an IP address’ from the drop down menu and then enter your IP address in the appropriate text area.
But, how do I find out my IP address?
Very valid question, you can find out your IP address very easily by simply visiting http://whatismyipaddress.com/ and it will present you with your IP address!
One note of caution you will need to put a trailing slash before any of the full stops, and there should be no spaces in the number. So for example if you IP address was 121.104.16.87 then you would need to put 121\.104\.16\.87
Once you have inserted the correct IP address you just need to give the filter a name (i.e. Internal Traffic) and select which websites you want the filter to apply to, to do this just select the website(s) and click ‘Add >>’.
Once completed click on Save changes…and voila, your very first filter!
Neil Hancock is an e-Marketing Accounts Manager at Enigma Interactive, an award winning new media developer, specialising in web and multimedia development as well as offering a full e-Marketing service.
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