Google Analytics Filtering

Hi there, This may be of interest to some of you. I didn't find anything in WA about this so I thought I'd blog it for you. Google Analytics will track and count your views when you access your website. I found I was getting a lot of Return Visits while working on my site and previewing the changes. You can filter out your computer or network so those viewings will be ignored. Depending on what kind of internet connection you have it may be one IP that you always have or it could be one of a random range that is assigned every time you connect to the internet. This is what you need to do to put in a filter:

1. First open a browser and go to http://www.whatismyip.com and note your IP.
2. In Google Analytics click on Admin (top right corner)
3. Click All Filters near the bottom right
4. Give it a name My Network or something like that
5. Click custom filter
6. Make sure Excludes is selected
7. Now you need to get IP Address click on the filter field. I found it easiest just to press i until IP Address is showing in there or select "IP Address" from the drop down.
8. For Filter Pattern enter your IP it will be similar to 192.168.1.4. the numbers will likely be different for every one depending on your router.
9. If you get a different IP in a range (for example 192.168.1.1 up to 192.168.1.254) then you can enter 192\.168\.1\.[1-254]
10. Highlight All Web Site Data in the box below and click Add

If you have any questions just ask.

Matt