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When you visit your own website, Google analytics tracks this information thus giving you inaccurate results.
In this video, I will show you how to exclude your own traffic to your own website by letting Google Analytics know what your IP address is.
This is a simple process that takes a mere few minutes.
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SowAndReap
Premium Plus
Thanks Jay! Can you add other IP addresses like semalt. They are always on my site and I don't know what they are doing.
Tsulyeroc
Premium
A much simpler, and more effective, way to do this, that will work for EVERYONE regardless of your IP situation, and can be completed in less time than it takes to watch this tutorial video (about 30 seconds):
Three steps:
Click this link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the giant 'opt out' button:
Add the add-on to your browser (takes about 28 seconds)
DONE!
Now you won't be tracking yourself on Google Analytics.
You can thank me later ;) - or, if you still need a video tutorial let me know. However if a video tutorial is required for this I think I will be able to apply to The Guiness Book of Records for the shortest video tutorial in all of history... it takes 30 seconds. Less time than it does to watch this video.
Oh and I won't be able to post it for another 2 months... but that is a restriction WA has placed on me, not my choice ;)
Corey Lust
Three steps:
Click this link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the giant 'opt out' button:
Add the add-on to your browser (takes about 28 seconds)
DONE!
Now you won't be tracking yourself on Google Analytics.
You can thank me later ;) - or, if you still need a video tutorial let me know. However if a video tutorial is required for this I think I will be able to apply to The Guiness Book of Records for the shortest video tutorial in all of history... it takes 30 seconds. Less time than it does to watch this video.
Oh and I won't be able to post it for another 2 months... but that is a restriction WA has placed on me, not my choice ;)
Corey Lust
magistudios
Premium Plus
Tsulyeroc
Premium
Fair enough, majority or not, there will be allot of people that this does not work for. So why not use a simpler solution that will work for everyone? Like the alternative solution/s I have provided. One of them takes less than 30 seconds and is guaranteed to work... for everyone. I thought we were all about making things easier for people...
The major ISP provider in my country servicing over 200,000 internet users nationwide has indicated to me that all their users IPs are dynamic.
I live in New Zealand (and yes, before anyone asks, we are a 1st world country with state-of-the-art communications infrastructure, lol)
It might be worth noting that I spent some time in France recently and my IP there too was Dynamic, everywhere I went.
I have also spent a significant amount of time in Australia and my IP address there too was... yep you guessed it - Dynamic.
I realised mine was the day I tried to do what you are recommending, lol, as it was not working. I actually contacted my ISP. They told me that my IP was dynamic, and that most people have a dynamic IP these days. I ran with that. I did a bit of research online and it seems that with the amount of internet users there are these days that most people have dynamic IPs. This is apparently because there is just not enough IPs for everyone to have their own static one.
I did a quick Google just now and there seems to be multiple ways of checking your IP. I tried a few ways that were identical. It didn't really work on my system. I will look into it further and come back here with 'an' answer.
Corey
The major ISP provider in my country servicing over 200,000 internet users nationwide has indicated to me that all their users IPs are dynamic.
I live in New Zealand (and yes, before anyone asks, we are a 1st world country with state-of-the-art communications infrastructure, lol)
It might be worth noting that I spent some time in France recently and my IP there too was Dynamic, everywhere I went.
I have also spent a significant amount of time in Australia and my IP address there too was... yep you guessed it - Dynamic.
I realised mine was the day I tried to do what you are recommending, lol, as it was not working. I actually contacted my ISP. They told me that my IP was dynamic, and that most people have a dynamic IP these days. I ran with that. I did a bit of research online and it seems that with the amount of internet users there are these days that most people have dynamic IPs. This is apparently because there is just not enough IPs for everyone to have their own static one.
I did a quick Google just now and there seems to be multiple ways of checking your IP. I tried a few ways that were identical. It didn't really work on my system. I will look into it further and come back here with 'an' answer.
Corey
Tsulyeroc
Premium
Ok. So it looks like the 'exact' way of checking this can differ based on allot of things including:
Your computer
Your operating system
Your network
Essentially you need to check your Internet Protocol Version (well this is what I had to do to check mine).
I had to check my Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties.
If the 'Obtain an IP address automatically' is selected you have a Dynamic IP.
If 'Use the following IP address is selected' you have a Static IP and it will be visible below these two options.
Mine looks like this
IP address: • • •
Subnet mask: • • •
Default gateway:• • •
But this is because I have a Dynamic IP. If it was static there would be an IP address here.
Of course it is also worth mentioning that if you use Tor, which I do for some things, your IP is too constantly changing (Dynamic) and often is anonymous. However I think by default (unless you have altered the settings) your traffic usage will automatically be masked from Analytics, I'm not certain of this though.
I can see someone reading all this and thinking
"this seems more complex that Jay's solution"
So I just want to point out you do NOT have to know whether your IP is static or Dynamic in order to use the simpler method I provided to filtering your visits from your Google Analytics.
As Jay proclaimed himself - his question about how to check whether your IP is dynamic or static is a digression to the original topic.
So again. Rather than go through the process in the video Jay has posted you can simply do this:
Click this link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the giant 'opt out' button:
Add the add-on to your browser (takes about 28 seconds)
DONE!
Now you won't be tracking yourself on Google Analytics.
As a side bonus no third parties will be able to track your online activity via Google Analytics either. Kind of kills two birds with one stone.
Unless of course you like all your online activity being tracked by third parties everywhere you go...
The choice is yours.
Corey
Your computer
Your operating system
Your network
Essentially you need to check your Internet Protocol Version (well this is what I had to do to check mine).
I had to check my Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties.
If the 'Obtain an IP address automatically' is selected you have a Dynamic IP.
If 'Use the following IP address is selected' you have a Static IP and it will be visible below these two options.
Mine looks like this
IP address: • • •
Subnet mask: • • •
Default gateway:• • •
But this is because I have a Dynamic IP. If it was static there would be an IP address here.
Of course it is also worth mentioning that if you use Tor, which I do for some things, your IP is too constantly changing (Dynamic) and often is anonymous. However I think by default (unless you have altered the settings) your traffic usage will automatically be masked from Analytics, I'm not certain of this though.
I can see someone reading all this and thinking
"this seems more complex that Jay's solution"
So I just want to point out you do NOT have to know whether your IP is static or Dynamic in order to use the simpler method I provided to filtering your visits from your Google Analytics.
As Jay proclaimed himself - his question about how to check whether your IP is dynamic or static is a digression to the original topic.
So again. Rather than go through the process in the video Jay has posted you can simply do this:
Click this link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the giant 'opt out' button:
Add the add-on to your browser (takes about 28 seconds)
DONE!
Now you won't be tracking yourself on Google Analytics.
As a side bonus no third parties will be able to track your online activity via Google Analytics either. Kind of kills two birds with one stone.
Unless of course you like all your online activity being tracked by third parties everywhere you go...
The choice is yours.
Corey
brookeflinn
Premium
To tell if you have a dynamic IP on a PC (sorry Mac users, I don't know those things well):
1. Open a command prompt - go to the start menu and do a search for command prompt if you don't know where that is
2. type in: ipconfig/all
3. Scroll part way down until a bit until you find something like this
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
If DHCP and Auto config are both 'Yes' then you have a dynamic IP.
There are other ways too, but that's just the easiest way for me.
1. Open a command prompt - go to the start menu and do a search for command prompt if you don't know where that is
2. type in: ipconfig/all
3. Scroll part way down until a bit until you find something like this
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
If DHCP and Auto config are both 'Yes' then you have a dynamic IP.
There are other ways too, but that's just the easiest way for me.
Tsulyeroc
Premium
Most IP addresses are dynamic these days and therefore this won't work ;)
Best to change your browser settings to 'Don't allow websites to track my activity' and or add an 'opt-out' app that prevents (opts you out) of allowing Google Analytics from tracking your activity.
This is what I had to do as the directive in this tutorial just does not work.
There is also plugins you can use on your site to tell Analytics like Google Analytics, and Clicky, to not track certain users. For example don't track anyone logged in as Admin, or don't track anyone logged in as Editor or above etc etc
I find the plug-in option the most effective because then you can log in/view your site from any computer without running into the problem of skewing your stats with your own browsing activity. (So long as you log-in to your site to view it that is, otherwise this won't work either ;) )
There is of course a chance your IP is not dynamic. In that case this option (Jays option) will work.
Check up on your IP regularly, at least everyday, you will most likely find it has changed. This can happen as often as every hour, to once a month (or longer). Alternatively you can just check with your ISP.
However this option (Jays option) will still not prevent your site stats being skewed when you view your site from other computers, unless you use one of the options I have outlined.
Corey
Best to change your browser settings to 'Don't allow websites to track my activity' and or add an 'opt-out' app that prevents (opts you out) of allowing Google Analytics from tracking your activity.
This is what I had to do as the directive in this tutorial just does not work.
There is also plugins you can use on your site to tell Analytics like Google Analytics, and Clicky, to not track certain users. For example don't track anyone logged in as Admin, or don't track anyone logged in as Editor or above etc etc
I find the plug-in option the most effective because then you can log in/view your site from any computer without running into the problem of skewing your stats with your own browsing activity. (So long as you log-in to your site to view it that is, otherwise this won't work either ;) )
There is of course a chance your IP is not dynamic. In that case this option (Jays option) will work.
Check up on your IP regularly, at least everyday, you will most likely find it has changed. This can happen as often as every hour, to once a month (or longer). Alternatively you can just check with your ISP.
However this option (Jays option) will still not prevent your site stats being skewed when you view your site from other computers, unless you use one of the options I have outlined.
Corey
brookeflinn
Premium
Tsulyeroc
Premium
If you have a dynamic IP like mine, and the majority of the world, that can change hour to hour... well, than this option is allot more work than applying any one of the very simple options I have outlined above though... Also if your IP address is dynamic, which it most likely is, then if you don't take out the IP addresses you were using (and essentially blocking) you are potentially blocking other visitors that may visit your site when/if they are dynamically assigned your IP. To be fair it takes less time to add an app to your browser that stops it sending analytical information to Google Analytics then this above tutorial does ;) . Takes 30 seconds to be exact ;) - and the app is written by Google :D
Tsulyeroc
Premium
Point taken but do you advise constantly monitoring your IP and constantly going into Google Analytics and changing the settings???
This is what you would have to do using this option.
Seems insane to me, complete waste of time. UNLESS your IP is not dynamic, chances are more than likely it is though (dynamic that is).
That means for every moment you don't know what your IP is you are still skewing your stats...
Am I the only one that thinks this seems redundant?
Are we missing the point here?
It's supposed to be easy right? Do it once do it right... Not do it all the time just because it is an alternative option, one that won't be working 100% correctly allot of the time...
This is what you would have to do using this option.
Seems insane to me, complete waste of time. UNLESS your IP is not dynamic, chances are more than likely it is though (dynamic that is).
That means for every moment you don't know what your IP is you are still skewing your stats...
Am I the only one that thinks this seems redundant?
Are we missing the point here?
It's supposed to be easy right? Do it once do it right... Not do it all the time just because it is an alternative option, one that won't be working 100% correctly allot of the time...
brookeflinn
Premium
To implement your suggestions I would have to do further research into to figure out how to do it. If I'm going to be working on my site for an hour it's simply easy to Google my IP, update it, do my work, and move on with my life.
Others may see your suggestions and completely understand them and use them. And that will make a lot of people happy. Which is good, but I just want simply for right now. My mind has been crammed with info about SEO, website building, etc..., etc... for the past month and I need simple right now.
Others may see your suggestions and completely understand them and use them. And that will make a lot of people happy. Which is good, but I just want simply for right now. My mind has been crammed with info about SEO, website building, etc..., etc... for the past month and I need simple right now.
Tsulyeroc
Premium
No worries. Just be aware that the moment your IP changes (if you have a dynamic IP) everything you have just done by using this tutorial will be void. As in your Google Analytics will still be tracking your visits by your new IP. This could happen as little as one hour after you take the time to do this.
This is all.
I am only trying to help. I can't be held responsible for any perceived complexities in doing something correctly. I suggest Googling 'how do I opt out of Google Analytics tracking' - Google themselves provides a very clear tutorial (with video) on how to do this. Simply follow that tutorial which is by far simpler than this one, in my opinion, and you will have stopped the bleed and healed the wound ;) - sorry terrible analogy but I'm not perfect either ;)
I doubt that either of these tutorials would take anyone an hour to implement, but I suppose it is possible...
Corey
(Trying my best to keep things simple)
EDIT: Here, now I have taken the hard part (took three seconds) out of the process.
Three steps:
Click this link
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the button
Add the add on to your browser
DONE!
This is all.
I am only trying to help. I can't be held responsible for any perceived complexities in doing something correctly. I suggest Googling 'how do I opt out of Google Analytics tracking' - Google themselves provides a very clear tutorial (with video) on how to do this. Simply follow that tutorial which is by far simpler than this one, in my opinion, and you will have stopped the bleed and healed the wound ;) - sorry terrible analogy but I'm not perfect either ;)
I doubt that either of these tutorials would take anyone an hour to implement, but I suppose it is possible...
Corey
(Trying my best to keep things simple)
EDIT: Here, now I have taken the hard part (took three seconds) out of the process.
Three steps:
Click this link
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Click the button
Add the add on to your browser
DONE!