Don’t Forget to Exclude Your IP From Your Site’s Analytics [Updated]

by Abhijeet on January 8, 2010

in Blogging

One of the must-do things when launching a new website or a blog is installing an analytics program that’d help you monitor the stats.

However, a lot of bloggers forget to exclude their own IP address in the analytics tool. That would mean bloated pageviews and visits, since you usually visit your site hundred times a day.

So make sure that you don’t forget the important task of excluding the IP address of your computer from the blog stats tool. Since Google Analytics is the most popular analytics tool used by bloggers and webmasters, I am outlining the steps here.

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account. On the page where you’ve got website profiles, there’s Filter Manager on the bottom right. Click on it.
2. Click on “Add Filter” on the top right of the box.
3. Give the filter a name, select pre-defined filter, select the filters from the drop-down menus and enter your IP address. (If you don’t know your IP, check What Is My IP Address )
4. Select the website profile from the left and add it to the right.
5. Click save and you are done. The visits from your computer should be excluded from the results now.

Did you forget to do it ? Make sure you do it now. :)

Update after Avinash’s comment

For users on dynamic IP addresses, the process is a bit longer because they’d have to exclude traffic from by cookie content. Google lists the entire process on this page.

  • I use google analytics... It works great....
  • Hello Friend Abhijeet Mukherjee, This is my First Comment on this Blog I have gone through your About Us Page and Your Achievements that you have published your article on the very big sites...
  • I never forget. I have skipped my software sites and my blog too.
  • One Small Correction Mate, In the predefined filter, we have to change "from domain" to from "ip address" .

    some people get confuse, where to enter ip, and instead they copy and paste their ip to domain box :)
  • Thanks so much, Abhijeet! I've been wanting to find out how to do this! By the way, what's dynamic IP? How do I know if my IP is dynamic?

    Cheers~

    Mark
  • I thought google analytics already did this. Don't you just look at unique visitors?
  • Hi abhijeet ,
    Thats a nice article to monitor your real website traffic. But there is a issue with indian web users . In india ISP provider like airtel , relience didnt provide the static IP so the IP switches randomly. Hence it is very difficult to monitor this issues with this article. But this article is really usefull for that persons who have a static IP.
  • A simple solution - block Google Analytics! Is it not much convenient?

    (PS - There are almost infinite add-ons for Firefox users to block GA. Adblock plus, NoScript,........)
  • Well, there are 2 problems to this solution. 1. If you'll use add-ons to do it, it has to be done in every browser you use. Most of us toggle between 2-3 browsers. And the add-on might not be available for each of them. 2. I am not sure if such add-ons can specifically block the Analytics javascript. They usually block scripts on a site and that would mean blocking all of them on the site including Analytics one.

    So, for people with static IP addresses, I think doing it within Analytics is the best solution. For those with dynamic IPs, using a script blocker may be the easier way out.
  • Thanks Abhijeet for the update, will helps users like me :)
  • SharoHill
    Good information, buddy! Thank you very much. However, to follow the rules, it’s very important for a blogger to know his or her own IP address. The problem with IP address verification sites is that these are clustered with advertisements which are really bothering. I would refer to use aafter.com to know the IP address. You just need to type ‘ip’ in the search box to get your IP address with geo location.
  • Abhijeet, Nice suggestion, but this is something not possible for users on dynamic IP ! :(
  • Thanks Avinash. Updated the post to include the link where dynamic IP users can find the solution.
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