How to correctly block internal traffic in Google Analytics
There is a good possibility that you and your staff may be inflating your own website traffic data by visiting your website every day or so.
The traffic generated by you or your employees, suppliers and other service providers to your website is called the ‘Internal Traffic‘.
These people are not your target audience and therefore we don’t need to track them.
Internal traffic can easily skew your website usage metrics (sessions, bounce rate, page views, time on site, ecommerce conversion rate etc) and therefore must be filtered out from your Google Analytics reports.
Google Analytics does not honour the ‘Do not Track’ request
‘Do not Track’ is an opt out feature available in all major web browsers.
When your turn this feature ‘On’, it send a ‘Do not track’ request to each website you visit.
It also send ‘Do not track’ request to each third party advertisers whose contents/ads are hosted on the websites you visit.
Depending upon the individual’s privacy policies, websites and third parties may or may not honor the ‘do not track’ request.
The websites which do honour the request, will immediately stop tracking your browsing behavior.
Google Analytics does not honour the ‘Do not track’ request.
So enabling ‘Do no track’ is not going to help you in blocking the internal traffic in GA reports or being tracked by Google Analytics.
Most effective way to block internal traffic in Google Analytics
Majority of optimizers recommend using IP based filters to block internal traffic in Google Analytics or do some ‘JavaScript‘ hack.
I don’t.
The IP based filters applied to a Google Analytics view is not effective, as IP addresses keep changing and majority of people do not use static IPs.
So you may be working under the impression that you are already blocking internal traffic in GA when that is not the case.
Install and enable Google Analytics Opt out Add on
In order to minimize or even completely eliminate the possibility of inflating / skewing the traffic of your own website, I would suggest to install Google Analytics Opt out Add on on all of your desktop/laptop computers and enable it.
I use this extension all of the time.
It is a chrome extension which disable Google Analytics (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js).
So then, no matter how many times you or your staff visit your own website, your visits will not be recorded by Google Analytics.
It is independent of IP addresses.
So change in IP address won’t affect this extension.
This extension is also available for other web browsers: ‘Microsoft Internet Explorer’, ‘Mozilla Firefox’, ‘Apple Safari’ and ‘Opera’.
Use only those browsers/machines to access your website where you have installed this extension.
Avoid visiting the website via tablet or mobile devices wherever possible, as this extension won’t work there.
Ask all of your employees and suppliers to install this extension on their desktop/laptop computers.
Employees who are most likely to visit your website frequently are your web developers and web designers.
So make sure at least that they use the ‘Google Analytics Opt out Add on’.
Testing your internal traffic block in Google Analytics
‘Google Analytics opt out Add on’ disable the firing of Google Analytics tracking code.
It does not remove the Google Analytics tracking code from web pages.
So if you use a add-on like ‘Ghostery’ (which display the list of all the analytics tag on a web page), it will still show you Google Analytics tag.
But that does not mean that the GA tag has fired.
So add-on like ‘Ghostery’ are not the best tool to test whether GA tag is firing or not.
Click on the ‘tag assistant icon in your browser and then check the ‘where to optimize‘ section.
You should see the following message:
No Google Analytics HTTP responses because opted out code detected.
This message validate that your Google Analytics tracking code has not fired because of your ‘Google Analytics Opt out Add on’.
If you are brand new to Google Tag Assistant then read this article: Complete Guide to Google Tag Assistant
Alternatively, disable the GA opt out Add on before you do testing/debugging of your GA tracking and/or installation.
Because as long as this add on is enabled, Google Analytics tag won’t fire.
Related Article: How to turn on IP Anonymization in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
Do you know the difference between Digital Analytics and Google Analytics?
99.99% of course creators themselves don’t know the difference between Digital analytics, Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).
So they are teaching GA and GTM in the name of teaching Digital analytics.
They just copy each other. Monkey see, monkey do.
But Digital analytics is not about GA, GTM.
It is about analyzing and interpreting data, setting up goals, strategies and KPIs.
It’s about creating strategic roadmap for your business.
Digital Analytics is the core skill. Google Analytics is just a tool used to implement ‘Digital Analytics’.
You can also implement ‘Digital analytics’ via other tools like ‘adobe analytics’, ‘kissmetrics’ etc.
Using Google Analytics without the good understanding of ‘Digital analytics’ is like driving around in a car, in a big city without understanding the traffic rules and road signs.
You are either likely to end up somewhere other than your destination or you get involved in an accident.
You learn data analysis and interpretation from Digital analytics and not from Google Analytics.
The direction in which your analysis will move, will determine the direction in which your marketing campaigns and eventually your company will move to get the highest possible return on investment.
You get that direction from ‘Digital analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
You learn to set up KPIs, strategies and measurement framework for your business from ‘Digital analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
So if you are taking a course only on 'Google Analytics’, you are learning to use one of the tools of ‘Digital analytics’. You are not learning the ‘Digital analytics’ itself.
Since any person can learn to use Google Analytics in couple of weeks, you do no get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing GA.
You need to know lot more than GA in order to work in digital analytics and marketing field.
So what I have done, if you are interested, is I have put together a completely free training that will teach you exactly how I have been able to leverage digital analytics to generate floods of news sales and customers and how you can literally copy what I have done to get similar results.
Here what You'll Learn On This FREE Web Class!
1) The number 1 reason why most marketers and business owners are not able to scale their advertising and maximise sales.
2) Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
3) The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
4) How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
5) How to learn and master digital analytics in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com
There is a good possibility that you and your staff may be inflating your own website traffic data by visiting your website every day or so.
The traffic generated by you or your employees, suppliers and other service providers to your website is called the ‘Internal Traffic‘.
These people are not your target audience and therefore we don’t need to track them.
Internal traffic can easily skew your website usage metrics (sessions, bounce rate, page views, time on site, ecommerce conversion rate etc) and therefore must be filtered out from your Google Analytics reports.
Google Analytics does not honour the ‘Do not Track’ request
‘Do not Track’ is an opt out feature available in all major web browsers.
When your turn this feature ‘On’, it send a ‘Do not track’ request to each website you visit.
It also send ‘Do not track’ request to each third party advertisers whose contents/ads are hosted on the websites you visit.
Depending upon the individual’s privacy policies, websites and third parties may or may not honor the ‘do not track’ request.
The websites which do honour the request, will immediately stop tracking your browsing behavior.
Google Analytics does not honour the ‘Do not track’ request.
So enabling ‘Do no track’ is not going to help you in blocking the internal traffic in GA reports or being tracked by Google Analytics.
Most effective way to block internal traffic in Google Analytics
Majority of optimizers recommend using IP based filters to block internal traffic in Google Analytics or do some ‘JavaScript‘ hack.
I don’t.
The IP based filters applied to a Google Analytics view is not effective, as IP addresses keep changing and majority of people do not use static IPs.
So you may be working under the impression that you are already blocking internal traffic in GA when that is not the case.
Install and enable Google Analytics Opt out Add on
In order to minimize or even completely eliminate the possibility of inflating / skewing the traffic of your own website, I would suggest to install Google Analytics Opt out Add on on all of your desktop/laptop computers and enable it.
I use this extension all of the time.
It is a chrome extension which disable Google Analytics (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js).
So then, no matter how many times you or your staff visit your own website, your visits will not be recorded by Google Analytics.
It is independent of IP addresses.
So change in IP address won’t affect this extension.
This extension is also available for other web browsers: ‘Microsoft Internet Explorer’, ‘Mozilla Firefox’, ‘Apple Safari’ and ‘Opera’.
Use only those browsers/machines to access your website where you have installed this extension.
Avoid visiting the website via tablet or mobile devices wherever possible, as this extension won’t work there.
Ask all of your employees and suppliers to install this extension on their desktop/laptop computers.
Employees who are most likely to visit your website frequently are your web developers and web designers.
So make sure at least that they use the ‘Google Analytics Opt out Add on’.
Testing your internal traffic block in Google Analytics
‘Google Analytics opt out Add on’ disable the firing of Google Analytics tracking code.
It does not remove the Google Analytics tracking code from web pages.
So if you use a add-on like ‘Ghostery’ (which display the list of all the analytics tag on a web page), it will still show you Google Analytics tag.
But that does not mean that the GA tag has fired.
So add-on like ‘Ghostery’ are not the best tool to test whether GA tag is firing or not.
Click on the ‘tag assistant icon in your browser and then check the ‘where to optimize‘ section.
You should see the following message:
No Google Analytics HTTP responses because opted out code detected.
This message validate that your Google Analytics tracking code has not fired because of your ‘Google Analytics Opt out Add on’.
If you are brand new to Google Tag Assistant then read this article: Complete Guide to Google Tag Assistant
Alternatively, disable the GA opt out Add on before you do testing/debugging of your GA tracking and/or installation.
Because as long as this add on is enabled, Google Analytics tag won’t fire.
Related Article: How to turn on IP Anonymization in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
Do you know the difference between Digital Analytics and Google Analytics?
99.99% of course creators themselves don’t know the difference between Digital analytics, Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).So they are teaching GA and GTM in the name of teaching Digital analytics.
They just copy each other. Monkey see, monkey do.
But Digital analytics is not about GA, GTM.
It is about analyzing and interpreting data, setting up goals, strategies and KPIs.
It’s about creating strategic roadmap for your business.
Digital Analytics is the core skill. Google Analytics is just a tool used to implement ‘Digital Analytics’.You can also implement ‘Digital analytics’ via other tools like ‘adobe analytics’, ‘kissmetrics’ etc.
Using Google Analytics without the good understanding of ‘Digital analytics’ is like driving around in a car, in a big city without understanding the traffic rules and road signs.
You are either likely to end up somewhere other than your destination or you get involved in an accident.
You learn data analysis and interpretation from Digital analytics and not from Google Analytics.The direction in which your analysis will move, will determine the direction in which your marketing campaigns and eventually your company will move to get the highest possible return on investment.
You get that direction from ‘Digital analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.
You learn to set up KPIs, strategies and measurement framework for your business from ‘Digital analytics’ and not from ‘Google Analytics’.So if you are taking a course only on 'Google Analytics’, you are learning to use one of the tools of ‘Digital analytics’. You are not learning the ‘Digital analytics’ itself.
Since any person can learn to use Google Analytics in couple of weeks, you do no get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing GA.
You need to know lot more than GA in order to work in digital analytics and marketing field.
So what I have done, if you are interested, is I have put together a completely free training that will teach you exactly how I have been able to leverage digital analytics to generate floods of news sales and customers and how you can literally copy what I have done to get similar results.
Here what You'll Learn On This FREE Web Class!
1) The number 1 reason why most marketers and business owners are not able to scale their advertising and maximise sales.
2) Why you won’t get any competitive advantage in the marketplace just by knowing Google Analytics.
3) The number 1 reason why conversion optimization is not working for your business.
4) How to advertise on any marketing platform for FREE with an unlimited budget.
5) How to learn and master digital analytics in record time.
My best selling books on Digital Analytics and Conversion Optimization
Maths and Stats for Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization
This expert guide will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of maths and statistics in order to accurately interpret data and take actions, which can quickly improve the bottom-line of your online business.
Master the Essentials of Email Marketing Analytics
This book focuses solely on the ‘analytics’ that power your email marketing optimization program and will help you dramatically reduce your cost per acquisition and increase marketing ROI by tracking the performance of the various KPIs and metrics used for email marketing.
Attribution Modelling in Google Analytics and Beyond
Attribution modelling is the process of determining the most effective marketing channels for investment. This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling. It will teach you how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to allocate marketing budget and understand buying behaviour.
Attribution Modelling in Google Ads and Facebook
This book has been written to help you implement attribution modelling in Google Ads (Google AdWords) and Facebook. It will teach you, how to leverage the knowledge of attribution modelling in order to understand the customer purchasing journey and determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.
Himanshu Sharma
Digital Marketing Consultant and Founder of Optimizesmart.com