JUL 29, 2010
Keeping your own traffic off Google Analytics
If you’re like me, the final step before going live with a new website is to add the Google Analytics tracking code snippet. From there on, every visit gets logged. Even yours. This usually flaws your statistics, as you might spend a lot of time testing stuff and making sure everything looks good.
So I’ve been looking for ways to keep your own traffic off Google Analytics. I’ve been successfully using this solution for a while now, but I keep going back for the code snippets. Although it’s an excellent tutorial, I really thought it could be easier. So let’s cut the crap:
Assigning a unique word to your device and domain
Go to your website homepage and copy-paste the following code in your address bar. Feel free to replace macbook with any unique word of your choosing (I like it to be the device name I wish to exclude).
javascript:void(function(w){try{_gaq._getAsyncTracker()._setVar(w)}catch(e){try{__utmSetVar(w)}catch(e){pageTracker._setVar(w)}}alert(w)}('macbook'));void(0);
Hit return and you should get prompted with your new unique word:
Tell Google Analytics to exclude that traffic
In Analytics, hit the Filter Manager and create a new filter:
- Filter type: custom (exclude)
- Filter field: user defined
- Filter pattern: your unique word
Make sure your website profile is in the selected column.
That’s it!
All visits to this domain using your current device should now be excluded from Google Analytics. Remember: that unique word is only valid for this device (computer, iPad, iPhone, whatever) and domain. Repeat the process for every device and domain you wish to exclude your own traffic from.
Verifying unique words
Enter the following code in the address bar and hit return. You should be prompted with the current domain/device unique word.
javascript:alert((/__utmv=.+?\.(.*?)(;|$)/.test(''+document.cookie))?RegExp.$1:'No unique word');void(0);
If no unique word has been set, you’ll get the following:
