As the person most likely to visit your own site, you’re likely skewing your Google Analytics. Especially if you tend to leave your site open as you’re working on it.
By filtering your IP Address from your Google Analytics, you’ll have more clarity on your audience’s behaviour.
Your IP address is, very simply put, your computer’s location on the internet. If you are using Google Analytics to monitor your website’s performance, you may be affecting:
- Returning visitor statistics
If you’re posting regularly (as we all should be) and flipping over to the front end of your site to view your content, your analytics thinks that you’re a happy returning visitor. - Time on site
Do you open up your website to review something then just leave the tab open? The average time on site has likely increased with your lengthy visit. - Bounce rate
This is the average percentage of viewers who navigate away from your site after just one page and lower is better – it means the audience wants to learn more by looking at more content. - Content/page views
Did someone really look at that article 10 times or was it you getting the image placement just right? You won’t have to guess if you filter your IP address from your stats.
It only takes a few minutes to create a filter that removes your computer from your Google Analytics reporting.
1. Go to www.whatsmyip.org and you should see your IP address at the top of the screen
2. Open a new tab and log into Google Analytics
3. Select the Admin gear icon
4. Under Account select All Filters
5. Click Add Filter
6. Give the filter a name, e.g. computer at home or the IP address
7. Leave Filter Type as predefined
8. It should read: Exclude + traffic from the IP addresses + that are equal to
9. Copy your IP address from the whatsmyip tab
10. Select all appropriate views and “Add” them to the filter
11. Select save.
If you manage client sites, you should also repeat these steps on those analytics accounts.
Last, make a note of the date you added these filters. You will likely see your numbers change and you’ll at least have a reason why!
