Practice From Semalt: How To Exclude Static and Dynamic IP Address From Google Analytics

Traffic to your website can either be internal (from users inside your organization such as employees) or external (from existing and potential customers). Julia Vashneva, the Senior Customer Success Manager of Semalt, says that if you want to provide a useful report in Google Analytics, you need to exclude internal traffic. This is because company traffic can significantly alter important analytic metrics and even conversion rates.

Excluding static IP from Google Analytics

There are various ways of stopping Analytics from tracking internal traffic. If you use a static IP address, excluding company traffic is quite simple as it involves creating an IP address filter using the following steps:

  • Determine your IP address: Just google "my IP address" and Google will show your public IP address. This is the address you need to exclude from GA.
  • Create a new filter for the IP address: In this step, you'll need to create a new filter to exclude traffic from your public IP address. This task requires you to have administrator rights. After logging in to your GA account, click Admin>All Filters>New Filter. Choose a name for the filter and add it. Next, use the drop down menu to exclude traffic from this IP address. Finally, select the website(s) to which you want this filter applied and save the changes.
  • Confirm that the IP address has been excluded:Check real-time data, and if the IP address that you added is excluded, then the filtering was successful.

Excluding dynamic IP address from GA

Your company has a subnet or a range of IP addresses. Or your device is used in multiple locations. In these cases, another approach is taken to exclude internal traffic from GA, and it involves the following steps:

  • Set the cookie using either bookmarklet or GMT. If internal traffic comes from a group of 5 people or less, the bookmarklet is enough. For a bigger team or filtering across many devices, then the GMT option is preferred.
  • Create a custom dimension in GA to determine if a visit is internally generated or it is from an external user. In the admin section, go to PROPERTY column>Custom Definitions>Custom Dimensions. Set "Internal Traffic" as the value for the custom dimension.
  • Create a filter for dynamic IPs: Go back to the Admin section and in the View Column select Filters. Click "+New Filter" (red button) and enter "Exclude Internal Traffic (Dynamic IP)." Then select Custom as the filter type. Search for the custom dimension you created and enter true for Filter Pattern.
  • Activate the filter by adding \? internal at the end of your site's URL. You can also use the bookmarklet for filter activation.
  • Lastly, confirm that the filter is active. Go to any page of your site or refresh the one you are currently on. Then open the real-time report and check whether your last visit is shown on the report. If it doesn't show, then your filter is active.

Internal traffic can have very serious effects on your business. It's imperative that filters for both static and dynamic IP addresses are kept active to ensure that Google Analytics provides useful insights into customer behavior.