Once you have added Google Analytics tracking to your blog, it is time to tweak those analytics to give you the best information possible. One way to do that is to eliminate your own IP address from being counted in your blog stats.
Chances are, nobody will spend more time on your own website than you will. But you don’t want your own page views on your site inflating your stats. Therefore, it is a good idea to remove your own IP address from being counted in your Google Analytics tracking.
It’s really easy to do and will take less than 5 minutes of your time.
What is an IP address?
Your IP address is a set of numbers that identifies your computer/phone/tablet as you go about your normal activities on the internet. If you connect multiple devices to your home network, all of them will have the same IP address. When you access the internet using a wireless internet connection outside your home, you will be using someone else’s network and have a different IP address. This is because your IP address is tied to the internet service provider and not the device you are using.
Finding your own IP address
In order to remove your own IP address, first you need to find your IP address. The easiest way to do this is to Google search “what’s my IP?” from your home network. Yes, you really can Google anything! You don’t even have to use those exact words.
Keep the results window open so you can simply copy and paste your IP address when you need it in the steps below.
How to remove your IP address
You will need to create a filter in Google Analytics to remove your own IP address from tracking. To do this, log in to your Google Analytics account and click on the Admin tab at the top. A new screen will appear.
Under the View column (far right column) find and click on Filters. In the next screen click the red + New Filter button.
Name your filter. You could simply call it “Remove my IP.” If you have multiple IP addresses you use to access your blog regularly, you may want to put “Remove home IP” or “Remove work IP” as the filter name and follow these steps to create multiple filters.
The default filter type is Predefined, and that is what you want.
- Under Select filter type, select drop down for Exclude.
- Next to that, under Select source or destination choose traffic from the IP addresses.
- For Select expression choose that are equal to.
- Paste your IP address into the IP address field
- Click save.
That’s it! You’re done. Going forward your stats will be more accurate because they won’t take into account all the time you spend on your own blog tweaking things and making it awesome.
Keep in mind, if you switch internet service providers in the future, you will need to also update this filter with your new IP address at that time to keep your own blog activity from altering your stats.
Have you taken this step with your own blog to remove your personal page views from your Google Analytics stats? If not, go do it now! It is super easy and takes less than five minutes to do.
Thank you so much for writing this article, it was extremely helpful to me! I also found your other post about Adding Google Analytics extremely helpful! I am just getting started out with my blog: thecreativehousehold.com. Some of the technical stuff can be a little challenging when you’re trying to figure it out on your own! However, you really simplified this part for me! Thank you so much! Great information!!
I am so glad you found it helpful! Google Analytics can definitely be a beast to learn and understand, but it is such a powerful tool. Congratulations on your blogging journey!