Google Analytics - Exclude visits from Dynamically Assigned IP address networks

Recently we ran into a problem where one of our clients manages his website from a connection with a dynamically assigned IP address. We therefore had the challenge of removing his traffic from the stats. We came up with two ways of achieving this goal. Both are good candidates so feel free to use whichever suits you best. Remember your statistics should be as accurate as possible to help determine how to proceed with website changes and marketing plans.

Solution 1 - Cookie Based

This solution involves creating a page and setting a cookie value which can then be filtered out in the profile settings. The benefits of this are that it is simple to set up and manage. You can use this page for anyone whos traffic you want to remove from your site, like external developers, QA/usability testers etc.
To set the cookie you need to create a new page on your domain with the following code:

body onLoad=”javascript:__utmSetVar(’remove_my_traffic’)”

Note that this code is in addition to the actual Google tracking code. I would call the page something non-guessable just to make sure nobody happens to go to this page by mistake.

The final step is to actually create the filter via your Google Analytics account. For this you will need to create an exclude filter to remove data from visitors with this cookie set. Follow the instructions at http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=27207&topic=2970 to create a filter with the following settings:

Next create an exclude filter in google analytics. See here for further instructions on how to create an exclude filter like the following:-

Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude
Filter Field: User Defined
Filter Pattern: remove_my_traffic
Case Sensitive: No

Then all you have to do is visit this page and your traffic will be filtered out on any profile you apply the filter to.

The downsides to this approach are that if you use multiple browsers you will need to visit the page you created to set the cookie in all of them. If you clear your cookies in any browser you will have to revisit this page to set the variable again. Also there is a slight chance a user can visit this page, but the more obscure you make the page name the harder it will be for a user to accidentally arrive at this page.

Solution 2 - Dyndns.org based

dyndns.org allows you to create a domain and assign it a static IP address, which you can then configure on your router. This then means any traffic going from the network behind your router will always have a static IP address for instance 114.23.23.23. You can then set up an exclude filter based on the following

Filter Type: Exclude all traffic from an IP address
IP address: 114\.23\.23\.23 (the one assigned to you by dyndns.org)

The benefits of this approach are it's fast and simple, it is “set and forget”, you don't need to worry about setting cookies every time you clear your browsers data or decide to use a different browser.

If you are a low traffic start up I would advocate both solutions. Solution 1 for any external testers or developers and Solution 2 for your internal network traffic.

Quality Vs Quantity?

Exploring the strategies of bringing traffic to your website.

All websites would love to see massive amounts of traffic come into their site, but a point that is often overlooked is the quality of the traffic they are attracting. If you are a business website, you are probably looking to obtain leads, make sales or some other end goal.

Target the Right Audience

When you are trying to attract traffic, whether through pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing, email campaigns or other forms of paid placement, consider how targeted your campaign is. If your site sells gadgets, it is probably unwise to try and attract visitors from a blog about old people's homes. It may do well, but chances are this is not the best target audience.

Thinking about where your visitors are coming from and adjusting your campaigns can bring in a more qualified audience by choosing targets that are closely related to your business or services.

To help determine the quality of your traffic, study your website analytics and discover what your visitors are actually doing when they get to your site. Here are some key things to investigate when analysing your website statistics:

1. Bounce Rate - The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that exit your site from the page they entered on. If you have a high bounce rate, obviously your visitors are not compelled enough to venture any further into your site upon entry. Though remember a landing page, where there is a call-to-action such as completing a form, or making a purchase, it is not considered a “bounce” if the desired goal is converted.
2. Average Time on Site - Look at the average time people spend on your site. This is a great indicator for checking whether users are actually taking the time to read your content or browse your goods, for if you have thousands of people spending 3 seconds on a page that contains a half page essay or 50+ stock items, they obviously aren’t interested in your site. This could be due to the fact that the source where the visitor came from was not targeted correctly, through the link or ad creative.
3. Conversion Rate - If your conversion rates for lead form submissions, sales, click-throughs, sign-ups, or other goals are low, it is quite possible that your traffic is not of high quality.
4. Visitors by Source - When looking at your website analytics and statistics reports, most applications will allow you to drill down to compare statistics such as time on site, bounce rate, conversion rate, etc. between your different sources of traffic. If one of those sources seems to be under performing it could be worth investigating whether the cause of the problem is the quality of traffic from that source, and whether resources could be better spent on more profitable sources.

When aiming to increase the quantity of traffic to your website, take a look at whether or not it is helping you to meet your goals. Do this by analyzing your visitors’ behaviour concerning bounce rate, average time on site, conversion rate, and visitors by source. If you do not currently have this information about your site, you really should! You don’t know success unless you can measure it.

If you do not currently have an analytics solution or don't feel you are using your analytics program to its full potential, we can help. Contact us at StormForward and let us help you turbocharge your website results.