How to Remove Yourself from Google Analytics Data. Three Easy Methods to Exclude Internal Traffic

When I started my blog in March this year, I was thrilled to see over 1500 page views in my Google Analytics Dashboard, but it turned out that was MY views, when I edit pages or added a new blog posts, when I clicked Preview it was counted as page view every single time (and trust me, some pages have been edited over 80 times!).

Many bloggers post their traffic reports or share their page views in social media posts and some of them might not even realise that over half of the monthly page views can be THEIR views, so not a real traffic. If you really want to have an accurate Google Analytics reports, you NEED to exclude internal traffic (your entries) from it.

Unfortunately, this is not a default setting, therefore you need to set it manually or use the opt-out plugin.

In this post, I’ll show you three easy methods to remove yourself from Google Analytics data. One of the methods requires excluding your IP address from Google Analytics, the second is an exclusion setting in Google Analytics WordPress plugin and the third one is quite radical, but it works if you have a dynamic IP address (which changes every day or once a week) but it has a huge downside.

METHOD ONE

EXCLUDE YOUR IP ADDRESS FROM GOOGLE ANALYTICS DATA, BY CREATING IP FILTER

1. Search for “what is my IP address“ in Google to check the IP address you’re using

 2. Go to your Google Analytics account and navigate to Admin > View > Filters

 3. Click on Add Filter

 4. In the Filter Name box, type My IP exclusion (or whatever you want to call it)

5. Leave the Filter Type as Predefined

6. Select filter type: Exclude

7. Select source or destination: traffic from the IP addresses

8. Select expression: that are equal to

9. IP address: type your IP address

10. And you’re DONE!

METHOD 2

EXCLUSION SETTING IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS WORDPRESS PLUGIN

There are many of plugins for WordPress which enables seeing Google Analytics dashboard, but personally, I use plugin called Google Analytics Dashboard for WP

Now, to remove yourself from Google Analytics data using this plugin:

1. Go to the left side in your WordPress menu, choose Google Analytics > Tracking Code

2. Click on the tab Exclude Tracking > Select Administrator > Save

3. And you’re DONE!

METHOD 3

USING GOOGLE ANALYTICS OPT-OUT BROWSER ADD-ON

ATTENTION!

This add-on will prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics, which means when you visit someone’s website, they won’t see it in their analytics.

This is a really radical option, so you should definitely use method one or method two instead, but I think this third method is worth mentioning. For us bloggers, getting traffic is probably one of the most desired things, so every visit from your audience is golden. That’s why the third method is should be your last resort NOT your first choice.

1. Go to Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on website and click the blue button Get Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

2. You need to accept the terms and conditions, so click on Accept and Install

3. Follow the instruction on the screen

4. And you’re DONE!

I wish I knew that before I started to write my blog, it was so awesome to see thousands of visit on my blog, but then I got really upset because they weren’t a really visit. If you just starting your blogging adventure, I highly encourage you to remove yourself from Google Analytics Data to avoid disappointment.

I’m sure, you really want an accurate traffic reports right?

Have you excluded yourself from your Google Analytics Data yet?