Block Yourself from Analytics
Google Analytics is without a doubt an effective tool to get insights about your website traffic. But, you don’t want to count your own website views to keep the data accurate.
To block yourself from analytics, use an IP address filter. This method will only be effective when you are using a static IP address and not a dynamic one.
Otherwise, the IP address filter won’t work anytime your IP address changes. It won’t work even if you visit your website from a different internet connection.
Follow these steps to block yourself from Analytics with an IP filter
Sign into your Google Analytics and go to “Admin”
Source: Google.com
Go to “Filters” under the view column of your dashboard.
Source: Goolge.com
Click on “Add filter” to create a new filter.
Source: Google.com
Your filter will be created.
Create a name for your filter.
Source: Google.com
Leave the “Filter Type” as Predefined.
Source: Google.com
Select “Exclude” from the first drop-down menu under Filter Type.
Source: Google.com
Click “Traffic from the IP addresses” under the “Select source or destination” drop-down menu.
Source: Google.com
In the “Select expression” drop-down menu, select “that are equal to”.
Source: Google.com
Now, enter the IP address you want to block. In this case, you want Google Analytics to not record your own website visits.
Enter your IP address and click “Save”.
Source: Google.com
That’s it! You have successfully created a filter to block yourself from analytics.
How Do I Block Myself from Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is an awesome tool to track your website visitors, but you don’t want to track your own visits, right?
Otherwise, the data that the tool will show will not be entirely accurate.
The first method to block yourself from analytics was through blocking your IP address in your Google Analytics account. We’ve already discussed the procedure for that above.
The second method is using a browser extension to block yourself from analytics. The process is simpler than the IP filter method.
You just have to add the website addresses that you want to block in Google Analytics.
Download the “Block Yourself from Analytics” browser extension and enable it.
Source: Google.com
After installing the extension on your browser, click “Option” in the drop-down menu of the extension.
You can now add any website you want to block in Google Analytics.
You can add multiple website. The extension blocks your website visits and doesn’t let analytics record them.
Just click the “Add” option after you enter a website’s domain name.
Don’t worry if you use Firefox, Edge, or Opera. The “Block yourself from analytics” extension works fine on all those browsers.
How Many Users Block Google Analytics?
Thanks to the increasing number of ads on digital platforms, especially websites, users have turned to adblockers.
This doesn’t only block ads on a website, affecting the income a website generates through display ads but also affects Google Analytics.
You see, when a website visitor uses an ad block extension on Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Edge, Google Analytics can’t track them.
When it is not able to track a website visitor, webmasters don’t see the data of that visit in the Google Analytics account.
You might wonder, how is Google Analytics effective if it can’t show accurate data to webmasters?
Well, here is the answer:
According to an experiment, the blocking rate of Google Analytics may range from 6% to 26%. However, the same experiment suggested that a whopping 57% of Firefox users block Google Analytics.
But, as Firefox has a relatively smaller market share, it may not affect webmasters that much.
However, Apple Safari has also started to block Google Analytics for tracking. For now, there isn’t any way to tell accurately how many users block Google Analytics.
That said, the number of people actually blocking webmasters to record their website visits in Google Analytics is still not dramatically high.
So, webmasters (website owners) can effectively use this data if they don’t need very high accuracy.
Does Firefox Block Google Analytics?
Firefox does blog Google Analytics when you enable tracking protection on it.
Firefox for Android and Firefox Desktop both ship with tracking protection built into them. So, if you want to block yourself from analytics, you won’t have to use an extension or filter out your IP address in Google Analytics.
However, it does have other implications for your Google Analytics data.
You see, although you don’t want Google Analytics to track your website visits, it’s not in your favor as a webmaster when it blocks other people too.
We’ve discussed that when an ad blocker is enabled, your Google Analytics won’t show any data as it gets blocked.
Similarly, Firefox’s built-in tracking protection blocks any tracking from third-party websites if a visitor has enabled this feature.
How Does Firefox Blocks Content?
Firefox blocks content based on the website someone loads into the browser.
The browser comes with a list of websites that are involved in user tracking. But, you’d have to enable the tracking protection. Only then, Firefox will block content from the websites in the list.
So, what does it mean for webmasters?
If you own a website and want to track your visitors, you won’t be able to do that. This means Google Analytics won’t be able to track people that use Firefox and have enabled tracking protection.
That said, Google Analytics is still an effective way to track website visitors as it offers powerful features that let you make decisions based on data.
And, Firefox only claims 3.59% of the market share. This means webmasters won’t miss out on too much data.
Source: statcounter.com
But, you don’t want to rely completely on it, especially if you require highly accurate data for decision-making.
What does it mean for website visitors?
When tracking protection is enabled, Firefox doesn’t download the data from the tracking domains. This results in faster page load speeds and a better user experience.
Is Google Analytics Going Away?
The short answer is NO!
However, there are a few cons of the tool that can make a webmaster think before implementing it.
For starters, Google Analytics uses content to track your website’s visitors, so it’s bloated. This affects the site load speed, which is a major SEO ranking factor these days.
If your site is loading slow, chances are Google won’t rank you in the top search results. So, if data isn’t that important to you, it could be a good idea to stop using it.
You can use other analytics solutions that are not that heavy and won’t probably slow your website down.
Another small disadvantage is that it’s a complex tool. A beginner webmaster would need proper training or a lot of practice to use it effectively.
Moreover, the data Google Analytics collects is overkill for most webmasters. It’s a powerful data analytics tool.
The most important reason why someone would think Google Analytics is going away is the increasing trend of ad blockers.
As advertisements, marketing, and retargeting become more intensive, people prefer using ad blockers for a smooth internet experience.
Therefore, the data you’d get in your Google Analytics account may not present the real picture. And, if you are making marketing decisions based on that data, it might not take you in the right direction.
In addition to that, as Google Analytics uses cookies to track website visitors, webmasters are required to tell them about it.
This is why you see a pop-up where you have to give your consent to let the website owner store cookies.
That said, although there are a few caveats of Google Analytics, it’s still a powerful data analysis tool. It helps webmasters make marketing decisions based on available data.
Here are some amazing benefits of Google Analytics for webmasters:
-
- Track your visitors (although not all of them)
- Study your competition
- Identify the right social media platform for your business
- Observe your website ranking in search engines
- And, even more
However, as already mentioned, there are a few cons that you need to get used to. After all, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages by far.
Final Thoughts
There are two ways you can block yourself from analytics. The first one is going into your Google Analytics account and enter the IP address, as we discussed above.
The second one is a relatively easier one where you’d just have to install a browser extension. The extension effectively blocks you from analytics, allowing you to remove your own website views from the data.
However, ad blockers are increasing in popularity, and browsers like Firefox and Brave come with built-in tracking protection. This can block a certain percentage of your website visitors.
That said, Google Analytics is still a powerful data analysis tool and allows webmasters to make data-driven marketing decisions.
So, there is no reason to think that Google Analytics is going away. As long as data are important in marketing, tools like Google Analytics will keep on growing in popularity.
