Beat The Bots: Cleaning Up Your Analytics

Why Google Analytics is Essential for Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Google Analytics should be a cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy. This powerful and free tool is easy to set up and provides invaluable insights into website performance.

With Google Analytics, website owners can track traffic trends, identify high-performing sections, and spot areas for improvement. The breadth of data available makes it an indispensable tool for webmasters, helping them make informed decisions. As Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “War is ninety percent information.” In the battle for higher search engine rankings and attracting social media traffic, having accurate information is just as crucial.

The Importance of Accurate Data

However, data is only useful if it’s accurate. Recently, Matrix Internet was tasked with analyzing the Google Analytics account of a Dublin-based start-up. The business had noticed a significant spike in traffic from Russia and was eager to understand the trend.

Upon investigation, Matrix quickly determined that this increase in traffic was due to bots—automated software programs that crawl websites. While some bots serve legitimate purposes, many others, like those seen here, are spammy and inflate traffic statistics.

Below is an example from the start-up’s referral traffic for one week, showing a list of spammy websites sending bots to crawl through the site. Most of these bots originated from Russia and had distorted the website’s traffic statistics, including its bounce rate. Without understanding the source of this traffic, the business owner could have mistakenly believed their site was attracting a significant number of real visitors, when in reality, it was bots skewing the data.

How to Filter Bots and Improve Data Accuracy

To ensure your Analytics data reflects real users and not bots, it’s essential to apply a few simple filters. Here’s how:

1. Bot Filtering The first step is enabling Google Analytics‘ built-in bot filtering option. This is as simple as ticking a box in your settings. When enabled, Analytics will exclude visits from known bots and spiders. While it won’t catch everything, it’s a great starting point.
2. Referral Exclusions For bots that slip through bot filtering, you can manually exclude traffic from spammy referral sources. By adding these websites to your Referral Exclusion List, any future traffic from these sources won’t be included in your reports. While this process involves a bit more manual work, it’s a straightforward way to improve data quality.
3. IP Filtering Every device connected to a network is assigned a unique IP address. To avoid skewing your website analytics, it’s important to filter out internal traffic—visits from your own team or office.

   For example, when Matrix Internet launched our new website, we filtered out our own IP addresses to ensure that visits from our developers and marketers didn’t interfere with the data. If your team spends significant time on your site, excluding your company’s IP address is crucial for maintaining accurate data.

   Filtering IP addresses is quick and easy. Simply search “My IP Address” in Google, and then add the address to the excluded IP list in the Google Analytics Admin panel.

Boost Your Analytics Accuracy

By following these three steps—enabling bot filtering, excluding spammy referrals, and filtering your own IP address—you can significantly enhance the accuracy of your Google Analytics data.

Still unsure? At Matrix Internet, we’re here to help. If you’d like us to examine your Analytics account and provide deeper insights, feel free to reach out.

Want more information? Contact us here and we will get back to you ASAP