To make it easier to follow I split this guide into 4 parts. The first 2 are practical, the last 2 are informative:

Tip: Skip the things you know and jump straight to the action

What's in this article? Tip: Skip the things you know and jump straight to the action

Update: Unfortunately, as of February 2020 Google Analytics has deprecated "Service Provider" and "Network Domain". So filter using these dimensions as a condition will no longer work, which is a pity because they were extremely useful to identify and filter Bot traffic. The rest of the filters listed below are still working so you can keep using them. I'm working in a new and more comprehensive way of identifying and filtering bot traffic. Stay tuned!

Filtering junk traffic in Google Analytics: A comprehensive solution

Google Analytics is probably one of the most important elements of the decision-making process of your website. The success or failure of your efforts (SEO, ad campaigns, social media, content marketing, etc.) can be easily determined by the accuracy and value of your GA reports.

If you don't take the appropriate measures, unwanted data such as bots, internal traffic, and spam will decrease that accuracy and in some cases lead to poor decisions.

The good news is that GA has a powerful filter functionality, that if used well, will help you prevent all that junk traffic. The bad news is that, in my experience, most sites don't use it properly.

99% of the sites I audit either don't use filters at all or they do, but not correctly, which can create an even bigger problem.

So to help you get data that you can trust, I will show you:

The most effective ways of filtering bots, spam, and other junk traffic in your Google Analytics, And also important; how to do it safely so you don't risk your real user data.

Latest identified (February 2020) automatedtraffic4free.club / automatedtraffic4free.com / automatedtraffic4free.host / automatedtraffic4free.pw / bottraffic.host / bottraffic4free.host / bottraffic4free.pw / bottraffic4free.xyz / easy-website-traffic.com / getbottraffic4free.com / tracsistraffic.com / trafficbot.club / trafficbot4free.com / trafficbot4free.host / trafficbot4free.pw / trafficbot4free.xyz / websitebottraffic.com / websitebottraffic.pw / websitebottraffic.xyz A quick FAQ about this guide To save you some time looking through the comments, here are the answers to some of the most common questions I get: Which type of spam and bots does this guide cover? This guide will help you prevent common threats,

Does this work in WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace...? Yes . The solutions below are purely based on GA filters, so it will work independently of the CMS you use.

How often do you check for new threats and update the expressions? or even better you can get notified when new expressions are out. ( See the ) I'm constantly monitoring for bots and new spam (3-5 times a week), and I update the expressions when new significant threats are detected. You can keep the guide as a referenceSee the historical spam blacklist Want to get notified about new threats, and new ways of keeping your Google Analytics data accurate?



Dos and don'ts when filtering data in Google Analytics

Filters are a powerful tool if used in the right way. So let's go quickly through a list of things you should consider when filtering in GA.

First things first. Protect your data from misconfigurations

Before creating any filter in Google Analytics should have at least 2 views, one were you will apply the filters and a second one that you will leave unfiltered, this will work as a backup and to check the progress of your filters. If you want to be extra cautious you can create a test view to test your filters before applying them.

Here you can find how to create and set best practices for views in Google Analytics.

5 types of filters to stop bots and spam in Google Analytics

Once your views are correctly configured, it's time to stop all of that dirty traffic that skews your reports and doesn't let you see the real performance of your site.

There is no one all mighty solution or checkbox that will stop all junk traffic at once, so if you want to have accurate Analytics you will have to work for it.

The Google Analytics filters you will need are:

Campaign source filters for crawler referral spam, Valid hostname filter for ghost spam and DEV environments, Language filter for bots, Static and dynamic filters for internal traffic, Bonus: Enable the built-in feature "Bot Filtering" (to exclude a few known bots) Do you want me to do this for you? I can review your analytics and apply all the necessary filters and fixes to ensure you are receiving the most accurate data possible and your analytics settings are optimal. Learn more

General notes about filters.

Do not apply filters on the Raw data view,

If you are not comfortable working with filters yet, you can use them in a test view first,

Filters only work forward, for historical data you should use a segment.