For the past couple of months, my website received huge number of traffic from bots, spams referrals and unusual direct visits – check out my articles on blocking clictune and WeSEE_Bot. During the process of fixing those, I also learnt a new feature called “Bot Filtering” in Google Analytics, which was not available until July 2014. Have you ever wondered whether a given web traffic was really from a human or a bot?
Now Google Analytics has an option that allows you to filter bot and spiders from your valuable analytics data. It means, when this option is enabled, Google Analytics will filter out traffic from bots after comparing with the list of known bots & spiders published by IAB/ABC International.
Steps to Filter Bots in Google Analytics
- Click on “Admin” link at the top.
- Under “Views” column, click on “View Settings“
- Scroll a bit and you’ll find a checkbox “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders” under Bot Filtering.
- Check it and you have told Google Analytics that known bots and spiders should be filtered.
Well, you’ll see a significant drop in your traffic analysis report, but only they are the real humans who visits your website.
