Exclude Your Own Visits

If you get hundreds of page views a day and only check your public shop pages a few times a week, then this is probably not a huge problem for you. But many shops are small and your own visits quickly impact the totals & averages you see in Google Analytics.

You need accurate data to understand how and where to grow.

Here’s the easiest way to exclude your own visits from Google Analytics, if you use the Chrome web browser. If you don’t use Chrome or don’t want to install the extension, there are two other methods in my full article.

EASY: Use a Google Chrome extension

This is a free browser extension that stops your visits being sent to Google Analytics, without affecting the Google Analytics tracking of any other websites, including other shops in your marketplace (eg. Etsy).

How to turn on the “blocking” feature

Once the extension is installed, just head to Google Analytics and open any report for your shop. At the top of the page, you’ll see your “UA ID” for that Property and a green switch. This has been added by the Da Vinci Tools extension.

Click the switch to turn off tracking for this Google Analytics Property, so that the switch goes RED. This will work for this browser, as long as the extension is enabled.

Red = Not tracking your visits
Green = Tracking your visits

(If you have other websites in Google Analytics, you can turn off tracking for all of them with this tool. Just change the Property with the top-left drop-down and hit the switch!)

When does this work & not work?

Works:

• For removing your views after you installed and configured the extension.
• While the browser extension is running and the switch is turned “off” (red) for your Google Analytics Property.
• On any internet connection, as long as the extension is running. Install it on your laptop, then take your laptop to a cafe, the office, your mum’s house – your shop visits will be blocked everywhere!

Won’t work:

• For removing your views from before you installed the extension and turned off the switch. (On Etsy? Check out the segment in option 3 here.)
• If you disable the Chrome extension.
• If you use a different browser, computer or device that doesn’t have the extension.
• If you open your shop in an “incognito mode” (private browsing) window.
• When viewing your shop on a smart phone. (The extension can’t be installed on your smart phone browser.)

What else does this extension do?

Yep, it’s called “Tools” for a reason – it does a few things! This extension is designed to enhance Google Analytics for marketers and analysts, so you may or may not find the other features useful. You can check them out here.