Is there a way to apply the same google analytics filter to multiple properties?
-
I manage WordPress multiple sites for my clients. Some of these clients are SEO customers. One issue I have with the analytics reports is the occurrence of spam and ghost spam. I know how to create filters to block however there are always more and more. Is there away to export the filter and import it to all the other properties i manage? Or do they just have to be done manually every time i need to block spam?
-
In addition to the include filter that Carlos has explained, I also use the spamreferrerblock plugin for Wordpress sites. The two together have vastly improved reporting accuracies for sites I monitor.
-
Hi Malleablebyte,
I do understand that it only covers the problem, however i do need the problem covered! I have to show this data to clients and it cannot be misleading as far as organic and social markers are concerned.
Thanks.
-
Hi Donald,
I think I should mention to you that the solution that you are applying to GA are not really solving the traffic spam problem. Rather, all that you are doing is hiding the spam data. After applying the solution, the spamming will continue to happen except that now you wouldn't see it anymore. It works great for (Google) ghost spam but there are many more types of web traffic spam that you will happily ignore thinking that all is fine now...
Thanks Carlos for mentioning MB (malleablebyte.org). We are a bunch of researchers trying to really solve the web traffic spam problem. Referral spam is merely a subset of web traffic spam. Web traffic spam is evolving and in some instances botnets are used to do web traffic spamming but these data doesn't really show up on your GA. They look like human visitors but are really bots either harvesting data from your site or making money with referral spamming.
Our hope is to bring awareness to this problem and help people avoid the false impression that the current techniques are adequately solving the problem. MB is our effort to collect data for research and experiment with possible solutions. MB is more advanced than mere filters, it includes machine learning and predictive algorithms that we hope can make a real difference.
-
To apply the filters to different properties in the same account:
- Go to the Admin tab > Select the account from the dropdown (first column)
- Select All filters
- Choose the filter you want to apply
- Go to Apply filters to views at the bottom of the Edit Filter page
- And move all the views from the properties you want to apply the filter
"Apply filters to views"
-
Thanks Carlos,
My filters would be on the same account. Can you direct me to instructions on how to pass those filters?
-
Thanks Carlos! The **ONE filter that only includes real hostnames **works like a charm. That spam traffic is really getting bad lately.
-
Hi Donald,
The only way to pass filters between properties is if they are on the same account, I'm afraid that is not possible to share filters, for historical data you can do it with segments though.
There are a couple of web services that will add the filters automatically for you.
They are good help, but there are 3 inconvenients:
- You need to grant access to your account, although I think they are trustful.
- Most likely you will have hits from the spam, by the time they add the spammer to the list, the same happens when you add filters manually after you spot the spammer.
- Lately spam has been hitting with fake direct visits and these won't be excluded with those filters
The best solution for ghost spam for now(the one I've been using for months), is instead of excluding fake traffic you should include real, this can be done using 1 of the main characteristics of ghost spam the hostname.
If you check your list of referral spam, you will notice that the use either a fake hostname or is not set. Based on this you can create ONE filter that only includes real hostnames, and all ghost spam no matter if it is referral, keyword, page or direct visit will be excluded.
You will still have to create it for all the accounts, but you won't have to create a filter every time, and most importantly you won't receive hits at all from ghost spam.
You can find a detailed guide on how to set up this filter in this article
Hope it helps,
Carlos
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Question re Google Analytics and its more accurate alternatives
Hi guys There are two main issues we have with Google Analytics, and I'd really appreciate if anyone has the time to give an answer to that. We completely miss organic traffic data before 7/22/2013 although our account is active since 2005. Any thoughts on that? Is it the not provided move that swiped out all data or something else? Even for the data we do have there is lots of inaccuracies, and we are thinking on switching or at least adding a new analytics software, any recommendations? (FYI, it turns out we do not keep access logs on the server for more than 2 months, and we might fix that for future references, but now we are looking for external solution). Any help will be much appreciated Thanks Lily
Reporting & Analytics | | wspwsp0 -
No Google Analytics code on page BUT reporting is active
How could Google Analytics be reporting data if my pages don't have the GA code on them? Mike
Reporting & Analytics | | Mike_c0 -
Showing significant visit in google analytics
Hello Everyone, I was checking GA account of my site and I have found there are few keywords have significant number of visits in GA. These keywords not ranking even in hundred(google SERPs).I am not understanding from where these visitors coming .Please help me out. I am attaching screenshot of those keyword.Last but not least when i check source of these keywords source are google. Thanks aScZ8WT.png
Reporting & Analytics | | Alick3000 -
Linking Multiple Niche Site In Same Google Analytics Account
Hi, I am providing SEO for Local business. Is it advisable to separate out the Google Analytics into different Google account or is it ok to remain it this way? Some of the client might be in the same niche, and might be competing with the same keywords as well. What I was worried is, Google might see these sites as same owner and only rank for 1 of the site. I was thinking to get the owners to register for their own Google Analytics and share the access to me.
Reporting & Analytics | | JonathanSoh0 -
Wordpress + Google Analytics = Pulling My Hair Out
Hey Mozzers, Quick question for you- I have analytics set-up for a personal site I run and I know, verifiably it's receiving traffic, however, whenever I access my Google Analytics dashboard, it says I've had zero visits. Interestingly, today I had a colleague check the site from a foreign country and I could see the page views (within 15 minutes), however, I could not get any information about the site viewer. I have verified that the Analytics profile is 'receiving data' (which it is) and my Google Webmaster Tools is not reporting any issues? Finally, I went ahead and updated my profile so that it is pulling from 'www.mydomain.com' instead of 'mydomain.com', I don't know if that'll make any difference, but likewise, I didn't want to go and create the 'little kid in the elevator' analogy, where I'm just pressing a bunch of buttons just because they're there. So the only changes I've made thus far were deactivating Yoast's SEO plug-in and manually placing the GA code in the header and updating the 'Website's URL' in the profile settings tab of GA from 'mydomain.com' to 'www.mydomain.com'. With that, I am stumped and praying another one of the esteemed Mozzers out there may be able to help me resolve this. Any thoughts?
Reporting & Analytics | | NiallSmith0 -
Regular Expressions in Google Analytics
I want to use the Google Analytics landing page reports to look at the bounce rate of top level pages excluding the homepage. So pages with urls: www.example.com/example Does anyone know a regular expression that will allow me to do this? Just to clarify I do not want to look at the bounce rate of the homepage or any pages deeper than www.example.com/example e.g: www.example.com/example/example www.example.com/example/example/example etc Thanks in advance
Reporting & Analytics | | CPLDistribution0 -
Do Google Analytics filters affect link building?
We recently made a few link wheels for specific product pages. We've been having great results with all of the wheels except for one. The one we are having issues with is the only link that we were using a Google Analytics filter on; it looks like this http://domain.com/page.htm?zSource=Specific Keyword%tracking My question is does Google ignore links that are obviously utilizing their analyitcs custom filters? We're doing some more testing to try to find out if it truly is the link or if the wheel is a bad one. There are so many things that could go wrong but with so many of our link wheels working well, I wonder if the filters are what is causing such results.
Reporting & Analytics | | MichealGooden0 -
Editing Google Analytics eCommerce Javascript for Volusion
Does anyone know how to edit the ecommerce javascript with Volusion dynamic variables? I thought I did it correctly but none of the information got recorded in GA. It recorded that there was a transaction made but not info on the purchase price, order #, etc. This is the current code I am using: NOTE: In Volusions customer support center they provided this information: Where Order-Specific Information is Generated Order-specific information can be generated by JavaScript on the OrderFinished.asp page within Volusion. On this page, two JavaScript arrays will be initialized that advanced users may need to be aware of. The arrays and their contents are as follow:
Reporting & Analytics | | jhooley
Order Array Contents Order[0] = Order ID
Order[1] = Unused
Order[2] = Payment Amount
Order[3] = Affiliate Commisionable Value
Order[4] = Sales Tax
Order[5] = Total Shipping Cost
Order[6] = Billing City
Order[7] = Billing State
Order[8] = Billing Country OrderDetails Array Contents OrderDetails[X][0] = Order ID
OrderDetails[X][1] = Order Detail ID
OrderDetails[X][2] = Product Code
OrderDetails[X][3] = Product Name
OrderDetails[X][4] = (unused)
OrderDetails[X][5] = Product Price
OrderDetails[X][6] = Quantity Note that in the above example, X refers to a line item number (beginning from zero). Note that there can be multiple Order Details arrays - one for each item contained within an order. I'm a newbie at Analytics installation and could really use any help. Thanks!1