Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Totally Remove "localhost" entries from Google Analytics
-
Hello All,
In Google Analytics I see a bunch of traffic coming from "localhost:4444 / referral".
I had tried once before to create a filter to exclude this traffic source, but obviously I did it wrong since it's still showing up.
Here is the filter I have currently:
Filter Name: Exclude localhost
Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude
Filter Field: Referral
Filter Pattern: .localhost:4444.
Case Sensitive: NoCan anyone see what I'm doing wrong and give me a push in the right direction?
Thanks in advance!
-
The filter I used a long time ago that worked at the time was a hostname one using (.?localhost.?)
Filter Name: Exclude localhost
Filter Type: Custom filter > Hostname
Filter Pattern: (.?localhost.?)
Case Sensitive: NoNow I block via code so I'm not sure if this still works - feel free to try. Also, I'm not sure why the filter uses both * and ? since the star should be inclusive of ? wildcard but I can no longer find the source.
Good luck
-
Hi Robert,
did you resolve this problem as I have exactly the same thing showing on my analytics too and it is driving me mad?
-
Does anyone have any ideas?
I'm still totally stumped!
-
Does anyone have any ideas?
Having this silly "localhost:4444" entry is skewing all of my numbers and no matter what I try, it won't seem to filter it out.
Any help is very much appreciated!
Thanks!
-
Thanks Mike.
At least I know I'm not alone in being totally & completely baffled!
Hopefully someone else can give me a push in the right direction.
Cheers!
-
I'm sort of baffled, myself. I see no reason why this would be unfilterable. I'm marking this as an unanswered question, hopefully someone comes to our rescue here.
-
Putting the filter pattern of "localhost" did not work... sadly.
I still see "localhost:4444 / referral" in my reports.
There must be a way to filter this out.... I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem (or at least I hope not!)
Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance.
-
There was no real reason I wasn't just trying localhost.
I just thought we needed some other parameters on there... but clearly those weren't working.
I just updated the filter now and I'll check tomorrow's data to see if the answer was really this simple.
Thanks!
-
Was there any reason you're not trying just
localhost
as the filter pattern? No asterisks, quotes, backslashes or anything?
-
Unfortunately that did not work.
I still see this in my referral reports:
localhost:4444 / referral
Just to confirm, the filter I set is:
Filter Name: Exclude localhost
Filter Type: Custom Filter > Exclude
Filter Field: Referral
Filter Pattern: localhost*
Case Sensitive: NoAny other ideas? I'll try anything.
-
Do you have a update on this? Did it work?
-
If I put localhost then I get a "Regular expression is invalid" error.
I'll put: localhost*
I'll watch it for a couple days and see what happens.
Thanks!
-
1: the "." in front of "*localhost" might break the filter i guess. The same goes for the "." after "4444".
2: Have you tried localhost* or localhost ?
-
Thanks for the link... this is kind of what I had followed earlier, but it still doesn't work.
In my original question you can see the current filter I have setup.
Yet, for some reason this is not blocking what I need since I still see "localhost:4444 / referral" in my reports.
Any other ideas?
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
-
Paid traffic or "Paid Search" is not showing in my Google Analytics
Hi, I have two campaigns running in Google Adwords or Google Ads now and I saw in Google Ads account that I had 5 clicks today (09/18/2018) but when I try to search for this clicks in my Google Analytics in ACQUISITION > All Traffic > Channels I don't find nothing about "Paid Search" or something like that. Bellow is a picture of my Google Analytics account to prove it. The accounts are linked and I can find the 2 campaigns in the Analytics. How can I interpret this picture? Where the paid traffic is showing? or not showing there? Thanks Leandro uvAtrsg
Reporting & Analytics | | lmoraes0 -
Google Analytics reporting traffic for 404 pages
Hi guys, Unique issue with google analytics reporting for one of our sites. GA is reporting sessions for 404 pages (landing pages, organic traffic) e.g. for this page: http://www.milkandlove.com.au/breastfeeding-dresses/index.php the page is currently a 404 page but GA (see screenshot) is reporting organic traffic (to the landing page). Does anyone know any reasons why this is happening? Cheers. http://www.milkandlove.com.au/breastfeeding-dresses/index.php GK0zDzj.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | jayoliverwright2 -
Google Analytics - Keywords (not set) or ( not provided) WHY???
In Analytics, most of my visitors are landing on my home page, but when trying to see wich keywords they use, most of them are: (not set) or ( not provided) See screencast: http://screencast.com/t/AKwPW76qLVsN Can you tell why? What is going on? Is there a way to solve this? Thank you, BigBlaze
Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze2050 -
Setting up Google Analytics for Subsites
I currently have one main .com site and am planning on launching geo-location subsites .co.uk, .com.au, .ru, etc... Traffic will flow between both sites and some of the content on the subsites will be duplicate and therefore include a canonical tag to the main site. I want to set up GA to capture who is going to the subsites and vice versa and correctly capture crossover traffic. Any advice on implementing advanced analytics directly (or links to sources that will direct me the right direction for this project)
Reporting & Analytics | | theLotter0 -
Localhost:4444 Showing Up in Google Analytics
Hello All, Lately in my Google Analytics account I have noticed a referral source labelled: localhost:4444 The number of visits is really high from this source, but I have no idea (no clue!) what it actually means. Can anyone shed some light on what this is about? Should I be creating some sort of filter to screen out this as a referral source (assuming it is not legitimate)? Many thanks in advance. Cheers!
Reporting & Analytics | | Robert-B0 -
Comparing % Change, Google Analytics
Hey Mozzers, Is there a simple way to compare the "% Change" in traffic when comparing two separate time periods in a single Google Analytics report? When comparing data from two separate time periods, an exported CSV doesn't include the % Change (booo!), and there's no option to sort by % Change within the GA report, essentially forcing you to scroll through all the results to pinpoint the major movers and shakers. I'm not averse to using spreadsheets to sort this data, but I'm thinking that I'd likely need a macro to make this work, something like this. However, none of the macros on that page are working (possibly because they were designed for a previous version of Analytics). All suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | dangaul0 -
Setting up Google Analytics default URL
If someone has set: the default url in Google Analytics to a non-www address (http://mysite.com) then placed the UA tracking script from that GA account within the CMS framework of the website... ... and then set the permanent 301 redirect in the htaccess file to redirect to the www address (http://www.mysite.com). How less accurrate will my GA analytics measurements be considering the default url within GA is non-www and the permanent 301 redirect in htacess is to the www-address? Anyone know how reliable GA reports are until the default url in GA analytics is changed to match what is the redirected url in htaccess file? _Cindy
Reporting & Analytics | | CeCeBar0 -
Custom Variables to track Vimeo plays on website with Google Analytics?
Hello Everyone, I'm trying to track how many times a Vimeo video is played on my site via GA. Does any of you have any knowledge of how can this be achieved? I've read the documentation and came up with this: After the iframe embed i insert this: Of course the GA is loaded in the header. Does not work, at least i cant see anything in analytics. I have set up the segment as per the attached image. Thanks in advance! Alex E6XnO.png
Reporting & Analytics | | pwpaneuro0