Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Reporting & Analytics
    4. Google Analytics and Bounce Rates Query - Should I block access from foreign countries ?

    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.

    Google Analytics and Bounce Rates Query - Should I block access from foreign countries ?

    Reporting & Analytics
    5
    10
    2924
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • PeteC12
      PeteC12 last edited by

      Hi ,

      When I look at my google analytics for my UK Website, I can see alot of visits come from outside the UK , i.e Brazil and USA. Both of which give me almost 100% bounce rates from people visiting from there.

      I am wondering, if google looks at bounce rates with regards to ranking factors and should I therefore block access to my site from visitors outside the UK ?... Would this help increase my rankings ?

      Given that we only serve uk customers, I cant see any benefit of allowing non uk customers the ability to see the site .

      what does people think ?

      thanks

      pete

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • flyntime_tx
        flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by

        Yes it is (clear), and I'll review the Analytics documentation for more details.  Really appreciate you taking the time to reply.    ~Mike

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DirkC
          DirkC @flyntime_tx last edited by

          Hi Mike,

          I don't have access to a of pc now. From my memory you first create a filter, and then aply the filter to a new view. You should always keep one view in original state without any filters. Hope this is clear. Hope it is sufficiently clear.

          rgds

          Dirk

          flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • flyntime_tx
            flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by

            Thanks Dirk.  That answered the issue I was uncertain about, which was whether blocking visitors from Analytics reports truly prevents them from hitting the site (even an error page), and apparently it doesn't so your answer makes perfect sense.

            One more question:  Does an Analytics filter automatically apply to all Analytics views/reports for that domain/site, or does a filter have to be assigned to the views I want it to affect (in this case, all of them)?

            Thanks for the quick response!
            Mike

            DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DirkC
              DirkC @flyntime_tx last edited by

              Hi Michael

              The first thing you should do is to define the geography you are targeting in webmaster tools (If you have a generic tld).

              if you would block visitors from Brazil on your site the bounce rate measured by analytics will go down. However, Google is not using your analytics data to measure the bounce rate (at least that is what they claim). As al these people get an error message when they try to visit your site,the real bounce-rate will increase rather than go down, making the situation even worse, you just would not be aware of it.

              What you could do is set a custom filter in analytics, showing only the traffic from your target country and apply this filter to a new view. This gives you better insights on the behavior of your target audience.

              rgds

              Dirk

              flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • flyntime_tx
                flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by

                I've got a similar problem with nearly 50% of the traffic to many of my client's sites coming from Brazil.  My clients are and will only ever be local, small town operations, so my questions are:

                1.  Why it's not a good idea to block those visits that are irrelevant to the traffic we want to measure.
                2.  Bounce rate is considered to play at least some role in the ranking algorithm, or at least I always thought so.  If over 50% of my traffic is bouncing because it's bot driven, spam related, etc, shouldn't I be worried about the adverse affect on my bounce rate?

                Just trying to understand the rules to this game.  🙂

                Thanks!
                Mike

                DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • PeteC12
                  PeteC12 last edited by

                  Many thanks All

                  Peter

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Ray-pp
                    Ray-pp last edited by

                    I'd like to add to the answers above.

                    First, I agree - do not block foreign visitors. There are many reasons for this, do not worry about their bounce rates.

                    Second, and the part I'm adding, is I suggest setting up a Filtered View in your Google Analytics that only tracks your target demographic, in your situation the UK visitors.

                    This Filtered View will allow you to see more accurate metrics for the people you're targeting and allow you to do a better analysis of your web analytics. Make sure to add that filtered view and not overwrite your unfiltered view, so if you ever do expand into the other geographic locations you can dig into their performance analytics as well.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • Devanur-Rafi
                      Devanur-Rafi last edited by

                      Hi Pete,

                      Please don't block access to foreigners. You can set the geo-target in Google webmaster tools account, if you have not already done so. It is completely normal with country-specific websites getting traffic from all over the World. A small or probably 1 in a thousand foreign visits might come from UK people traveling abroad. So to conclude, its my honest opinion not to block access to foreigners even the bounce rates might be alarming. Its common and natural and search engine like Google know about this pretty well and there won't be any issue to your website from their end.

                      Best regards,

                      Devanur Rafi

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • DirkC
                        DirkC last edited by

                        Blocking access to your site for foreign visitors won't change anything for your "real" bounce rate. The measured bounce rate will decrease in Analytics, but these visitors will still bounce when they get to your website.

                        If you're using a generic domain extension - you can indicate in Webmastertools that you are targeting the local UK market (if you use a .uk extension this is automatically the case).

                        I wouldn't worry too much about this bounce rate - as long as the bounce rate (and time/visit - time on page) for your UK visitors is ok

                        rgds

                        Dirk

                        flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Got a burning SEO question?

                        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                        Start my free trial


                        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.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • Kevin_P

                          Why is Indeed.com traffic appearing as organic in Google Analytics?

                          A large number of sessions in my client's Google Analytics account appear to come from medium: organic and source:Indeed. Since I'm focused on SEO for this project, I'd prefer that Indeed be treated as referral traffic. Any ideas for fixing this issue? Also, and I'm sure the answer is no, is there a way to fix the past data in Google Analytics that has already reported Indeed as an organic medium?

                          Reporting & Analytics | | Kevin_P
                          0
                        • Armen-SEO

                          Tracking 301 redirect traffic in Google Analytics

                          if I 301 redirect www.mywebsite.com to go to www.yourwebsite.com, how can I track the traffic in Google Analytics that is coming from mywebsite.com??  I don't think that's a referral traffic, is it?

                          Reporting & Analytics | | Armen-SEO
                          0
                        • mchoi

                          Would updating Meta Titles affect Google analytics tracking?

                          Hi All, I need a little bit of help. We need to optimize our blog's articles Meta titles for SEO which all exceed 100 characters. I was told that if we change the titles, google analytics would split the tracking pages and count the data as 2 pages (old title and new title). Has any of you have this experience before and if so, is there a way to avoid google analytics counting this as two pages? Thanks in advance! Viviana http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/ http://analyteguru.com/

                          Reporting & Analytics | | mchoi
                          0
                        • JohnGroves

                          How does Google Maps/G+ traffic show up in Analytics?

                          Hi Moz Community, I've been trying to figure out how traffic from Google Maps (and G+) shows up in Google Analytics and am struggling to find a good answer online. If someone finds a business through Google Maps and then clicks on the website in the Maps listing, does that show up as a referral from Google Maps? Our site shows virtually zero traffic from Google Maps even though we have a number of listing. Two related questions: if someone clicks through to a G+ page from a Maps result and then visits our website from the G+ page, does that show up in Analytics as a referral from G+? Is traffic from Google Maps or G+ ALSO counted as organic traffic? (Would it be possible to accidentally double-count a visit as both organic and a referral from Maps/G+? Thanks everybody!

                          Reporting & Analytics | | JohnGroves
                          0
                        • EcommerceSite

                          How does switching to HTTPS effect Google Analytics?

                          We are looking at making our site HTTPS. We have been using the same Google Analytics account for years and I like having the historical data. All of our pages will be the same, we are just going to redirect from the http to https. Does anything need to be done with Google Analytics? What about other addons such as Optimizely, Crazy Egg, or Share this?

                          Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite
                          0
                        • DaveGuyMan

                          Is it possible to use Google Tag Manager to pass a user’s text input into a form field to Google analytics?

                          Hey Everyone, I finally figured out how to use auto event tracking with Google Tag Manager, but didn't get the data I wanted. I want to see what users are typing into the search field on my site (the URL structure of my site isn't set up properly to use GA's built-in site search tracking). So, I set up the form submit event tracking in Google Tag Manager and used the following as my event tracking parameters: Category: Search Action: Search Value When I test and look in Google Analytics I just see: "search" and "search value." I wanted to see the text that I searched on my site. Not just the Action and Category of the event.... Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Do I need to set up a different event tracking parameter? Thanks everyone!

                          Reporting & Analytics | | DaveGuyMan
                          0
                        • Robert-B

                          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: No Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong and give me a push in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

                          Reporting & Analytics | | Robert-B
                          0
                        • Red_Mud_Rookie

                          Why does Google Analytics think PPC traffic is organic?

                          I have a bastard of a problem... Google Analytics is incorrectly tracking PPC traffic as SEO which is screwing up all my reporting . I don't care for rankings, I care for actual SEO traffic and I can't be sure that what i am seeing is correct which is driving me nuts. Any ideas?

                          Reporting & Analytics | | Red_Mud_Rookie
                          1

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • Local Citation Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.