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
-
Google Analytics Goals - Button Tracking
Does anyone know if there is a really easy way to track a button in Google Analytics yourself? It seems that most button click goal setups involve some use of tricky code and I'm wondering if there is a much easier way to do this that will allow us to simply setup and track certain button clicks as goal conversions in Analytics. Your help here is much appreciated!
Reporting & Analytics | | Gavo0 -
Google Analytics - Average Position
Hi Just trying to get some clarity on Google Analytics Average Positions in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation". For a very competitive keyword Google Analytics is saying i am on average position of 6. Is this Page 6? I am assuming position six would be 1.6?
Reporting & Analytics | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Direct traffic spam on Google Analytics: how can you identify and filter it?
One of my smaller clients noticed a huge jump in direct traffic visits last month. The bounce rate was around 97% so I'm pretty certain that most of the traffic was illegitimate. I know how to filter out spam referrals and organic keywords in Google Analytics. However I'm not sure what to do about direct traffic spam. Are there recommendations for filtering this out? Can I identify spam IP addresses?
Reporting & Analytics | | RosemaryB0 -
Tracking time spent on a section of a website in Google Analytics
Hi, I've been asked by a client to track time spent or number of pages visited on a specific section of their website using Google Analytics but can't see how to do this. For example, they have a "golf" section within their site and want to measure how many people either visit 5 page or more within the golf section or spend at least 6 minutes browsing the various golf section pages. Can anyone advise how if this can be done, and if so, how I go about it. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | geckonm0 -
Google Analytics VS target="_blank" internal links: How much wrong is it?
I am working on an e-commerce website, and our CEO is sure that having target="_blank" in internal search result is boosting the conversion (not sure, but it's not an issue at the moment). The problem is that Google Analytics sees all URLs visited from search results as entrances/direct visits, hence the Booking Funnel Tracking does not work as it was supposed to. Is there any way to recover the tracking? Or we shall get the rid of target="_blank" attribute?
Reporting & Analytics | | apartmentGin0 -
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 -
Is there a way to use Google Analytics event tracking for YouTube embedded videos on my website?
Hello! I am trying to track different types of interaction on the YouTube for videos which are embedded on a website to measure the interaction on these video from my organic traffic. Is there a good way to go about this with the code since these are coming from an iFrame on YouTube? Would appreciate any feedback or help on implementing the event tracking with YouTube videos. Many thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | CabbageTree0 -
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