删除特定用户代理的所有流量

Question

Is there a way to exclude, from all properties and all views of Google Analytics, the visitors with a specific user agent ?

Note: it's not for spam/bot prevention (I already checked the feature Admin > View settings > Bot filtering > Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders ), it's to remove a part of own traffic. I can't use IP filtering because my IP changes all the time, and I use many devices (mobile/desktop/laptop). I also can't use cookies, because often I want to test my website as a random non-logged user . I didn't find anything even after exploring deeply the Analytics UI. Maybe this requires API?

Answer 1

In the first step you have to get the User Agent into Google Analytics. You can do this with the Tag Manager, by creating a custom Javascipt . This can return the User Agent and you can send it to GA with a custom Dimension or a Event. (It´s also possible to do this without the GTM).

1. Log in to the Tag Manager and navigate to Variables
2. Now we have to add a Javascript Variable. The User Agent is stored in the navigator.userAgent property

3. Now we have to push this data into the Google Analytics Account. We could do this with a custom Dimension or a Event. In this example we take a Event. As Action we send the Page Path - you don´t have to do this, but maybe it´s helpfull later for some reports. As a Trigger we define "All Pages" so the event is fired with every pageview. The User Agent we send as a Event Label.

If you have this information in GA you can add a filter on Account Level (for alle Views and Propertys). Filter Type = Custom > Select the Event or Dimension > Type the User Agent to exclude.

We can see the User Agent of the Users visited our site now in GA Behavior > Events > Top Events > Search for the Event Category (namend in Tag Manager (in our case "User Agent"))

In the last step we exclude the User Agent from all our Propertys and Views. Admin > All Filters (In the Account column) > "+ Add Filter" > Filter Type = Custom > Exclude > Select "Event Label" in the Dropdown > specify the User Agent to ignore

Select the Views, there this User Agent should be ignored > DONE

Answer 2

Although this doesn't directly answer the question of how to block a user by user-agent string, it does I think solve the problem of how to remove your own personal traffic from being counted by Google Analytics

Google created a chrome plugin:

Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on (by Google) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-opt-out/fllaojicojecljbmefodhfapmkghcbnh

(Does require a chromium-based browser and appears you're using firefox but may help other users. Interestingly, there does appear to be a link which will download an xpi extension file if accessed from Firefox, but I'm not too sure about it https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout )

For Firefox, I believe this one can block Google Analytics traffic:

uBlock Origin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Answer 3

(Google Tag Manager seemed a bit labyrinthic for me.)

I finally did this:

• Use Custom UserAgent String extension (available for FF and Chrome) and set UserAgent to NoTracking (you can do it specifically for certain websites, ie your websites only, see options).

• Add this in the PHP page, in the Analytics Javascript part:

   <?php if ($_SERVER ['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] === 'NoTracking') echo 'if (false)'; ?> 

  It looks like this:

   <script> <?php if ($_SERVER ['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] === 'MyselfXYZ12') echo 'if (false)'; ?> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)}) window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxx-x', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); <script> 

  This will have the effect of disabling the creation of ga object for your traffic only.

NB: I first thought about disabling GA code for my own traffic via Javascript with if (navigator.userAgent == 'NoTracking') but it seems that the UserAgent change thanks to the extension "Custom UserAgent String" has effect only after the page is rendered , which is too late.