Bounce, SEO and blocking whole countries

Peterdalkey

We get 50-60 one page hits daily, mostly directed to the same site page, in groups of around 6 at the same time. Ukraine is the current number one offender but some months ago it was the Russian Federation. Each has a different IP address.

We have now blocked all domains from these countries, easily done on our CMS. the volume is not enought to cause a problem but must have a significant impact on our recorde "bounces" and thus site bounce rate performance.

Are there any downsides to this course of action. We have no interest in any business/enquiries from these countries in the first place as it is for our Ireland only business.

blue4ever

If you feel that the Russians are still being counted even after the CMS is supposed to have excluded them then there is an easy way to check - simply in your analytics filter your visits by Geo {Audience>Geo>Location).

If Russia as a region is still showing then the CMS is not filtering them before they trigger your Google analytics.

If that the case - you can segment your results to exclude any data collected on behalf of Russian Visitors (it’s not deleting the data, simply ignoring it for all analysis which is better):

There is a ‘down arrow’ in your main panel in Google analytics. It's beside a blue circle saying All visitors.

Click on it>
Create New Segment>
Call it ‘No Russia’ (or something more fitting)>
In the Demographics go to Location
Select the following a) Country/Territory b) Does not contain c) Russia
Save
That’s (hopefully) showing your data, excluding any data collected form visits from Russia and that related data (page views/bounce rate etc)

That’s the simplest way to view your analytics therein.

Peterdalkey

Thank you for the reply, they have stopped dead, so far!! The CMS appears to be doing its job. The funny thing is they did not show up on the GEO on Google analytics just on the stat recorder/analyser on the CMS!! like this

Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02
Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02
Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02
Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02
Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02
Location: Ukraine 134.249.77.141 134.249.77.141 - polythene-bags.html 0 03/12/2013, 20:02

blue4ever

Sorry - too used to Russia and Russian Federation!

To exclude another country as well as Russia (Iron Curtain type thing) ttou amend your filter
Select the following
a) Country/Territory
b) Does not contain
c) Russia|Ukraine|Belarus

No spaces and followed by a 'pipe' | (beside 'z' on the keyboard)

blue4ever

The server log might be recording fractionally before the CMS kicks in to exclude the traffic from Ukraine- i.e. a timing difference on the two sets of data and, therefore, differing results - I'd suggest.

Peterdalkey

only blocked them yesterday, but historic Analytics data never showed them at all!! Perhaps Google Analytics are aware of the rogue IP addresses and discount them?

blue4ever

Google filters nothing - that's up to you. Some automated bots can trigger your server logs and not analytics - that could be one conclusion
or
they simply started yesterday!

Peterdalkey

Some automated bots can trigger your server logs and not analytics

That sounds like an answer that would explain it.

My other question was, is there any downside in having these IPs blocked?

Cheers
Peter

blue4ever

No downside, thousands of site do it - bots, spammers, potential hackers - its all part of the game. So, its custom and practice at this point to filter ip's/domains

jmcc

Peterdalkey wrote: »

We get 50-60 one page hits daily, mostly directed to the same site page, in groups of around 6 at the same time. Ukraine is the current number one offender but some months ago it was the Russian Federation. Each has a different IP address.

It might be referrer spam.

Regards...jmcc

Peterdalkey

Thanks guys, I googled my concerns and came across some Holy Mary caveats, so I thought it better to ask some of our own!

Cheers

Peter