Good site analytics is an imperative for continuous site improvement for optimizing performance. While creating or modifying content on a website we often want to see the front end page to make sure the content is as it should be. One frustration often found is that all these "look-see's" comingle with real site traffic diluting the analytics.
There are two options available for tackling this issue. Although similar, they are not exactly the same in how they function.
The first option is to exclude your (the developer or client) IP addresses from within Google Analytics settings. This works, but is a hassle when people work from different locations such as home or office resulting in different IP addresses. The up side is that this will exclude traffic regardless of being logged into any system such as MODx. I would recommend reading the "How do I exclude internal traffic from reports?" article by Google. Also note the cookie option for exclusion at the bottom of the page. Something worth considering.
The second option is a MODx specific solution for MODx Managers developed by our esteemed colleague, Mark Hamstra. He outlined a simple method for excluding traffic from within MODx based on the MGR context. This is a much simpler way to exclude internal traffic created by content writers checking their posts for example. The down side is the oposite of the first option, you can't exclude traffic from sources that aren't logged into MODx. The upside is that it is easy to implement and will pertain to any user account you setup in MODx. Many thanks goes to Mark for his continued development of MODx extras!
To conclude, you might consider all the options available and determine which is best for you. If you are a stickler for analytics like I am, you might consider a combination of the above.
If you need assistance setting up any of these options up, feel free to contact @mark_hamstra or @greengoatmedia.
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