• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        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
          • MozCon
          • 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.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          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
        • My Q&A
        • 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. Totally Remove "localhost" entries from Google Analytics

        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

        Reporting & Analytics
        5
        15
        12793
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • Robert-B
          Robert-B last edited by

          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!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Saphera
            Saphera last edited by

            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: No

            Now 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

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Malx
              Malx last edited by

              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?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Robert-B
                Robert-B last edited by

                Does anyone have any ideas?

                I'm still totally stumped!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Robert-B
                  Robert-B last edited by

                  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!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Robert-B
                    Robert-B @mikecp last edited by

                    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!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • mikecp
                      mikecp @Robert-B last edited by

                      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.

                      Robert-B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Robert-B
                        Robert-B last edited by

                        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.

                        mikecp 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Robert-B
                          Robert-B @Robert-B last edited by

                          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!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • mikecp
                            mikecp @Robert-B last edited by

                            Was there any reason you're not trying just

                            localhost

                            as the filter pattern? No asterisks, quotes, backslashes or anything?

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Robert-B
                              Robert-B @Robert-B last edited by

                              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: No

                              Any other ideas? I'll try anything. 🙂

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Host1
                                Host1 @Robert-B last edited by

                                Do you have a update on this? Did it work?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Robert-B
                                  Robert-B @Host1 last edited by

                                  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!

                                  Host1 Robert-B mikecp 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Host1
                                    Host1 last edited by

                                    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 ?

                                    Robert-B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • Robert-B
                                      Robert-B last edited by

                                      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?

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • 1 / 1
                                      • First post
                                        Last post

                                      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

                                      • Meier

                                        Google analytics suddenly stopped tracking all my landing pages

                                        Hey guys. I love the new update of GA. Looks so clean. So, of course, I was excited to see how my landing pages were doing. I went to behavior, all content, all pages. And I noticed it's only showing me 19 pages out of the 93 I have indexed. And none of the top ones at all! Can't find them anywhere in GA! Anyone seen this before? Thank you so much

                                        Reporting & Analytics | | Meier
                                        0
                                      • AABMarketing_Frank

                                        Did Analytics change the way to handle Google images searches on Dec 12?

                                        Dear all, One of the sites I'm monitoring receives a lot of traffic from image searches or images that appear in universal search results. On Dec 12th, 2015, the bounce rate for these sessions went from around 30% the day before to around 87%. See screen shot below. Did anybody notice similar bounces in the bounce rate? Did Google change something in the way that image search is handled? Looking forward to your ideas! large?v=mpbl-1&px=999

                                        Reporting & Analytics | | AABMarketing_Frank
                                        0
                                      • Cocoonfxmedia

                                        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 | | Cocoonfxmedia
                                        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
                                      • JohnPalmer

                                        % Change - Google analytics - how to calculate?

                                        Hi All,
                                        I have two dates with two different numbers I want to calculate the "% Change" like google analytics, The numbers of June 2015 - 127,931 sessions
                                        The numbers of June 2014 - 90914 sessions please tell me what is the %Change. Best. J

                                        Reporting & Analytics | | JohnPalmer
                                        0
                                      • geckonm

                                        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 | | geckonm
                                        0
                                      • Rubix

                                        Inurl:login.aspx + "register" "retrieve password" + intext:employment

                                        Someone came to my website with this keyword a few times, I was just wondering if anyone knows what that is? inurl:login.aspx + "register" "retrieve password" + intext:employment

                                        Reporting & Analytics | | Rubix
                                        0
                                      • Alexey_mindvalley

                                        Google Analytics - paid & unpaid visits messed up

                                        I guess Google Analytics messes up my paid and unpaid visits. In the list of top 10 kw's sending non-paid traffic it shows 5 very short kw's that we don't rank for at all (checked with RankTracker - we are not in first 50 search results). But these are the kw's we advertise for... One more proof: Webmaster Tools 'Search queries' shows 10 times less 'Clicks' from organic search than Google Analytics. Is there anyone who is experiencing this kind of problems with GA? Is there anything you can do with it?

                                        Reporting & Analytics | | Alexey_mindvalley
                                        0

                                      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
                                      • Digital Marketers
                                      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.