How to make sure the website traffic isn’t yourself

Prior to this, you’ll need a GA4 account property set up.

Here’s from Gemini:

To ensure that your own visits aren’t skewing your data, you can set up an internal traffic filter in Google Analytics 4. This is a two-step process: first, you define your IP address as “internal,” and then you activate a filter to exclude that traffic.

Step 1: Define Your Internal IP Address

1. In Admin, under Data collection and modification, click Data streams.
2. Select your web data stream.
3. In the stream details, scroll down and click Configure tag settings.
4. Click Show all (or Show more) and select Define internal traffic.
5. Click Create and enter a name for the rule (e.g., “Home Office”).
6. Set the Match type to “IP address equals” and enter your public IP address in the Value field.
   • Tip: You can find your IP address by searching “what is my IP” on Google.
7. Click Create.

Step 2: Activate the Data Filter

1. Go back to the Admin main menu.
2. Under Data collection and modification, click Data filters.
3. Select the Internal Traffic filter (this is often created by default).
4. Set the Filter state:
   • Testing: GA4 will label the traffic but won’t exclude it yet, allowing you to verify the filter in your reports using the “Test data filter name” dimension.
   • Active: GA4 will permanently exclude the traffic from all incoming data.
5. Click Save.

Important Notes

• You must have the Editor role at the property level to make these changes.
• Filters only apply to data collected after they are activated; they cannot remove historical internal traffic.
• It can take 24 to 36 hours for a filter to begin applying to your data.