Council Bluffs Visits - How Do I Block

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Store owners are experiencing inflated analytics from bot traffic originating from Council Bluffs, Iowa—identified as Shopify’s speed testing bots using Google Developer tools.

Volume & Impact:

  • Traffic ranges from 5-10 visits daily (normal) to 30-189 visits per day in severe cases
  • Significantly skews both Google Analytics and Shopify data

Attempted Solutions:

  • Blocking IP addresses in Google Analytics (limited effectiveness for batch blocking)
  • Using third-party apps like “BM: Country blocker IP blocker” (reported as ineffective)
  • Contacting Shopify support (no resolution provided)

Proposed Workaround:
One user suggests filtering Council Bluffs traffic within Shopify Analytics by:

  • Creating custom reports with “Session City is not Council Bluffs” filters
  • Saving and replacing default dashboard reports
  • Applying filters to session/conversion reports while leaving sales data unchanged

Current Status:
No definitive blocking solution exists. Some users report the bot traffic eventually decreased on its own. The filtering workaround’s validity is questioned by at least one participant. The issue remains unresolved for active cases.

Summarized with AI on October 25. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Iv done the research; and its apparent that these Council Bluff , Iowa store visits are just bots testing store speeds for Shopify. Iv seen some say 5-10 visits/day, and that was normal for my store. But today for example iv gotten almost 30 bot visits from council bluffs; and my data both on google analytics and Shopify is heavily skewed.

Im aware I can block I.P on google analytics; but is there a way to mass block tracking on a batch of ip addresses?

How do I block the entire town of Council Bluffs Iowa, from showing up in my data?

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2

Same problem, up to 60 sessions a day. I tried contacting Shopify support but I don’t think they will fix the problem.
I’ve also tried blocking sessions from the city of Council Bluffs with the BM: Country blocker IP blocker app, but that’s not working.

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3

Hi

I know this is an oldish thread but did anyone find a solution to blocking Council Bluffs - I’ve had 189 today, it’s really messing my stats.

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4

Bonjour

avez-vous trouver une solution ?

5

Hi

Unfortunately not, but fortunately, I don’t see them that much now. It’s a Google development site that runs random tests.

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6

Same problem for me. Anybody found a solution to this yet?

7

No concrete solution, he stopped on his own after a while

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8

If you’re seeing visits from Council Bluffs in your Shopify analytics (likely from Shopify’s speed testing using Google Developer tools), here’s how to exclude them:

  1. Go to the Analytics menu in Shopify, and you will see the dashboard with your reports.
  2. Select any report that includes visits (e.g., Sessions over time, Sessions by location).
  3. Apply a filter: Set Session City to “is not” Council Bluffs.
  4. Save the report with a new name (e.g., “Sessions over time (No Council Bluffs)”).
  5. Replace the original report on the dashboard with the new filtered version to view accurate data.

Repeat this for all relevant reports, such as sessions, conversions, or landing pages. Leave sales-related reports unchanged. Your dashboard will now display only real-user sessions without the Council Bluffs data.

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9

This makes zero sense. There’s no way to apply a filter