Multiple Shopify store owners are experiencing an unusually high volume of sessions originating from Council Bluffs, United States, which is disrupting their analytics data.
The Problem:
One user reports 151 out of 176 visitors (86%) coming from Council Bluffs over one week, with 17 sessions in a single day
Another merchant has seen over 400 sessions from this location since the month started
This traffic is interfering with accurate tracking of real customer behavior and ad performance (e.g., Pinterest campaigns)
Likely Cause:
These sessions appear to be from Shopify’s automated speed testing using Google Developer tools, not actual customers.
Workaround Solution:
One user provides step-by-step filtering instructions:
Navigate to Analytics dashboard in Shopify
Apply a filter setting “Session City” to “is not Council Bluffs” on relevant reports
Save filtered versions with new names and replace original reports
Apply to session-related reports while leaving sales reports unchanged
Ongoing Concern:
Users express frustration about lack of official Shopify support or explanation for why these tests run so frequently and impact merchant analytics.
Summarized with AI on November 1.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
Hi, first off I have read other posts on this and apparently this is Shopify speed test, but I would really like some more information from whoever has it.
Over the last week, 151 out of 176 of my visitors have been from Council Bluffs, United States. This is incredibly disappointing for me and really messes with my store analytics. furthermore why does this speed test need to run this many times? It said that yesterday it ran 17 times alone.
It also doesn’t make sense with my other results. I have been getting a few clicks through from Pinterest ads yet when I try to view the location of these the numbers just don’t add up if you remove these Council Bluffs numbers. Is it possible that some of the clicks that can’t determine a location go to this instead? I am incredibly confused and if anyone could enlighten me that would be really helpful. Thanks.
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:
Go to the Analytics menu in Shopify, and you will see the dashboard with your reports.
Select any report that includes visits (e.g., Sessions over time, Sessions by location).
Apply a filter: Set Session City to “is not” Council Bluffs.
Save the report with a new name (e.g., “Sessions over time (No Council Bluffs)”).
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.
