Sessions by location?

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

  • Spike observed: ~1,000 sessions in a morning, ~200 from Forest City, NC, mostly in early hours. OP doubts these are 200 unique visitors.

  • Likely cause: Forest City identified as a data hub; similar hotspots mentioned (Ashburn, VA; Council Bluffs, IA). Consensus that these sessions are bots (testing, search-engine, ad crawlers), not real shoppers.

  • Reference: A community search link on “suspicious sessions/bots” was shared for further reading.

  • Recommended actions:

    • Filter Shopify analytics to exclude cities tied to data centers and to remove bot traffic for a cleaner view of real customer behavior.
    • If analytics are heavily skewed, consider a location blocker to prevent traffic from those areas.

  • Store context: OP sells print‑on‑demand T‑shirts in the mental‑health niche. Primary target is the USA, with the UK recently added.

  • Status: No technical issue confirmed; guidance suggests the spike is bot‑driven and should be filtered/blocked as needed. Discussion remains open for any follow‑up issues.

Summarized with AI on November 25. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

I have had almost 1000 shopping sessions this morning on my website. Im trying to understand why 200 of them are from “Forest City, North Carolina”?

I don’t imagine it’s the same person, consistently coming back to my site this many times during the early hours of the morning. Nor do I believe 200 individual customers from Forest City have visited me this morning?

So, what am I looking at with this stat? Can someone shed some light and help me understand the data better?

Thank you

2

OK well Forest City is a data hub so most likely it’s not real visitors.

Same with Ashburn and Council Bluffs.

They are bots. Testing bots, search engine crawling bots, ad crawling bots.

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leaving breadcrumbs: https://community.shopify.com/search?q=suspicious+sessions → bots

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Hi there @Urbanvybe it’s most likely from bots (which may be harmful or not) so you can’t read too much into it. If you have any issue with how much it’s skewing the data, then I recommend using a location blocker to prevent traffic from coming from that area into your store.

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Hello @Urbanvybe you actually can customize your analytics dashboard by filtering out cities like Ashburn and Council Bluffs, as well as filtering out all bot traffic. That way, each time you return to your analytics, you get a more accurate and clean picture of your ‘real’ data.

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@Urbanvybe If i may ask where did you targeted for your store Audience

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I would never turn down some free help :joy:

Print on demand t-shirts - mental health niche

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USA but now brought in UK

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@Olivia_grace Olivia_grace what about you?