Webtrends Visit Filters

Trying to exclude bots

[mattglet]

Is it possible to totally exclude spiders/bots from a profile?

I put in a hit filter, but it seems I can't put a visit filter on them?

It doesn't seem as though my results are relevant with only SE hits excluded. Visit exclusion would be a little more targeted for my needs. Any thoughts?

[cgrantski]

I'm a little confused. If you exclude all the hits by bots and spiders, wouldn't you be excluding their visits?

[zgb999]

I have a profile excluding bots with a hits filter and it works fine.

Do you have any bots left in the browser section of the reports for the profile that exludes bots?

If you set the filter right you shouldn't.

[pmkpmk]

zgb999, is that a canned filter, or did you create it yourself?

[mattglet]

Yes, you'd think I'm excluding visits by excluding hits... but I have a problem.

While my Visits and Hits are down accordingly, my Vistors and Page Views are actually UP. Now, I know this doesn't make sense at all, but it's true.

I have triple checked that the filter is applied correctly, and triple checked the time periods are the same (I'm just comparing one day). Has anyone seen this before, or at least have an idea?

[mattglet]

Bah, of course, the two profiles I'm comparing aren't set up the same... I'm re-running the analysis now. I'll report back if I have anything weird. Sorry 'bout that.

[McElvoy]

Heh, sounds like me. So did it go away, Matt?

[mattglet]

Yeah, funny how having your profile set up correctly can provide accurate results ;)

Thanks for the help guys.

[zgb999]

Glad it works now.

pmkpmk: I created a new filter myself to get that report.

[pmkpmk]

What did you take as criteria? User agent?

[zgb999]

I did a hit filter based on the browser. When I see a browser in the profile using that filter that I do not see as human beeing I add it to the list of browsers.