Excluding your own searches

When you use the Vellumine search bar on your own blog -- to look up your own posts, test the search, or check whether new content is indexed -- those queries are otherwise indistinguishable from real reader searches and end up biasing your analytics. Vellumine includes a small opt-out you can activate from the search bar itself.

Turning analytics off for yourself

1. Open the search bar on your blog.
2. Type the following command exactly into the search input:

   vellumine:analytics-off
   

3. The search bar will confirm: "Analytics turned off: your searches on this browser will no longer be counted."

From that point on, every search and result click you make in the same browser on the same device is silently dropped before it reaches Vellumine's servers. Nothing is sent, nothing is stored. In templates that show it, an "Analytics off" badge appears next to Powered by Vellumine in the footer as an ongoing reminder.

Turning analytics back on

Type:

vellumine:analytics-on

You'll see a confirmation that your searches are being counted again.

Checking the current state

If you're not sure whether analytics are on or off, type:

vellumine:analytics-status

The search bar will tell you the current state.

Things to keep in mind

• Per browser, per device. The setting is stored in the browser's localStorage for your blog's domain. If you also search from your phone, a different browser, or after clearing your site data, you'll need to run vellumine:analytics-off there too.
• Per blog. If you operate multiple blogs that use Vellumine, the setting is tracked separately for each one. Turn analytics off on each blog where you want it.
• Private/incognito browsing. Some private browsing modes block localStorage. In that case, the setting can't be remembered, and your searches will be counted. The search bar itself still works normally.
• No effect on other readers. The opt-out only affects the browser where you typed the command. Your readers' searches continue to be counted as usual.
• Click-through events too. When analytics are off, clicks on search results are also excluded -- otherwise click-through analytics would still be biased.