Decoding B24_VIEW.html in Google Analytics: A Guide to Unfamiliar URLs

If you’re a website owner who uses Google Analytics, you’ve likely spent time scrutinizing your reports to understand your visitors’ behavior. But what do you do when an unfamiliar URL, like B24_VIEW.html, appears as one of your most popular pages? This mysterious entry can be confusing, making it seem like a large portion of your traffic is going to a page that doesn’t even exist on your site. The good news is, this isn’t a sign of a website error or a hack. It’s a known issue with how third-party platforms sometimes interact with Google Analytics.

This article will explain what B24_VIEW.html is, where it typically originates, and provide a clear, step-by-step guide on how to handle and filter it from your Google Analytics reports for a cleaner, more accurate view of your website’s performance.

What is B24_VIEW.html and Where Does It Come From?

The name B24_VIEW.html is a generic page path, most often a placeholder or a dynamically generated page from a third-party application or iFrame embedded on your website. This is particularly common with booking engines, internal user portals, or other web applications that live within a frame on your site. The B24 part of the name is likely an internal code or variable from the software that generated the page. In many cases, it’s related to a view or a specific action within that embedded application. For example, if your website in London has a third-party booking system for a local service, this URL could be an internal page for viewing a booking.

Why is It Showing Up in Google Analytics?

The reason B24_VIEW.html appears in your analytics is a technical one. Your website has its own Google Analytics tracking code (or GA4 tag), and the embedded third-party application often has its own separate tracking code. When a user interacts with the application, its tracking code fires and sends data to Google Analytics. However, because it’s an embedded frame, the data sent back sometimes contains only the application’s internal page path—in this case, B24_VIEW.html—and not the full URL of the parent page it’s on. This can lead to skewed reports where the unfamiliar URL looks like a top-performing page on your site.

How to Handle and Filter Out B24_VIEW.html

The best way to handle this issue is to clean up your data by creating a filter in Google Analytics. This will remove the unwanted entries and ensure your reports accurately reflect your website’s actual content.

Check Your Website’s Code

First, identify the source of the iFrame or third-party application that is generating this URL. You can do this by using your browser’s “Inspect” tool to look for iFrames in the source code of the pages where you suspect the application is embedded.

Create a Filter in Google Analytics

To exclude this page from your reports, you will need to create a filter.

• For Universal Analytics (GA3):
  1. Go to your GA3 Admin panel.
  2. In the “View” column, click on “Filters.”
  3. Click “Add Filter.”
  4. Name the filter something descriptive, like “Exclude B24_VIEW.html.”
  5. Select “Predefined filter” and choose “Exclude” from the first drop-down menu.
  6. Select “traffic to the hostname” or “traffic to the subdirectories.”
  7. Enter B24_VIEW.html in the “Filter Pattern” field.
  8. Save the filter.
• For Google Analytics 4 (GA4):
  1. Go to your GA4 Admin panel.
  2. Go to “Data Settings” > “Data Filters.”
  3. Create a new “Developer traffic” filter.
  4. Alternatively, you can use the built-in reporting filters by creating a new exploration report and applying a filter to exclude any page path that contains B24_VIEW.html.

Consider Using Google Tag Manager (Advanced)

For a more robust solution, you can use Google Tag Manager to control when your Google Analytics tag fires. You can create a trigger that prevents the tag from firing on pages that contain the embedded third-party application, or you can configure a specific tag just for that application that sends data to a separate GA property.

The Conclusion: Empower Action

Key Takeaways: Seeing B24_VIEW.html in your Google Analytics reports is a common issue caused by an embedded third-party application on your website. It is not an error but a side effect of how tracking is configured. The best solution is to create a filter in your Google Analytics property to exclude this URL, ensuring your reports are accurate and only show data from your actual website content.

Actionable Steps:

1. Identify the Source: Locate the third-party application on your website that is generating this URL.
2. Apply a Filter: Create an “Exclude” filter in your Google Analytics property, targeting the page path B24_VIEW.html.
3. Review Your Data: After applying the filter, check your reports again to confirm that the unwanted URL is no longer appearing and your data is clean.

Ready to clean up your analytics? Follow this guide to create your filter and start seeing a more accurate picture of your website’s performance!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is B24_VIEW.html a sign that my website has been hacked?

No, it is highly unlikely. The URL is a common placeholder from an embedded application. It is a data reporting issue, not a security one.

Will filtering this page affect other data in my reports?

No, creating an “Exclude” filter will only remove data related to that specific page path. All other data from your website will remain in your reports.

What if I see other strange URLs like this?

The same principle applies. If you see other unfamiliar URLs that you know are from embedded applications, you can create separate filters for them or use a regular expression to exclude multiple similar URLs in a single filter.

Why doesn’t Google Analytics filter this out automatically?

Google Analytics cannot know the difference between a valid page on your site and a placeholder from a third-party application. It reports the data it receives, which is why a manual filter is necessary.