Title: Filtering
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Filtering

 *  Plugin Author [helenthomaswp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/helenthomaswp/)
 * (@helenthomaswp)
 * [13 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/filtering-3/)
 * If you need your traffic stats to be more accurate, you should use the Automatic
   Traffic Filter on the Widget. However, the internet is full of spiders, crawlers
   and all kind of robots not authenticating themselves as machines. Furthermore,
   it is very difficult to verify the signature of each and every robot visiting
   your blog… But there is a pretty good solution to this. I cannot access the root
   directory of your blog through WordPress install API, so you will have to do 
   the following things by yourself:
 * 1. Create a robots.php file on the root directory of your blog: ie public_html/
   your-blog/
    Paste the following code in it:
 *     ```
       <?php
       session_start();
       $_SESSION['wtcrobot'] = 1;
       echo file_get_contents('robots.txt');
       exit;
       ?>
       ```
   
 * 1. Open .htaccess file in the same directory and paste this in it:
 * RewriteRule robots\.txt robots.php
 * 1. Make sure you have the ‘RewriteEngine On’ clause in place…
 * 1. Make sure you have a robots.txt file, even an empty one, on the root directory
 * Done! Most of the robots will be filtered out by TSW.
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/traffic-stats-widget/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/traffic-stats-widget/)

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [townsbg](https://wordpress.org/support/users/townsbg/)
 * (@townsbg)
 * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/filtering-3/#post-3464069)
 * I have several questions:
    1) Please elaborate on the ‘RewriteEngine On’ clause.
   What file does that go in and what is the syntax? 2) The backslash looks oddly
   placed to me. Please confirm that it is in the correct location. 3) I have a 
   forum on my domain and I am using the robots.txt file. If I am reading these 
   commands right the file will be overwritten. Please confirm that the file will
   be left as is.
 * Forgive my ignorance but I am just starting to use WordPress and I want to make
   sure that I get it right. With my limited understanding you instructions seem
   incomplete.
 * [My WP](http://generaldiscussionsforum.com/wp/)

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Filtering’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/traffic-stats-widget.svg)
 * [Plugin Name: Traffic Stats Widget Plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/traffic-stats-widget/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/traffic-stats-widget/#faq)
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 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [townsbg](https://wordpress.org/support/users/townsbg/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/filtering-3/#post-3464069)
 * Status: not resolved