We recently increased conversions on The Cabin Luggage CO. website by 600% — and potentially even more.

That’s the headline.

But what’s just as important is what came next:

When you start seeing strong results, you need to make sure your analytics are telling you the truth.

Because if your data is distorted, your decisions will be too.

This is something I spotted early one morning while checking analytics at Manchester Airport, and it’s an issue that could be affecting more Shopify stores than most people realise.

The Problem: Why Are We Getting Traffic from Iowa?

We don’t target the US at all.

Yet in the analytics, we were seeing sessions from:

Council Bluffs, Iowa

Which raised an obvious question:

Where is this traffic coming from, and why is it showing up in the store reports?

The Answer: Shopify Performance Testing Traffic

Visits from Council Bluffs, Iowa to a Shopify store are often not real customers.

In many cases, this traffic is automated — generated by Shopify’s performance testing tools.

It’s not malicious traffic.

It’s not bots trying to buy.

It’s essentially system-generated traffic created to test site performance.

Why Council Bluffs Specifically Shows Up

Council Bluffs is linked to Google’s data centre infrastructure, and Shopify uses that environment to test store speed and performance regularly.

So if you see traffic coming from that location, it may be Shopify testing your site — not actual people shopping.

Why This Matters: It Can Distort Your Analytics

Even if the traffic is harmless, it can still affect your reporting.

Automated sessions can inflate visitor numbers, which can distort key metrics such as:

• conversion rate

• session counts

• geographic performance

• traffic quality analysis

• attribution and reporting

It’s one of those analytics details that’s easy to ignore — until you’re relying on those numbers to guide decisions.

What You Can Do About It

If you want cleaner reporting, you can exclude Council Bluffs traffic using filters inside Shopify analytics.

The goal isn’t to “fix” Shopify.

It’s simply to make sure your store data reflects real customer behaviour, not system testing.

If you’re making optimisation decisions, this is worth checking.

A 600% Conversion Lift Still Matters (Even More With Cleaner Data)

Despite the analytics distortion, what matters most is that the conversion improvements we made for The Cabin Luggage Company are real — and the momentum is strong.

This is exactly why we focus on consistent CRO work:

• better decision-making for customers

• clearer product pages

• stronger trust signals

• smoother buying journeys

• and better onsite experience overall

A 600% increase doesn’t come from luck.

It comes from implementing the fundamentals properly and improving the store step by step.

Final Thought: Better Decisions Start With Better Data

One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce teams make is trusting every number they see without questioning where it came from.

Before you optimise, scale ads, or judge performance, make sure your analytics reflect real behaviour.

Because the cleaner the data, the smarter the decisions.

And smarter decisions are what drive the next 600% improvement.