WordPress Popular Posts - Prevent Users from Inflating Views Count

[WordPress Popular Posts] Prevent Users from Inflating Views Counts.md

Add this function to your theme's functions.php file to prevent users from inflating the views count of a post or page by repeatedly hitting F5 / browser's refresh key.

Basically, this script will check whether the visitor has already seen a specific post/page today and if so it'll signal WordPress Popular Posts not to track any repeat visits for the day. The script stores this "viewed" data in localStorage, including the date of the visit.

Please note that this is not a bullet proof solution. Some more savvy users may find a way to work around it so feel free to modify it / improve it as you see fit.

functions.php

<?php

/**
 * Prevent users from inflating the views count of a post
 * or page by repeatedly hitting F5 / browser's refresh key.
 */
function wpp_maybe_skip_pageview_tracking() {
	if ( is_singular() ) {
		?>
		<script>
			(function() {
				const today = new Date(),
					post_id = <?php echo (int) get_queried_object_id() ?>,
					storage = localStorage.getItem('wpp_views'),
					currDate = today.getFullYear() + '-' + (today.getMonth() + 1) + '-' + today.getDate(),
					defaults = {
						date: currDate,
						viewed: [post_id]
					};

				let data = null;

				if ( storage ) {
					data = JSON.parse(storage);
					const storedDate = data.date;

					/** Views data is still current, should we track this pageview? */
					if ( currDate == storedDate ) {
						/** Post hasn't been tracked yet */
						if ( ! data.viewed.includes(post_id) ) {
							data.viewed.push(post_id);
						}
						/** Post already tracked today, bail */
						else {
							window.wpp_do_request = false;
						}
					}
					/** Old views data, reset */
					else {
						data = defaults;
					}
				}
				/** No views data yet */
				else {
					data = defaults;
				}

				localStorage.setItem('wpp_views', JSON.stringify(data));
			})();
		</script>
		<?php
	}
}
add_action('wp_head', 'wpp_maybe_skip_pageview_tracking', 1);