Add newly created specific folder to .gitignore in Git

Try /public_html/stats/* ?

But since the files in git status reported as to be commited that means you've already added them manually. In which case, of course, it's a bit too late to ignore. You can git rm --cache them (IIRC).

From "git help ignore" we learn:

If the pattern ends with a slash, it is removed for the purpose of the following description, but it would only find a match with a directory. In other words, foo/ will match a directory foo and paths underneath it, but will not match a regular file or a symbolic link foo (this is consistent with the way how pathspec works in general in git).

Therefore what you need is

public_html/stats/

For this there are two cases

Case 1: File already added to git repo.

Case 2: File newly created and its status still showing as untracked file when using

git status

If you have case 1:

STEP 1: Then run

git rm --cached filename 

to remove it from git repo cache

if it is a directory then use

git rm -r --cached  directory_name

STEP 2: If Case 1 is over then create new file named .gitignore in your git repo

STEP 3: Use following to tell git to ignore / assume file is unchanged

git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file.txt

STEP 4: Now, check status using git status open .gitignore in your editor nano, vim, geany etc... any one, add the path of the file / folder to ignore. If it is a folder then user folder_name/* to ignore all file.

If you still do not understand read the article git ignore file link.