When we begin to analyze the results of a website and the performance by each channel, as we indicate in a Web Analytics process, some things are easier to interpret than others.For example, if the traffic of the Social Networks channel fell or rose, we managed to enter a greater degree of detail, see exactly which network had variations and investigate the exact causes (there were more posts or fewer posts, the reach and the interactions fell or rose and so on). In SEO , even though the (not provided) hides some things, it is possible to have an idea of keywords that vary in ranking or Landing Pages that received less traffic.Direct traffic is already something that leaves many professionals lost. Normally we understand as direct traffic that where someone wrote the website address on their own initiative in the browser, not arriving by clicks from any other source. When that source of traffic has variations, Denmark Phone Number List generally find it difficult to make an interpretation of what in fact led people to enter the website less or more and what explains that behavior.Our idea with this article is to show you a little better various items that impact direct traffic and how you can understand them a little better.How Google Analytics Identifies TrafficTo credit traffic to one source or another, Google Analytics searches for information in two different ways, one in the sequence of the other.
1 – The first one is the URL itself. Normally Google does not find anything here, but perhaps it finds, this will be the source that will prioritize and credit the traffic. This is done through a system in which companies can place a kind of “label” on the link they promote to identify the origin of the shape as they want.Basically it is possible to place parameters in the URL of the link that force Google Analytics to mark a specific source in the event that there is a click on it.For example, the not have any markup and Google Analytics would continue to step 2 to identify the source of traffic.In the case of theutm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=home , regardless of the click happening on Facebook, Google or any website, the parameters indicated there will force Google to understand that the click came from an email newsletter .Professionals do this to better identify the results of specific campaigns and it is always valid to label banners, advertisements, email campaigns, etc. To create this label, just use the URL Builder , from Google.
2 – In most cases, the links are not labeled and Google Analytics starts with the second form of identification: the page reference.When you load a page in the browser, Google makes a request for a server to deliver that page, and that request includes a field in the header that identifies the address where the link was. It is basically that heading and what was indicated in the reference that Google Analytics reads to infer where the visitor came from.In practice, whenever GA (Google Analytics) does not have this information and cannot interpret it, it credits the visit as direct traffic.What are the factors that disturb direct trafficUnderstanding how direct traffic is counted in Google Analytics, it is possible to perceive that there is a margin of error and that what appears as direct traffic is not always the definition that the Denmark Phone Number List uses: people who entered the address in the browser.It is very common for direct traffic to get “dirty” with some faults:Google Analytics installation errors can get in the way. Imagine that someone clicks on a link and a page of the website arrives that does not have Google Analytics installed correctly. From that page the person clicks and goes to home or any other. The origin information is lost and the traffic is counted as directErrors when defining parameters, such as writing utm-source instead of utm_source, can cause the source to be credited as direct traffic.Much of the mobile traffic (which only continues to grow) comes from applications rather than websites. And the applications do not pass the reference code, entering as direct traffic.Page redirects through redirect 302 instead of redirect 301 also do not pass the origin properly. We already talked about redirects here.Links that are encoded within a javascript may not pass the reference information in the header. More direct traffic!On the other hand, the original direct traffic is also often not counted. This happens because, from the moment the user reaches the website and Google Analytics determines the source of traffic, they receive a cookie, a kind of seal that identifies the origin, among other things.The problem occurs because direct traffic, unlike all the others, does not overwrite the cookie and ends up crediting the visit to the same previous source.If someone came to your website by clicking on an Adwords campaign, for example, and a week later entered the site by typing the address in the browser, the visit will be counted more than once as coming from Adwords. That is why many people who have already made announcements and stopped, still continue to see some paid visits in the GA even after they stopped investing.
