Google analytics question
-
Ok so in my traffic sources break down I have 3 sections: direct, organic, and referral. My question is under the referral tab I have recently noticed a new traffic source, my own website....
How is this possible? My top referring site is my own website.... Is this considered direct traffic or how is this being traced?
-
The other 2 areas that most frequently cause this kind of problem are cross-domain tracking and subdomain tracking.
Cross domain tracking usually comes from trying to track 3rd party shopping carts on eCommerce-oriented sites.
Subdomain errors come from adding a subdomain to your site and just adding the same tracking code to your subdomain pages as your main site.
In both of these instances, the tracking code needs to be customized slightly to collect the data correctly.
If your own website is the biggest source of referral traffic, you have a significant problem which needs to be tracked down. It means not only is your referral info incorrect, but a lot of your other stats (total visits, pages/visit. time per page, even bounce rate) are also incorrect.
Paul
-
It should also be noted that even with a completely proper setup of Google Analytics, some self-referrals are 'normal'. Anytime a user waits 30 minutes between clicks on your site, it will initiate a new session, and thus, a self-referral.
Obviously, it's not TOO common for this to happen, so your total self-referrals should always be a very small percentage of total referrals.
If you're seeing a LOT of self-referrals, as others have said, the most common cause is a page or pages that are missing the code.
-
If you are using WordPress hosted site and using All in SEO Plugin, just install the codvalue option. Sometimes installing your code in the theme might give you error like this.
Do not install twice, that might give you double traffic in google analystic.
-
I would agree with mememax - usually this means one or more pages doesn't have the Analytics code. They go to "your site" (with the Analytics), then they go to another site (no tag) and back to your site (with Analytics).
That cycle will create a "new" session - referred from your own domain, just a page without the code.
Good luck finding it!
-
Hi James, that seems weird. Are you sure that you've included the analytics code in all your webpages? Maybe one page don't have your code so analytics may think that is an external source even if it's an internal link... dig into your referral, see the url which sent the visit and check the html code.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to configure multilingual site in google analytic? Currently showing in Referral Traffic why?
Hello All, Currently my Multilingual site is showing in referral traffic is it because I have not added hreflang tag on site? If yes and if I add the hreflang tag on all sites when where it will show in google analytic traffic from international sites? And what type of configuration required in analytic? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | pragnesh96390 -
Google Analytics - Average Position
Hi Just trying to get some clarity on Google Analytics Average Positions in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation". For a very competitive keyword Google Analytics is saying i am on average position of 6. Is this Page 6? I am assuming position six would be 1.6?
Reporting & Analytics | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Universal Analytics & Google Tag Manager - Track URLs that include hashes
Does anyone have any experience tracking URLs that include hashes (#) using Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager? Can it be done using GTM's container for UA, using the "more settings" options? Or building another tag to work with the GTM UA container? The fallback I'm considering is implementing the UA code in GTM for every page as Custom HTML with the "ga('send', 'pageview', location.pathname + location.search + location.hash);" solution, rather than GTM's specialized UA tag. I'm not yet sure what problems may arise from that, if any. Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | 352inc0 -
Google Analytics Code
We have a quick question about our Google Analytics code: We recently updated to a re-marketing Analytics code, and some of our traffic numbers seem to be off by a bit. I used the Google Tag Assistant Chrome Extension today, and noticed that it's finding our old Analytics code on our pages, but it's coming up as an error due to "no HTTP Response". I am attempting to remove this code from the website, but it is nowhere to be found in the HTML coding. Only the current one is there. So I'm wondering if this second Analytics code is effecting our traffic and reporting, even if the code is currently non-functional? and if it is, how could I go about removing it if it's not currently in our HTML? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | PlanetDISH0 -
Using Google Analytics network service provider
Hi What are people's views on using the Technology > Network > Service provider part of Google Analytics as a way to find companies that have visited a website? Then potentially contact them companies etc? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Hughescov0 -
Google Analytics
Is there any way around being able to set up 20 goals in Analytics? What if one of my clients want to set up 10 pages with separate actions to track on each page. Will then each actions count as a separate goal? If this is the case, how could I work around creating more than 20 goals? Would I have to look into hiring/buying a third party or separate software? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | flcity150 -
Setting up goals - google analytics
Hi Im new user google analytics I would like to set up goal for website. I asked to basic questions: What are my bussiness objectives? Answer:make the visitor to click on a advertisment (affiliate links and affiliate banners) to be redirected to company website to finish purchase. How to set up goals? How can I track ads (affiliate banners and affiliate links) on my website?
Reporting & Analytics | | info_tipovanie-stavkovanie.com0 -
Google Analytics (not provided)
Hi A greater and greater % of clicks is showing as "not provided" - does any one know of any good external tracking software which will show this information? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | jj34340