Android Webview & Safari (in-app) without any referrer information in Google Analytics
-
I've got a client that gets a considerable amount of traffic that:
- Enters on an interior page (that we are running properly tagged ads for on various platforms)
- Bounces
- Has a browser of either Android Webview or Safari (in-app) which I believe indicates the website is being viewed within a mobile app
- Has no referrer data: (direct) / (none)
We've tested several scenarios (Facebook app, Gmail app, etc.) and ruled them out. Anyone know what this might be?
Thanks in advance!!
-
Oh, excellent work!
Good to know for the future!
-
UPDATE: We were able to get tracking code on the Pandora ads and determined that it was the source of nearly all of those visits. So, it WAS Pandora all along.
-
Ah, that's interesting!
We don't get Pandora over here in the UK so it's been a while since I touched it. Does it still require/run in flash? That might go some way to explaining weird referrer data...
-
Hey! I haven't resolved the issue yet, but I'm working with the client to add some tracking to all of their Pandora ads. I'm thinking that might be the culprit. Turns out the are running several ad types so there are some that may not be tagged after all.
The implementation isn't the issue, because the only time we see this 11 issue is from this specific traffic source. Everything else behaves normally and typically aligns with metrics we get from other sources.
I will definitely keep you posted about updates. (And will probably throw a party when I finally get it resolved!)
-
Hey Sarah,
Just checking back to see if you're still struggling with this?
-
Hah!
Ah, now, that's particularly interesting. Got a link to the site handy? Might be worth exploring the implementation.
-
The more I learn about this, the less I know.
It appears that each individual session is actually being counted as 11 sessions. Unless, of course, 11 people from the same small town visited the website on the same day, viewed the same pages and entered the exact same typo into the coupon code box.
Everything my mystery traffic does appears to happen in multiples of 11. I'd love to think that it's just the Internet reminding me that Spinal Tap is awesome, but I suspect there may be more to it.
-
Yikes, definitely sounds like there's some exploring to be done!
I'm going to see if I can rope in some smart people to help, and get back to you.
-
Thank you so much for your response!
Yep. I've looked at it by screen resolution, device, location, ISP, demographics...just about everything. Every indication is that this is NOT bot traffic. The distribution percentages of the various attributes are all fairly similar to the "regular" traffic. The only exception is that my phantom traffic appears to be a little older. The traffic patterns also follow the regular traffic, and those patterns are usually influenced by offline advertising efforts.
This feels like some kind of rogue mobile ad campaign, but we have ruled out all mobile campaigns that we are knowingly running (Facebook, Instagram, Google Display on Pandora, etc.). We are also seeing bounce rates significantly higher than the rest of our mobile campaign traffic which would theoretically rule out the possibility that our tracking code is getting stripped out somehow on some of our campaigns. We have ruled out both promotional and transactional emails.
This is easily the most frustrating analytics mystery I've ever encountered!
-
Hey there,
My gut feeling is that this sounds like bot traffic.
Many generic systems represent themselves as safari-compatible agents, given that this is one of the main mobile web platforms.
I'd be interested in understanding how this traffic looks when you segment it by other attributes; specifically, screen resolution, colour depth and a few other of the 'system' variables in GA tend to give some good clues as to whether this is human or bot traffic. Have you explored these variables, and seen unusual patterns (such as everybody using the same browser, or the same screen resolution)?
Even if there's variation in these areas, it's worth looking at the patterns over time - there are a lot of systems which, for example, monitor site performance, and as part of this legitimately emulate a variety of browsers... However, they tend to do so consistently, e.g,. at the same time of day.
I'd definitely do some digging to see if you can see patterns which suggest that this isn't real traffic, and then, either way, work out what the next steps are.
I presume that you've enabled the setting in your GA profile to exclude common bots/agents?
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
-
Is there a way to apply the same google analytics filter to multiple properties?
I manage WordPress multiple sites for my clients. Some of these clients are SEO customers. One issue I have with the analytics reports is the occurrence of spam and ghost spam. I know how to create filters to block however there are always more and more. Is there away to export the filter and import it to all the other properties i manage? Or do they just have to be done manually every time i need to block spam?
Reporting & Analytics | | donsilvernail1 -
Tag Manager & Universal Analytics Code - Do you need both?
Hi Mozzers I've created a container for a domain in Google Tag Manager. Within that container I've created a tag for universal analytics with track type "Page view" and the firing rule "all pages". Can I then replace the Universal Analytics code with the tag manager code? Would it still track all the normal data in Google Analytics? There are no events setup up yet so that's not a concern but there are goals setup tracking which are triggered by a page view. Would they be affected? Thanks Anthony
Reporting & Analytics | | Tone_Agency1 -
What's the final word on Image Search tracking in Google Analytics?
Sorry if this has been answered but I can't seem to get a straight answer to my questions by searching around. How is traffic referred by Google Images counted in Google Analytics? I know it used to be referral traffic from google.com/imgres. A lot of things I have read say that it should all be under google/organic now, but my site still gets referral traffic from google.com/imgres, so that can't be. However I also get traffic as google/organic that I am pretty sure is from image search, because we don't rank for the keyword normally, but we do for image search. What's the deal? How is traffic from an embedded image in a regular result page counted? How can I segment my image search traffic better? It would be great to see image search traffic as it's own medium. I found a script here -- http://jrom.net/google-images-in-google-analytics -- that looks promising, has anyone used it or can recommend another way? I haven't used the GA API very much so I want to make sure the script is kosher and won't screw up my numbers.
Reporting & Analytics | | tact0 -
Viewing 'overall' data for multiple Google Analytics accounts
Is there any way you can view data from all of your Google Analytics accounts? For example, if I wanted to view know how much mobile traffic all my sites had, could I do this? Rather than just looking at each site individually. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | intSchools0 -
Exporting Keywords in Google Analytics
In the old Google Analytics, I would simply add &limit=30000 in the URL. Does anyone know how to export all keywords from the new Google Analytics?
Reporting & Analytics | | TommySwanson520 -
No Social Sources in Google Analytics - what am I doing wrong?
Hello Everyone, I'm having a strange issue: I DO NOT have in my Google Analytics the "Social" tab under the Traffic Sources category. Look at the first image of this post: http://marketingland.com/google-analytics-social-reports-8138 How do you "get" that to show? Hope somebody has this issue and can help, Thanks a lot, Alex
Reporting & Analytics | | pwpaneuro0 -
Google analytics advanced segments
Ok, I need help with a simple (although, for some reason, I'm having trouble with it) advanced segment. Dilemma**:** All of our techs have a backend cookie that they use to log into our website. I want a way toexclude all visites where the landing page contained this in the url:/backend/cookie.php?username= Advanced Segment: We have a lot of techs and each one of them has a different "username=example". So how can I set up an advanced segment where it will exclude any visit where the visitor came in one a landing page containing /backend/cookie.php?username=
Reporting & Analytics | | NerdsOnCall0 -
Google Shopping & Keyword Tracking
When tracking Google Shopping using the URL builder is it possible to pull through the Keyword used or will analytic do this automatically?
Reporting & Analytics | | TPSUK1