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 filter all computers on a specific IPv6 network in Google Analytics?
Is there a quick way of filtering the IP addresses for all the computers on a network that's using IPv6? I want to filter out visits to our websites from the devices on our office network, but each computer (and phone and tablet) seems to have a different address. It _looks _like they all start the same way, though. One computer is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:aaaa:aaaa:aaaa:aaaa, another is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:bbbb:bbbb:bbbb:bbbb, my phone is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:cccc:cccc:cccc:cccc, etc. Does this mean that xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx is the address for our network as a whole, and I can just set up a Google Analytics filter for "IP addresses starting with..."? Or would doing that also filter out hits from, like, every visitor within a 20 mile radius of our office? If I need to simply put in the individual addresses for each and every device, I will. I'm just hoping it doesn't come to that. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | BrianAlpert780 -
Tracking Google places (7 pack listing) traffic in google analytics
Is there a way to see Google Places traffic (traffic from users clicking through the 7 pack listings) segmented in Google analytics ? Normally is it just lumped together with the organic traffic ? Can you see the search phrases used to find your site, or do they also show up under 'not provided' when from Google Places. Im aware i can see some limited data in the Google Places analytics, but these seem to be 2 days behind when ever i view them.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sam-P0 -
Discrepancy between FB PPC and Google Analytics
This question was answered in 2011 here: http://moz.com/community/q/facebook-ppc-number-of-clicks-according-to-fb-different-than-visits-in-analytics. Wanted to post it to the community to see if anyone had any new thoughts in the last 3 years. I have been running campaigns on Facebook and seeing dramatic discrepancies between Facebook and GA's numbers. For example, I ran a Facebook ad campaign for a chiropractor where FB shows 35 clicks to the website, but GA only shows 2! An attorney ran a Facbook promotion, got 4 clients who actually filled out a questionnaire online, but GA only showed 2 visitors exiting off the form completion page. Is this because the users did not have JS/cookies enabled? Something else? What is the recommended work around? Tracking URL?
Reporting & Analytics | | aj6130 -
Google Maps not passing referral data
Google Maps is not passing referral data (URLs, not KWs). Google+ Local is referring, but nothing from maps. Maps referrals appear to be coming across as direct. Any ideas? We haven't found anything online, one of the guys at the office documented what we did find, using Chrome's debugger - http://manofactionmetrics.com/2012/11/02/google-maps-not-passing-any-referral-data/
Reporting & Analytics | | Danieljacobree0 -
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 -
Google Analytics Custom Reports eMails only one reporting tab
Goog Morning from 18 degrees C mostly cloudy Wetherby UIK 🙂 I'm on a mission to get away from manual reporting and move over to eMailing custom Google analytics reports. Thanks to this tutorail http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2175001/7-Time-Saving-Google-Analytics-Custom-Reports Ive made good progress but ive hit a snag. The snag being when i email the report the recipient only recieves one 1 report tab of data. This causes a problem when you eMail a report that has multiple reporting tabs like this: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/tab-export-custom-problemcopy.jpg So my question is please..."When you eMail a recipient a custom report how can you ensure they receive "All" the reporting tabs data and not just one"? Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Google Analytics Alternatives
I am getting really fed up with how unreliable Google Analytics data is. Also, because I have several large sites I can't use the goal tracking or conversion funnel reports. What are the best alternatives to Google Analytics?
Reporting & Analytics | | mascotmike0 -
Google Analytics' Goals and Cold Fusion
We are having an issue tracking goal completions in GA with a cold fusion site. I would like to know if anyone as had similar issues and found a solution.
Reporting & Analytics | | JamesBarry0