Large Drop in Direct Traffic

[AxlsCloset]

We recently experienced a large drop in direct traffic.  Search and referral traffic remained steady but direct traffic dropped by over half. I'm having trouble pinpointing what would have caused this drop.  Any ideas or suggestions for investigating the cause in a drop of direct traffic?

[MarieHaynes]

Not sure if this is it, but I have found that if something gets shared via Addthis (i.e. on FB, Twitter, email, etc.) that the visits that come as a result get counted as direct.  Is it possible that you have had a drop in social shares?

[BenFox]

Sweet answer. I would add that it could be that you've turned off re-targeting, social or some other form of advertising that was getting eyeballs but not clicks.

However see Mat's answer first because he's hit the nail on the head.

[matbennett]

Sudden changes in direct traffic can be down to tracking issues. Direct is always a weird one, as it is almost a label for "don't know".

Changes in how you tag links can have an effect. If, for instance, you start adding campaign tracking emails to your mail traffic that was previously showing as direct could switch to email.  Another one I have seen mess with the figures is redirects.

Questions I would start with are:

• Has total traffic changed?
• Have any other sources had a corresponding upwards trend (you mentioned search & referral - anything in campaign?)
• Any changes on site corresponding with the change?