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 do I setup a logged-in vs. non logged-in custom variable in Google Analytics?
I found an example of the snippet to use: __gaq.push(['.setCustomVar,
Reporting & Analytics | | Evan34
1, // first slot
'user-type', // custom variable name
'visitor', // custom variable value
2 // custom variable scope - session-level
]); Once the visitor logs into your website, we change this code, accordingly: __gaq.push(['.setCustomVar,
1, // first slot
'user-type', // custom variable name
'regular-user', // custom variable value
2 // custom variable scope - session-level
]); How does the code know to change from 'visitor' to 'regular user' once a user logs in? Is the snippet only placed on the login page?0 -
Adwords in google analytic Transaction showing more than actual adwords
Hello Experts, Compared to my google adwords account , transaction showing more in adwords for google analytic. May i know where i am going wrong? Thanks! Dev
Reporting & Analytics | | devdan0 -
I have just found that Google Analytics are suggesting everyone upgrade to their new Universal Analytics, will this affect my MOZ account? should I do it now or wait till they default the updgrade?
Here is the link from google developers https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/upgrade/guide#overview
Reporting & Analytics | | Jacquie_AegisSafety0 -
Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Setup for Agencies
Hi, As agencies, what are people finding to be the best practices for allowing multiple members of the agency's team to access client WMT and GA data? Have a generic "analytics@myagency.com" account that's used for the shares, that anyone in the agency can use as needed (limited, of course, not admin). Have the individual person at the company use their company email for the share for each particular client? employee@agency.com. Yet what happens when we need someone else to check the GA or WMT data? Any advice is much appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | Titan552
Thank you!0 -
Google Analytics Content Experiments
Has anyone else found that Google Analytics Content Experiments seems to quite quickly favor the best performing variant in an experiment, and then show that variant many times more often than other/s - not split the traffic evenly? What is Google's thinking behind 'optimizing' during an experiment? It seems odd to me.
Reporting & Analytics | | David_ODonnell0 -
How do I keep the SEOmoz bot from showing up in my Google Analytics?
I noticed today that we had a huge spike in visits on December 9th of this month. We are talking like 13,000 more visits. The network the visits were from was psinet inc. Any suggestions on how to keep these bots from registering in my Google Analytics? Is there an ip address I can exclude?
Reporting & Analytics | | Hosmercars0 -
How can I verify if someone is Google Analytics certified?
I am looking to hire an IC to help with analytics. I need to know how I can verify if they are GA certified. They gave me a link to a http://www.starttest.com profile. Is that legit?
Reporting & Analytics | | inhouseseo0