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
-
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!!
Reporting & Analytics | | SarahLK0 -
Complete loss of Organic visits within Google Analytics??
Hey guys, I have a pressing query that's really puzzled me! I've just been going through Google Analytics and noticed that there has been a complete drop off of all my organic visitors from May 7. All other traffic mediums are unaffected so there is no issue with the Analytics code recording visits. I haven't received any penalty and my rankings have actually improved in the last month. This is proper bizarre. Any ideas? MjLmL70.png
Reporting & Analytics | | Webrevolve0 -
Google Analytics shows most referrers as "Direct" -- What are some better tools?
Very often Google Analytics will show 50-90% of our referrers as (direct) which is not very helpful. Are there other tools out there that will provide a clearer breakdown of what other websites are sending us our traffic? Specifically, I want to be able to be able to tell who are the top traffic referrers to my top performing pages on my site for the last 30 days. (I want to be able to study this on a per-page basis.) Thanks in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | Brand_Psychic0 -
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 Tracking Code Problems
I am having a problem with my Google Analytics tracking codes. The relevant GA tracking codes have been entered into the source code of certain sites I'm running campaigns on, but Google Analytics is still telling me that the tracking code hasn't been installed - yet it has. What could possibly be the problem here? I have checked that these sites don't run off multiple domains, and that the tracking code has been entered in the correct place within the source code - and yet I am still having problems with GA. Any suggestions?
Reporting & Analytics | | WebhouseISP0 -
Linking My Google analytics with visual.ly
Hello, I have a quick question: Is it secure and safe to link my Google Analytics account with Visual.ly here's the link: https://create.visual.ly/graphic/google-analytics I want to create easy-to-understand report from Google Analytics and if you have any experience with this service can you share it with me please. Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Google Analytics VS target="_blank" internal links: How much wrong is it?
I am working on an e-commerce website, and our CEO is sure that having target="_blank" in internal search result is boosting the conversion (not sure, but it's not an issue at the moment). The problem is that Google Analytics sees all URLs visited from search results as entrances/direct visits, hence the Booking Funnel Tracking does not work as it was supposed to. Is there any way to recover the tracking? Or we shall get the rid of target="_blank" attribute?
Reporting & Analytics | | apartmentGin0 -
Using Google Analytics for tracking statistics of the HOMEpage
Hello, Lets say I have a website with the HOMEpage being http://www.page.com. There are various subpages e.g. http://www.page.com/page1, http://www.page.com/page2, http://www.page.com/page3 . Now when I use Google Analytics it gives me all kind of statistics for the subpages shown as /page1 /page2 /page3 ... (relative path). According to this pattern the HOMEpage should be just "/". Unfortunately I can't find "/" in any statistics. Is this normal? Thanks in advance
Reporting & Analytics | | guitarslinger0