Main Website Redirects to Mobile Website, Mobile Website counts this as direct traffic, is there a way to tell what the source/medium is?
-
Hello,
The situation is that someone is arriving on my main website https://www.example.com and being redirected to http://m.example.com. When this happens my analytics says that the traffic is all direct coming to my mobile site. However, I know people clicking on my google cpc, and some google organic users are hitting the main website and being redirected. Before we didn't have as good of a redirect on our main website so I could tell organic and cpc traffic coming in, now my main website has a huge drop in these categories because they are redirecting to mobile but I can't tell on my mobile how much traffic from each is going to the mobile site.
Is there a way to fix this? Is it because my main website is https:// and mobile is a http:// (as I know that sometimes makes traffic direct) or is it a bigger problem that can't be resolved?
Thanks
-
Please tell me that you're using rel="alternate" tags for your desktop site and rel="canoncial" tags on the mobile site.
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/separate-urls?hl=en
If you're not, you need to implement ASAP. Make sure you're following all of the guidelines in the linked document.
Issues like this are why I typically recommend responsive sites for all but the best-staffed mega e-com sites. You need to redirect page to page - not from a category to the home page or something. You also need to make sure your canonical and alternate tags are absolutely perfect. I'd also recommending annotating the mobile site as directed above in the sitemap, especially if you've seen issues in the past.
Out of curiousity, what kind of redirects are you using? They should be 301, 302, or JavaScript redirects, because that's what Google supports. If these are done on the server side (and both versions have analytics installed) you should preserve the landing page info. Note that all redirects should redirect to the page indicated in rel="alternate" lest you give Google the wrong signal.
Read over the guidelines and let me know if you have any questions. If the guidelines are implemented correctly Google will rank your mobile site for mobile users, which will cut down on the redirects. This thread may also be helpful on how to implement redirects:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/analytics/KQ2RPsLR35Y
-
Hi.
Tag it with GA campaign tracking. I know it will be a little weird for users to see strange parameters, but nobody pays much attention to browser address bar anyway.
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
-
Best way to present Google Analytic Reports
Hi Everyone, I’m just looking to produce some quite detailed reports for our google analytic can someone suggest a format or templates for the best way to present this information. Also can someone suggest what the best variables are to capture from a reporting perspective. We don’t sell on line so im just aliitle bit curious about what to include in terms of conversions etc
Reporting & Analytics | | aplnz20170 -
Tracking sessions from a sub-domain that is 301 redirected to main domain
Hi, one of my client is launching a new site on a subdomain newsite.brand.com.au but will use a shorter URL on the packaging on their new rang of products to be sold in supermarkets, prompting shoppers to visit xxx.brand.com.au. This specific sub-domain xxx.brand.com.au will be 301 redirecting to newsite.brand.com.au How can I identify and track accurrately all the visits coming from xxx.brand.com.au to newsite.brand.com.au?The visits from sub-domain xxx.brand.com.au will be attributed to direct channel I guess. Is it worth adding GA on this 301 redirected sub-domain xxx.brand.com.au or there another way to identify those visits on newsite.brand.com.au ?
Reporting & Analytics | | mecglobal0 -
How do I track specific referral traffics journey through a website?
Hello, A client has asked us to track the journey each separate referral traffic visitor takes through out the website. I have had a look through analytics and am not sure how to ensure I can do this for all referral traffic visitors? Can anyone help? Thank you.
Reporting & Analytics | | mblsolutions0 -
Traffic drops considerable at midnight
Hi can any one tell me why traffic drops at the same time each day, at around midnight until 8.30 am website traffic drops off. We target the UK and the USA, we have geo target set for the UK in webmaster. Thanks for your help
Reporting & Analytics | | Taiger0 -
Huge Spike in Direct Traffic from IE7
Our site is seeing a huge spike in direct (none) traffic from IE 7 from July 8, 2014 - on. June 25 - July 7 showed 21 direct visits from IE 7; July 8 - July 20 is showing 5,889 (an increase of 27,943%). All traffic from the spike is going to our homepage. Other Google Analytics' stats for this direct (none) IE 7 traffic: Bounce Rate: 99.52%
Reporting & Analytics | | SJVC_Susie
Avg. Session Duration: 0:02
Pages/session: 1.01
Mostly all new users What's strange is that the traffic is from a variety of cities and networks. What could be causing this? Has anyone experienced this before?0 -
Amazon.com inc.increase in direct traffic
Hi All, I have seen a increase of direct traffic from hostname amazon.com inc. This only happened on one day. Any ideas what/why it is? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Sayers0 -
Sudden Drop in Direct Traffic
We recently had a some changes to our site, adding new sub categories, moving products around, etc... We implemented the changes on Thursday of last week and had a normal day around 800+ visitors. The very next day our # of visitors dropped in half to around 400+ and has stayed that way all weekend. I thought it might be that some links may have changed but I checked all of the links and they are the same as before with the exception of new pages. I checked to make sure that the google analytics code was still in the code and it is. I read that it could be DNS propagation timing issue but it's been 3 days and nothing's changed. I'm fairly certain that we are not being penalized or pandalized by google as our referrals and organic search results have not changed only the amount of direct traffic. Anyone have any ideas on what to look at or what to do?
Reporting & Analytics | | LizIslCo0 -
Not displaying traffic data
Hello! For my site http://systemfarmer.hu i have connected GA accout.
Reporting & Analytics | | systemfarmer
But if I try to access traffic data, it just keeps loading. Any idea? Regards, Laszlo0