Direct Traffic has Drastically Increased
-
Hi,
I have noticed in Google analytics that direct traffic of one of my website is increased drastically. I didn't participate in Email Marketing or any other paid campaigns however direct traffic is continuously increasing. I checked all sources, locations, browsers, filters etc but didn't get any findings.
Please help.
-
Hi Ruchi,
Take a look at this article that shows you how to add an exclude filter in GA that will exclude spam traffic from your reports: https://www.optimizesmart.com/geek-guide-removing-referrer-spam-google-analytics/
You can also set up a second filter to make sure that the traffic hitting your site is actually trying to access your host name as opposed to hitting your GA tracking code. Check out this article to see how to do that: https://www.distilled.net/resources/quick-fix-for-referral-spam-in-google-analytics/
We had a bunch of ghost spam and referer spam on our sites hit by free-share-buttons and free-social-buttons. These 2 filters knocked those numbers out of our reports. The crazy thing is trying to explain to your client that those visits are not real visits and that some aren't even hitting your server, they are just hitting your GA code. Once you put in these 2 filters you can see your true traffic. Keep an eye on your refer info to add new spam referers as they appear in your reports.
Once you see your true traffic, you will also get better metrics for your bounce rate and time on page etc...
Hope that helps! Message me if you need help setting up a filter.
Cheers!
-Erick -
Ok David.
Thanks for you time. Much appreciated.
-
That almost certainly indicates Spam to me, there isn't much more of an indication for Direct traffic.
I'd suggest applying the filter and seeing what happens over the next couple of days and if it is still happening would require further investigation.
-
Bounce Rate is 97.32% with 00:00:18 avg session duration.
-
What sort of bounce rate are you getting from the Direct Traffic?
-
Thanks for your respond. I have crosschecked and found no spam traffic. You can check the snapshot of the traffic.
-
If the bounce rate is incredibly high this could be a form of spam, it has been on the rise recently.
The way to filter it out of your analytics is to create an 'Include' filter.
You can read a MOZ blog post on it here with instructions on how to create the filter: https://moz.com/blog/stop-ghost-spam-in-google-analytics-with-one-filter
We have used it and it worked for us
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 to configure multilingual site in google analytic? Currently showing in Referral Traffic why?
Hello All, Currently my Multilingual site is showing in referral traffic is it because I have not added hreflang tag on site? If yes and if I add the hreflang tag on all sites when where it will show in google analytic traffic from international sites? And what type of configuration required in analytic? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | pragnesh96390 -
Direct Traffic Spike
In February, I transferred an HTML site to a WordPress Platform. Since then, Direct traffic has spiked to nearly 400% since the WordPress transition. The Direct traffic spike took roughly 2 months before it started to kick in. Does anyone know what this could be attributed to?
Reporting & Analytics | | SteveZero120 -
Senuke and traffic generator program is a good idea?? I think i got some problems now.
First of all thanks for reading, especially if you are the one whose bright ideas will help me out:) I started using senuke xcr about 3 months ago, obviously at the beginning i didnt make much success(not like I do now). Later i bought that inferno thingy and it actually works. First 2 weeks didnt make much difference(although i could see some little but stable uprising) but after 4th week ended, the average impression and queries doubled up, 6th went up again, its like every week or two it jumps up and keeps it there. Also the actual traffic from keywords went up! When about the second week finished, i started using a traffic generator program, first it leveled out the impressions and seemed to help a bit. Lately i think it messed it all up, plus about 2 weeks ago there was 2-3 dayswhen i sent a bit more traffic than usual and around that time the average rising of impressions didnt happened, it might even went down. Now i stopped using traffic g. and everything stayed the same no improvement!! Anyone could help me? I need to get it moving up again! Also im still nowhere near the top as the keywords are competitive well at least for me. What do i do wrong and what should i do? Also what about traffic generator? ps is it safe or/and or allowed to write that? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Sugafree0 -
False inflation in traffic
Hi- We are seeing an inflation in our traffic via Webgain in Germany. Our team in Germany does not use Webgains Our team in the US does not participate in any affiliate networks/programs Any ideas on why we would be seeing this inflation in just one region?
Reporting & Analytics | | K2_Sports0 -
Increase number of pages crawled
Only one page is being crawled, how do I increase the number to include most of our site?
Reporting & Analytics | | NorthCoast0 -
Strange traffic - panda, penguin? Screenshots attached.
Hi, I'm unsure if I've been hit by penguin/panda. I've attached screenshots below. The first one is April 1st to today. The second is all of April and the 3rd is 1st June to today. The site was offline at the beginning of July which explains no traffic. My traffic took a dip though on April 6th which as I understand it wasn't a panda/penguin roll out? I then got hardly any traffic for May to mid June. Then the site was offline due to a server problem but when it came back on traffic was the highest it has ever been. Today however I am getting zero search engine traffic? I can't figure out what's going on. Can anyone shed any light on the issue? DTJXE DTJXE Dpj21 qHTpj
Reporting & Analytics | | SamCUK0 -
Traffic dropped 75% - Panda 2 Penalized?
Hello everyone, My e-commerce website traffic dropped by 75% overnight, on April 12th. The website has been around since 2003 and growing every year. Over the years gained some great placement for some competitive keywords and stayed on page 1 for some time. After the Panda update, some of our major keywords dropped from page 1 to page 10. The first Panda update had a slightly negative effect on us, by bumping up all the brand's websites (brands we carry) placing the brands in the first couple positions (giving them 2-3 first spots) pushing us down. However, the Panda 2 killed us. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on my situation. Did anyone ever have luck or would recommend contacting Google, and asking them for advise or reasons why the site was dropped. The website in question is www.instyleswimwear.com Thanks in advance,
Reporting & Analytics | | AlexGop
Alex0 -
For an optimized site, any available stats / guesstimates on what is avg % of traffic to homepage vs. second-level pages?
I'm interested in passing this info on to a client who experienced a period of time when an incorrect GA code was installed on their homepage. They were able to get Google stats on second level pages only. This is a site that gets 80 + % of visits from organic search engine referrals. They do minimal advertising. Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | alankoen1230