Contents
- 1 How does Google Analytics work for referral traffic?
- 2 How to set up subdomain tracking in Google Analytics?
- 3 Can a domain name be excluded from the referral exclusion list?
- 4 How is social traffic categorized in Google Analytics?
- 5 How to stop referral exclusions in classic analytics?
- 6 Why do I get so many self referrals?
- 7 What happens when you exclude referrals from an account?
How does Google Analytics work for referral traffic?
Referral traffic is the segment of traffic that arrives on your website through another source, like through a link on another domain. Analytics automatically recognizes where traffic was immediately before arriving on your site, and displays the domain names of these sites as the referral traffic sources in your reports.
How to set up subdomain tracking in Google Analytics?
1) Log in to Google Analytics and select any view from the account that you wish to implement cross-subdomain tracking. 2) Access the admin panel by clicking the gear icon in the bottom left of the screen. 3) Under the property column, navigate to Tracking Info > Referral Exclusion List.
How to add a referral exclusion in Google Analytics?
Go to GA Admin > Property Column > Tracking Info > Referral Exclusion List > Add Referral Exclusion. Enter your top domain there (if it isn’t there already). 4. Finally, you will need to (optionally) implement the Show Full URL filter in the GA view.
Can a domain name be excluded from the referral exclusion list?
The referral exclusion list. Only traffic from the domain entered in the referral exclusions list and any subdomains is excluded. The referral exclusion list uses CONTAINS matching. For example, if you enter example.com, then traffic from sales.example.com is also excluded (because the domain name contains example.com).
But social traffic is actually categorized as referral or direct. Any clicks on tweets or posts without tracking code and within a browser will appear as referral traffic. The fix #1: Some social media tools can be set up to add campaign tracking code to shortened links.
How is email traffic recorded in Google Analytics?
Traffic from email marketing If you send out an email newsletter with a link to your site, and the recipient opens and clicks it from within a browser, such as Gmail or Yahoo!, the traffic is recorded as a referral, even though the real traffic source was a newsletter, something you’d like to track separately.
How to stop referral exclusions in classic analytics?
Using ga.js (Classic Analytics) will stop Referral Exclusions from working. Referral traffic is the segment of traffic that arrives on your website through another source, like through a link on another domain.
Why do I get so many self referrals?
If you’re receiving self-referrals, that may mean that traffic to your site is being attributed incorrectly, or that your session count is inaccurate. There are a few different implementation problems that can cause self-referrals.
How are sessions counted in referral exclusions analytics?
The same interaction can be counted as either one or two sessions, based on how you treat referrals. For example, a user on my-site.com goes to your-site.com, and then returns to my-site.com. If you do not exclude your-site.com as a referring domain, two sessions are counted, one for each arrival at my-site.com.
What happens when you exclude referrals from an account?
Because each referral triggers a new session, excluding referrals (or not excluding referrals) affects how sessions are calculated in your account. The same interaction can be counted as either one or two sessions, based on how you treat referrals.