7 Ways Direct Traffic (Referrer Unknown) Can Appear in Analytics
16 Aug
Need to understand what direct traffic means?
Business leaders hassling you about referrers showing up as your own web site?
Here’s a current list of reasons for an empty referrer field, a.k.a Direct Traffic, or more accurately “Referrer Unknown Traffic.”
- Somebody typed in your web address (or bookmark) to get to your page. “Yay, Branding worked.”
- A user clicked on a link in an email client.
- A link originates at a secure page and the landing page is not secure.
- The visitor is using Internet Explorer and the link to your site was in Javascript. Javascript links to your site include those that open your site in a new browser window, or any kind of javascript redirect. Many advertising banner links function in this manner.
- The visitor is using Internet Explorer and the link to your site is from within a Flash application.
- Your landing page redirects to another page via a 301 permanent server-side redirect.
- The link was on an intranet designed to strip referrer.