What Does Direct Traffic Mean in Google Analytics?
Since I’ve been looking this up for my own reaons, I thought I would share my findings. Direct Traffic means of course that there’s NO referrer when the visitor came to the site.
This could be because someone:
- typed in the URL directly in their browser
- used a bookmark in their browser
- clicked a link from an email with a non-web-based email client (like Outlook)
- clicked a link in a document (PDF, Word)
- clicked a link from within a secure site (https://)
- used a mobile app (which could come from twitter, stumbleupon, email, etc.)
- some JavaScript redirect links may not set a referrer
- some corporate intranets may strip out referrers
- if the user has browser plug-ins to mask their referrer
- some banner/PPC campaigns may not pass a referrer correctly
- The IE browser can sometimes be problematic & not send a referrer under certain conditions
Has anyone heard of any other reasons traffic would be identified as direct traffic in Google Analytics?
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2 Responses to “What Does Direct Traffic Mean in Google Analytics?”
By Atul on Jan 23, 2012 | Reply
Chris, this is what I was looking for and all are valid points.
But I really didn’t get the “clicked a link from within a secure site”. How? Twitter and Facebook also are secured sites..
By BellaDotka on Feb 6, 2012 | Reply
Thanks I was looking for this particular issue. Now, I have a clue what direct means in analytics.
Thanks