How do you track direct traffic with Google Analytics?

1 What is direct traffic?

Direct traffic is the category of traffic that Google Analytics assigns to the visits that do not have a known source or medium. This means that Google Analytics cannot tell how the visitors arrived at your website, whether it was from a search engine, a social media platform, an email campaign, or a referral link. Typically, direct traffic includes the visits that come from typing your URL, clicking on a bookmark, or following a link from an offline source, such as a QR code, a business card, or a printed ad.

2 How to identify direct traffic?

To identify direct traffic in Google Analytics, you need to go to the Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium report. Here, you will see a list of the sources and mediums that brought visitors to your website. The source is the origin of the traffic, such as google, facebook, or newsletter. The medium is the type of traffic, such as organic, cpc, or email. The source/medium combination that represents direct traffic is (direct) / (none). This means that there is no source or medium information available for these visits.

3 How to analyze direct traffic?

To analyze direct traffic, you can use different dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics. For example, you can use the Audience > Geo > Location report to see where your direct visitors are coming from. You can use the Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages report to see which pages they are landing on. You can use the Conversions > Goals > Overview report to see how many of them are completing your desired actions. You can also use segments, filters, and custom reports to isolate and compare direct traffic with other traffic sources.

4 How to improve direct traffic?

To improve direct traffic, you need to increase your brand awareness and loyalty among your target audience. This means that you need to create and promote valuable content, offer incentives and rewards, build trust and credibility, and encourage word-of-mouth referrals. You can also use offline marketing channels, such as events, flyers, billboards, or radio ads, to drive more direct traffic to your website. However, you need to make sure that you use trackable URLs, such as short links or UTM parameters, to measure the effectiveness of your offline campaigns.

5 How to fix direct traffic issues?

Sometimes, direct traffic can be inflated or inaccurate due to various issues, such as missing or incorrect tracking codes, redirects, bots, or browser settings. To fix these issues, you need to check and update your tracking codes, avoid or tag your redirects, filter out bot traffic, and educate your visitors about cookie consent and privacy settings. You can also use the Google Analytics Debugger extension or the Google Tag Assistant tool to troubleshoot and verify your tracking implementation.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?