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- Organic<\/strong> = visits from search engines (e.g., Google)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Referral<\/strong> = traffic from another website that links to yours<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Social<\/strong> = traffic from social networks<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Email<\/strong> = traffic from newsletters<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Paid Search<\/strong> = visits from paid search campaigns (e.g., Google Ads Search campaigns)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Display<\/strong> = paid campaigns on display networks (e.g., Google Ads Display campaigns)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Direct<\/strong> = users who have visited your site “directly” by typing its URL (but in this article, we’ll see why it’s not always the case!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
To distinguish the source of traffic, Google Analytics uses the browser’s referrer,<\/strong> a parameter that identifies the channel used by the user to access the website. The result you’ll find in Analytics is a pie chart like the one below:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"google](\"https:\/\/www.antartika.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1-canali.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe more “colorful” the chart, the more diverse the channels from which you’re getting visits \u2013 great news for your website, as it’s not overly dependent on a single traffic source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Direct Traffic: What Is It?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Direct traffic should <\/em>ideally include only visits from users who have directly entered the site’s URL in the search bar<\/strong> or clicked a bookmark after 6 months since the last access.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering this definition, Direct should indicate high-value traffic, consisting of users who are already familiar with your brand, are interested in it, and remember your website’s address, or have saved it as a browser bookmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, we need to remember that the Direct channel also includes all the traffic that Analytics cannot classify.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, direct traffic includes all those visits to the site that are initiated without the user’s browser communicating the referrer, <\/strong>which is the parameter used by Analytics to recognize the source channel. If Analytics cannot verify that the user is coming from known sources (search engines, social networks, other websites, paid traffic, etc.) or from campaigns with custom parameters, the visit will be attributed to the direct channel.<\/p>\n\n\n
- Referral<\/strong> = traffic from another website that links to yours<\/li>\n\n\n\n