Your website receives traffic from several different mediums, such as organic search, paid search, social media, referral codes, etc. However, apart from all these mediums easily detectable on Google Analytics, Direct traffic is unknown. Unlike others, it’s unexplanatory and leaves the user in thought. If you are one of them, use this guide to understand what direct traffic is and how to see and use it to maximize your reach to your audience.
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What Is Direct Traffic In Google Analytics?
Direct traffic in Google Analytics is the web page views from users who visit your website using your URL or searching manually. It also includes traffic from the links that google Analytics can’t see, such as Facebook ads, which doesn’t have traffic parameter. Even if direct traffic is not distinguishable from other mediums, receiving it is considered a sign of good brand awareness.
Causes Of Direct Traffic In Google Analytics
When you know what direct traffic is, wondering about the cause of it is pretty natural. Here’s the list of causes of this traffic.
- Manual URL entry
- Bookmark by your frequent users
- Missing or broken Google Analytics traffic code
- Invalid direction
- Visiting a website through non-web documents such as Word documents, excels, PDFs, PowerPoints, etc.
- Via social applications like Whatsapp, Skype, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and emails in some cases.
Where To Find Direct Traffic In Google Analytics?
Finding a direct traffic section in GA will help you know how many users visited your website through other sources. Additionally, it provides a graph to estimate the percentage of user readership coming from direct traffic. Open Google Analytics, navigate to the “Acquisition” option under the “Life Cycle,” and click on “Traffic Acquisition.” You will see direct traffic in the list and the total page views next to it.
In addition, GA allows you to see the pages your direct traffic landed on. For that, navigate to the “Engagement” option on the left panel and click “Pages and screens.” Then, head to the “Add comparison +” button. From the dropdown on the right side, choose the “Session source” option and then “Direct.”
You will see a graph with blue and orange lines. Since you don’t want to see all the user’s history, click on the X icon at the top. Now, you are looking at the pages that your direct traffic visited.
How To Reduce Direct Traffic?
Direct traffic is a sign of good brand awareness, but when it’s a matter of website growth, organic traffic is given priority. Therefore, you must consider reducing the increment of direct traffic in Google Analytics. Following are the steps you can take to diminish the DT.
1. Use UTM Parameters
UTM tracking codes let you track a unique code every time a user visits your website. It also helps you understand the source visitors used to visit your website. Using the UTM code to your website link will give GA a proper source of the click, which helps in monitoring the traffic.
2. Track First-party Marketing Attribution
Keeping track of each marketing attribution gives you a complete view of your customer’s journey. Multiple tools like Salespanel are available online, which record each step of your visitors. This tool will help you reduce direct traffic
3. Migrate To HTTPS
When your visitor redirects from HTTPS to an HTTP site, the referral data doesn’t pass, which leads the traffic to register under direct traffic. Redirecting sites can have a significant impact on tracking your website traffic.
4. Use Vanity URL with UTM Tags
Vanity URL redirects the user from one location to another, creating different UTM tags at the end of the URL. These tags help Google Analytics track the traffic correctly, reducing direct traffic.
Conclusion
Google Analytics explains the different sources of page views, except direct traffic. This traffic comes from mediums that GA doesn’t register. High direct traffic indicates good brand awareness, but views don’t count as organic. So, it’s better to reduce such page views using the methods above to estimate your website’s growth.
