Google Analytics Traffic Source Reports

Overview of Analytics Traffic Sources Reports

Objective: In this module, you'll learn about the Traffic Sources reports. These reports show you where your traffic is coming from on the Internet. You can compare your traffic sources against each other to find out which sources send you the highest quality traffic.

Interpreting Analytics Traffic Sources Reports

Direct Traffic: Represents visitors who clicked on a bookmark to arrive at your site, or who typed the URL directly into their browser.

Referring Sites: Includes any sites that send traffic to you.

 These could be banner ads or links featured on blogs, affiliates, or any site that links to your site.

Search Engine: The traffic here represents visitors who click on a search results link in Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine. Search Engine traffic can be organic, e.g. free search results, or paid. Paid search engine traffic is pay-per-click or cost-per-click traffic that you purchase from a search engine like Google AdWords. Understanding which search engines send you qualified traffic can help you select the search engines on which you want to advertise.

All Traffic Sources: The All Traffic Sources report lists all of the sources sending traffic to your site, including referrals, search engine traffic, and direct traffic. This report is particularly helpful because you can identify your top performing sources, regardless of whether they are search engines or sites.

AdWords: AdWords-related reports are listed under AdWords in the Traffic Sources section. The AdWords Campaigns report, which is the first one listed, contains performance metrics for your AdWords keyword ads. This report is actually the top level of a hierarchy of reports. By clicking one of the Campaigns in the table, you drill down to the Ad Groups report which lists all of the ad groups in that campaign. Click one the ad groups and you drill down to the AdWords Keywords report which lists all of the keywords in that ad group.