High numbers for direct traffic in your Google Analytics report can be confusing.
If you have a small practice, you may be wondering:
Why are so many people directly typing in my url when visiting my website and where did they come from?
Where does direct traffic come from?
There are many ways for a visit to be registered as direct traffic on Google Analytics.
A direct visit can include cases where someone typed a domain name (like drwilliamryan.com) into their browser or used a bookmark to directly access your site.
However, a Direct visit is counted in any instance where Google Analytics cannot determine a referrer, i.e., the origin of the viewer. This can include clicking a link from an email.
Often, smartphones, social media and even search engines don’t send a referrer.
Direct traffic is, in some ways, a kind of grab bag for Google Analytics. Whenever a referrer is not passed, the traffic is treated as direct traffic by Google.
Direct visits from a search engine
In addition, “direct” may count subsequent visits by people who first came to your site through a different method – such as search.
Let’s say that a user visits your website through a keyword ‘psychologist park slope‘. A few days later, he returns, this time directly to your website (because your URL is now “remembered” in his browser).
In Analytics, under acquisition for this user, you will see:
Search: 1
Direct: 1
What direct traffic means for your practice
If visitors from all over the web are being mistakenly registered as direct traffic, you can’t see where they really came from.
Accurately labeling the source of your site traffic will give you better data with which to find and reach out to new clients.
Improve marketing techniques for your practice with custom urls and use the data to improve your website and connect to new clients.
Create custom urls in order to provide an accurate source for Google Analytics
One thing you can do to identify visitors who are clicking through from links that you put on the web is to add a referral in the URL.
Consider creating a custom link in the signature line of your emails.
The link would still display as www.DrWilliamRyan.com, but the link in the code would be as follows:
http://drwilliamryan.com/?utm_
It would look the same: drwilliamryan.com , but it would do a better job of tracking how many visits come from emails.
Market your practice on the web
Need help understanding your Google Analytics data? We can help you use your data to improve your website and connect to new clients. Call us to learn more, or click Schedule Now to set up a free 15 minute consult. If you need more help, you can ask about our surprisingly affordable Analytics Audit. Of course, analysis and filtering are built into the Google Analytics reports that all TherapyEverywhere clients on a monthly subscription package enjoy.