Are you wondering how to find your Google Analytics referral traffic in GA4, so you can see where that referral traffic to your site is coming from?
In your Google Analytics reports, you can find out who links to your site and which referral sources are the most valuable for your business.
In this article, we’ll go over what exactly referral traffic is, and show you how to find your top referral traffic sources in Google Analytics 4 and WordPress.
Why is referral traffic important?
Referral traffic is not only a potentially large source of overall traffic for your site, but it also means that other sites are linking to yours. Those links boost your SEO and help you rank higher in search engines.
Google Analytics referral traffic reports give you insights into how you can grow your website traffic. By analyzing which sites are sending you referral traffic, you can make changes and marketing decisions that’ll grow your business.
Let’s find out how to find those Google Analytics referral traffic sources.
How to View Top Referral Sources in WordPress
Not using WordPress? Jump to the Google Analytics instructions.
The best way to use Google Analytics in WordPress is with MonsterInsights.
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily connect your WordPress site with Google Analytics so you can view all the data that matters most right in your WordPress dashboard.
Plus, with the click of a button, you can set up sophisticated tracking features such as event tracking, download tracking, eCommerce tracking, media tracking, form tracking, custom dimension tracking, outbound link tracking, and more.
Install MonsterInsights
To get started, you’ll need to install MonsterInsights and authenticate it with your Google Analytics account. Choose the license level that has all the features you’re going to need, or get started with our Lite version.
First, download the ZIP files from your account area under the Downloads tab.
Next, upload the plugin to your WordPress website. You can do that by going to Plugins » Add New » Upload Plugins and clicking the Install Now button.
After that, click the Activate Plugin button.
Now, you’ll need to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress website. Using MonsterInsights, it’s a walk in the park. Just follow the steps in its setup wizard and the plugin will add Google Analytics to your site without the need to edit code.
For help getting started, you can read our step-by-step guide on how to properly set up Google Analytics and MonsterInsights.
Once you’ve properly set up Google Analytics on your site, you can find your referrals report by going to Insights » Reports » Overview report.
Now, scroll down and you’ll see your site’s top referrals.
In this report, you’ll see the top 10 websites that are sending you the most referral traffic. This data is extremely valuable, as you can use it to target visitors from those sources or work with the owners of those websites to promote your site and get even more traffic. It also presents an opportunity for guest posts and getting backlinks for your site.
If you want to know all of your referral sites beyond the top 10, you can click the View All Referral Sources button at the end of the report. It’ll take you to the full report inside Google Analytics.
Another report within the MonsterInsights dashboard (in MonsterInsights Plus or above) that shows referral traffic is the Source/Medium report. You’ll see referral sites mixed in with your other top sources:
How to See Google Analytics Referral Traffic
In Google Analytics 4, find your referral traffic by navigating to Reports » Acquisition » Traffic Acquisition:
Then, scroll down to the table. There, you’ll see the Referral row:
In this report, you can see the basic metrics for your referral traffic, including how much you got and how long those users spent on your site on average.
To dive further into where those referrals actually came from, first type “referral” into the search bar to view just the referral traffic:
Then, click the blue plus sign:
From the dropdown, choose Traffic Source and then Session source:
Now, your table will be broken down by how many referrals you got from each referring site:
Google Analytics Referral Traffic FAQ
What is referral traffic in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics recognizes referral traffic as visitors that land on your site after clicking on a link from another source (other than search engines).
For instance, let’s say you have an article about how to make chocolate chip cookies. Another food blog copies your recipe but adds a few tweaks, then links to your recipe as their source. Google Analytics will record visitors that arrive on your website from that link as referral traffic.
Can I see the referral source in Google Analytics?
Yes, you can certainly see the domain where your referral traffic came from. However, you can not see the exact page URL that sent the traffic. For example, if someone clicked on your Facebook post, you’d see a referral source of facebook.com, not the specific post that sent the traffic.
Here’s a helpful tip for finding the exact referral source of your traffic: If you have a site that’s sending referral traffic to your site and you don’t know where they link to you, try using this search operator on Google:
site:[the domain that’s sending traffic to you here] “your business or brand name here”
Example — site:optinmonster.com “MonsterInsights” — this would return all the pages on optinmonster.com where MonsterInsights is mentioned. This could at least give you an idea about how and where a site is linking to you.
How do I filter referral traffic in Google Analytics?
In the Acquisition » Traffic acquisition report, use the search bar to search for “referral”. This will filter out just the referral traffic. If you want to see the domain your traffic came from, add a secondary dimension by clicking on the blue plus sign and choosing Traffic source » Session source.
That’s it!
We hope you liked our article on how to find top referral traffic sources in Google Analytics. You might also want to check out The Ultimate Guide to MonsterInsights Dashboard Reports.
Or, to find out more about all of the traffic channels in Google Analytics, check out What Are Google Analytics Channels? GA4 Channels Guide.
Not using MonsterInsights yet? What are you waiting for?
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for more helpful reviews, tutorials, and Google Analytics tips.
Why do you think Google has made it so hard to find referral traffic in GA4? The old/existing GA is so much easier to navigate.
One problem here: when you recommend “From the dropdown, choose Session Acquisition and then Session source:” — there actually isn’t any option for Session Acquisition in my account, under default settings.
Is there some sort of acquisition event that needs to be created so that you can access this? It makes no sense…
Hey Roland! Huh, looks like Google changed their navigation there. Thanks for noticing that! We’ll update the article. Looks like it’s now Attribution » Source: https://a.supportally.com/XMd9Mg
Looks like they have changed it again as those screenshots seem to be out of date. You now have to select “session source” in GA4.
They sure did! Thanks for your comment, Hannah – we updated that step.
Thank you for adding this. That was confusing as I couldn’t figure it out.
Question, why does Google not show in the Top 10 Referrals?
Is there a way to show this?
Hi Mark,
Google doesn’t show in the referrals because it’s Organic traffic, not referral. We currently don’t show a breakdown of traffic from each channel in MonsterInsights, but this is a feature that’s been requested before so it’s on our list of possible future features!
Hi there! How do you view the full URLs for session sources in GA4? You used to be able to click on them in Universal analytics, but now it just shows the domain without a hyperlink.
Hi Faith,
Unfortunately, Google removed the ability to see full referral URLs for privacy reasons. We wish we could still see those full URLs!
I am using Monster insights on all of my websites very useful too and friendly environment
Is there a way to obtain the email address of those people clicking on your website?
Hey Mike – There are many ways to ask people to opt-in to your email list when they land on your website. Here’s a guide with some of our favorite ways: https://www.monsterinsights.com/why-collect-emails-benefits-of-building-an-email-list/
How do you get social media referrals to show up in the referrals list on GA4?
In old GA our top website referrals each month were always Twitter and Facebook.
Since switching to GA4 these referrals do nto show up anymore.
Hey David – Great question! Google put social media in its own category in GA4, so you’ll find it under either Organic Social or Paid Social instead of the Referral channel. Try checking out this article: https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-analyze-social-media-traffic-with-google-analytics/
Thanks for the very clear description and walk through!
Unfortunately, Google Analytics is such a hopeless labyrinth of constantly upgrading screens, popouts and dropdowns that I was not able to find my way past clicking the blue plus sign to find session acquisition. The nav must have changed again. Still, thanks for clear video walk through
Hey thanks for your comment, Jim! You’re right, Google likes to change things rather often 🙂 Our article is up-to-date, but the video isn’t! Thanks for letting me know – we’ll remake this one!