What Is Direct Traffic in Google Analytics?

Are you wondering what direct traffic is in Google Analytics? Google Analytics shows you many different types of traffic mediums such as direct, organic search, paid, referrals and social. In this article, we’ll explain what direct traffic is and why you need to minimize false direct traffic.

What Is Direct Traffic in Google Analytics?

Google Analytics defines direct traffic as website visits either by typing your website URL on a browser or through browser bookmarks. In addition, if Google Analytics can’t recognize the traffic source of a visit, it will also be categorized as Direct in your Analytics report.

Below are some instances when Google Analytics can’t identify the source of traffic.

• Depending on your email marketing tool, traffic from your email marketing campaigns is often categorized as Direct.
• Traffic from any offline documents, like PDF, MS Word, etc.
• Traffic from mobile social media apps.
• Depending on browser issues, sometimes traffic from organic search is also categorized as Direct.

How to Minimize False Direct Traffic Allocation

Identifying the exact traffic source is essential for making informed decisions for your website. If you want to minimize false direct traffic allocation, you need to tag all your marketing campaigns with custom campaign variables (UTM codes).

The MonsterInsights’ URL builder is the easiest way to tag your campaigns with custom campaign variables. This way, you can identify the exact traffic source and track the performance your individual campaigns.

You can learn how to create campaign URLs with UTM codes here.

That’s it!

We hope this article helped you understand direct traffic is and why you need to minimize it.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also want to read how to track offline marketing campaigns with our URL builder.

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