Universal Analytics: Why does Google Organic appear as Direct traffic?
-
Hi there,
When I enter the site via Google Search and follow myself via Real-Time Analytics I appear an organic visitor (which is good). When I browse and visit the site I still am an organic visitor. However, as soon as I fill in the contact form (gravity forms) and land on the "thank you page" I appear as a direct visitor with Google as the source. Since I have the thank you page set-up as a goal, Analytics incorrectly attributes these conversions to the direct medium instead of the organic medium. The tracking code has been installed on all the pages and all conversions are being recorded. What is going on?
-
The form is probably obscuring your history and making you look like a new visitor with no attributable origin.
-
Are you sure that the source is Google and the medium is direct in this case? That sounds really strange as it could be that somewhere the redirect is using UTM tags. Normally the source would be empty if the medium is direct.
-
I think it may be down to the headers which are being passed by the browser when the form is submitted. Could it be that the third party plugin from gravity forms, performs a funny post and redirect when the submission is made. This will then return the visitor as direct as opposed to organic.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Two of Four Google Analytics Views Not Showing Data
Question for you MOZ friends: We added two new views about a week ago, the same views that we have added for more than 50 Accounts, and they are not showing any data. The views are for 'Filtered Traffic' (no IPs or spam) and 'Organic Only' including only the organic medium. Any ideas why this may not be working? First time we've come across this and couldn't find much help researching it... Thanks as always! street%20ga_zpsorfdnemi.png
Reporting & Analytics | | ReunionMarketing0 -
Why is this tag not firing in Google Analytics?
I setup Google Tag Manager on this site- http://germanhausbarn.com I am trying to setup event tracking for the donate, newsletter, and Contact Us button at the bottom of the page. The most recent version is published, and I ran debug and it shows that they fire, but nothing is coming up in analytics. Any thoughts?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
Site account in Google Analytics
Hello I have a question about my site account. On 2014, during a week, my ID tracking of Google Analytics was removed of the site, in this period the volume of users and sessions is lower than the other weeks. But I don't understand why are the sessions and users still reporting during this period without ID Tracking
Reporting & Analytics | | Arkix0 -
Adwords start Organic traffic SIGNIFICANTLY drops
I hope someone can give me some insight here, or at least point me in the right direction. As of September 1 we are running Adwords. We are seeing an alarming drop in our organic traffic since then. It's almost like Adwords is cannibalizing organic. August/September Paid 116/847 Organic 648/178 We've looked at why the Organic could have dropped (penalties, site function issues, etc.) and have found nothing unusual. Can someone give me a reason why this might be happening, Why such a dramatic decrease just as adwords is started. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Britewave0 -
Re-classifying a Traffic Source in Google Analytics
Hey All, I think it's inside of the Admin section of Google Analytics, right now I have a traffic source from the domain of indeed.ca that is being classified as Organic traffic when it should be classified as referring traffic, how can I tell Google Analytics that all traffic from this source should be classified as referral traffic and not organic traffic? Furthermore, after I make this change, will Google Analytics re-classify my past data so I can do a proper analysis? I can't remember how to do this and any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | EvansHunt1 -
How to Track Google Local Places in Google Analytics?
I have read many articles on how to track google local places through google analytics. Each article I have read show a different way of setting up google analytics and using tags in google local places. Wondering if anyone as up to date information on this and what would be the best practice to track data from google local lisitngs in google analytics Thanks Arthur
Reporting & Analytics | | VivaArturo0 -
Why is Webmaster Tools not Linking Correctly Google Analytics?
I have a global site with .com as the US site and then /country for all other markets i.e. .com/uk .com/de etc. Each site has it's own WMT profile. Each site has it's own GA profile. Since Google added Search Engine Optimization to the GA interface, I can't track these sites separately under this new feature. It seems to me that it can only be associated with a single WMT profile at a time or rather that WMT can only be associated with a single GA profile at a time. The numbers for the UK and US site are identical, but when I try and link the UK WMT account with GA it removes it from the US profile and vice versa.
Reporting & Analytics | | Red_Mud_Rookie0 -
Organic search on google
Hi there, pl take a look at this link, there is a section which says shared results and has a star against two agencies and once article. can pl someone let me know what those starts are and how to get them? Thank you 🙂 so sorry - the link is http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=digital+mareketing+agency+los+angeles Vijay
Reporting & Analytics | | vijayvasu0