Why is ‘source’ in Analytics Important?

Google Analytics Traffic Sources Screenshot

One of the most important metrics to understand for any company doing business online is ‘source’. Source basically tells you where the person that is visiting your site came from before your site. Hence, who sent you traffic.

Source Defined: The search engine or referring domain from which traffic to your site originated. For example, google (search engine) or google.com (domain). Direct traffic that does not originate from search-engine results or a referring link in a domain is identified as (direct).

The top 10 sources that send traffic to infoGeniuz.com.

There are several pre-defined variables used in Google Analytics for source. Direct. Referral. Search Engine.

Direct Traffic – Direct traffic ‘(direct)’ is defined as visits that result from a person typing in your URL and going directly to the site. Another somewhat misleading visit is generated from sites where you have typed your URL (say in a forum post) but not hyperlinked it. People who copy and paste the URL into their browser are considered direct and the site that was the source of the visit is not recorded.

Referral Traffic – This class of traffic will let you know just how well your back-linking efforts are working as traffic generators. Referrals come from sites that have a link to your site either as a hyperlink or anchor text.

Search Engines – This is pretty straight forward. These visits are the result of persons clicking on your link after conducting a search query. What you might find confusing when looking at all of the traffic sources is the listing of Google (organic) and Google.com (referral).

Source allows you to see how people are finding your site, what advertising is working, what affiliates are sending you traffic and sites that are mentioning you and linking directly to your site. With all this information you can start to build a visitor profile and find similar websites to partner with.

The problem  with Google Analytics is that you cant see this data on an individual lead level. How did that last lead (person who filled out your online form) find me? With the infoGeniuz.com javascript you can add all this information directly into any online form. Tying your generic website analytics to your leads and prospects.

Added Marketing Data to Any Online Form

Continue receiving all your current lead information PLUS 7 pieces of analytical data – source, medium, terms, content, campaign, segments and number of visits. With our new service we are able to collect information from your website visitors which let’s you start to join your current lead data with marketing analytics.

Your marketing & sales teams will love you.