Traffic Sources Identification

Created: 25.08.2023

Updated: 25.08.2023

Author: Polina A.

Traffic sources types

• Direct: users who have come to the site directly by entering the website URL in the browser's address bar, clicking a bookmark, or via email. These users do not have information about a referring site.

• Search: users who have come from search engines. Search engines list

• Paid Search:

  • Users who have come from Google SEM campaigns (paid traffic). Their referring domain is "googleadservices," and the first pageview in the session contains the URL parameter 'gclid' or 'gclsrc'.

  • Users who have come from Yandex SEM campaigns. Their referring domain is 'yandex,' and the first pageview in the session contains the URL parameter 'yclid.'

• Social: users who have come from major social platforms. Social networks list

• Referral: users who have been redirected to your site from a third-party site that is not a search engine, social network, or paid traffic.

All traffic sources use the referring domain as a parameter. You can view the referring URL (previous URL) in a session by entering "document.referrer" in your browser's console (usually found in the browser's developer tools).

Data collection

In the front-end implementation, the information about the referring domain is collected by the script. In the server-side API implementation, the information is taken from context.page.referrer parameter of calls to page or choose endpoints.

Order of applying rules regarding the traffic source

1. Direct

2. Paid Search

3. Search

4. Social

5. Referral

Search engines list

All domains listed below include all protocols and subdomains (including “www”), i.e., about.com includes:

http://about.com

https://about.com

http://.*about.com

https://.*about.com

• 360.cn

• about.com

• ask.com

• baidu.com

• biglobe.ne.jp

• bing.com

• daum.net

• duckduckgo.com

• ecosia.org

• google..* — using regular expressions, variations such as google.kz, google.ua, and others are also considered.

• goo.ne.jp

• isearch.avg.com

• kvasir.no

• lycos..* — using regular expressions, other variations are also considered.

• nortonsafe.search.ask.com

• rambler.ru

• search.aol.com

• search.centrum.cz

• search.com

• search.naver.com

• search.tut.by

• search.ukr.net

• search.virgilio.it

• search1.me

• smt.docomo.ne.jp

• so.com

• sogou.com

• startsiden.no

• szukaj.onet.pl

• qwant.com

• wp.pl

• xfinity.com

• searchlock.com

• yahoo..* — using regular expressions, other variations are also considered.

• yandex..* — using regular expressions, variations such as yandex.kz, yandex.ua, and others are also considered.

Social networks list

• ask.fm

• badoo.com

• classmates.com

• corp.stumbleupon.com

• digg.com

• disqus.com

• dzen.ru

• ello.co

• facebook.com

• flickr.com

• hi5.com

• instagram.com

• l.facebook.com

• last.fm

• linkedin.com

• lm.facebook.com

• lnkd.in

• meetme.com

• meetup.com

• myspace.com

• ok.ru

• pepper.ru

• pikabu.ru

• pinterest.com

• plus.google.com

• quora.com

• reddit.com

• rutube.ru

• stumbleupon.com

• t.co

• t.umblr.com

• tagged.com

• tumblr.com

• twitter.com

• vine.co

• vk.com

• xing.com

• yaplakal.com

• youtube.com