Web analytics, explained in plain English

Articles

9 articles in Traffic · Show all

• Traffic

  Direct traffic in analytics: where it really comes from

  Direct traffic is visits with no referrer or campaign tag. It covers typed URLs and bookmarks, but also apps and email. See why it's over-counted.

  6 min read

• Traffic

  Organic traffic: unpaid search visits and how to grow them

  Organic traffic is visits from unpaid search results on Google, Bing and others. See how it differs from paid, how to measure it and how to grow it.

  7 min read

• Traffic

  Pageviews: what counts as one, from reloads to single-page apps

  A pageview is counted each time a page on your site loads and your analytics tool records it. See what counts, how reloads work and why views mislead.

  6 min read

• Traffic

  Referral traffic: links from other sites, spam and AI assistants

  Referral traffic is visits from links on other websites. See how to read it, filter out spam, earn more good links and where AI assistants fit.

  6 min read

• Traffic

  Referrer (HTTP Referer): how browsers report the linking page

  A referrer is the address of the page a visitor came from, sent in the HTTP Referer header. Learn how referrer policies work and why referrers go missing.

  7 min read

• Traffic

  Website sessions: how they start, end and differ between tools

  A website session is one visit to your site, from arrival until the visitor leaves or goes quiet. See when sessions start and end, and why tools disagree.

  6 min read

• Traffic

  Traffic sources: the main channels and source vs medium

  A traffic source is where a website visit came from: search, social, a link, an ad or an email. Learn the main types, source vs medium and how to use them.

  7 min read

• Traffic

  Unique visitors: why the count is always an estimate

  Unique visitors is the estimated number of different people who visit your site in a period. See how tools count them and why the figure is always a guess.

  6 min read

• Traffic

  UTM parameters: the five tags and naming that stays tidy

  UTM parameters are tags you add to a link so analytics can tell which campaign sent a visitor. Learn the five tags, how to build a link and naming rules.

  7 min read