Direct is where Universal Analytics files visits it cannot trace to any source. That includes typed addresses and bookmarks, but also untagged email links, messaging apps, documents and your own staff.

The channel nobody can explain

Open the channels report in Universal Analytics for many small business sites and direct sits near the top, sometimes as the largest channel of all.

The usual reading is that these are people who know the business and typed the address or used a bookmark. Some of them are.

But direct is not really a channel. It is the label for visits that arrived with no information about where they came from.

Some of it is loyalty. Some of it is marketing you did yourself that Analytics could not see.

How Analytics decides where a visit came from

When someone clicks a link, the browser usually tells the new site which page the click came from. That is the referrer, and it is how Analytics recognises a search engine or another site.

Campaign tags do the same job deliberately: short labels tacked onto the end of a link, naming the newsletter, post or ad it came from.

A visit with neither is direct. Analytics is not saying the person typed your address; it is saying it has no idea.

Universal Analytics also credits a returning visitor's direct visits to the last source it knew for them. So what stays in direct is mostly people it has no history for: new phones, cleared browsers, private windows.

What ends up in direct

The second is the one most businesses can do something about. A newsletter produces a burst of visits on the day it goes out, and without tags Analytics files them as people who simply decided to visit.

The plain HTTP problem

One item on that list is a setting rather than a habit.

Browsers do not pass the referrer from a secure page to a plain HTTP one unless the linking site deliberately allows it. Google's search pages do, as do some other large sites; many smaller sites do not.

So a site still on HTTP loses the source of visits from secure directories, blogs and associations that link to it, and those visits land in direct.

Moving to HTTPS fixes that as a side effect, along with the Not secure warning Chrome has shown on HTTP pages since last July.

Reading direct sensibly

Before trying to shrink it, read it. Two views do most of the work.

Look at the landing pages for direct visits. The home page suggests people who typed the address. A long, specific address, such as one event or one article, suggests a link somebody clicked.

Then look at the dates. A spike on the day a newsletter went out, or the week a flyer landed, tells you where those visits really came from.

Device helps too. Direct visits on phones that land deep in the site are often links opened from messages and apps.

A worked example

A yoga studio in a busy neighbourhood found that direct was its largest channel, and that its class timetable was the top landing page for direct visits.

Nobody types the address of a timetable. Members were opening it from the studio's monthly email and from links shared in group chats, and none of those clicks carried a source.

The studio began tagging every link in its newsletter and social profiles. Its printed class cards got a short address that redirects to a tagged link.

The spikes on send days moved into the Email channel. Most of the group-chat visits stayed in direct, which the studio accepted.

Tagged links that members forwarded kept their tags, so email now takes credit for some visits that came through a chat. Approximately right still beats unexplained.

Shrinking the part you control

You cannot tag a link somebody else writes. You can tag every link you send out yourself.

That means newsletters, links in social profiles and posts, QR codes, email signatures, and links inside PDFs and quotes. Each gets a source, a medium and a campaign name.

Use the medium email, spelled exactly that way, for email links, so those visits land in the Email channel rather than a catch-all.

A written naming convention is worth setting up, but tagging the newsletter alone explains the biggest spikes.

Your own visits

On a small site, the business itself can be a noticeable share of direct.

Staff check the opening hours, the owner looks at the home page, a receptionist uses the contact page to find the address. All of it arrives typed or bookmarked.

Universal Analytics can exclude visits from the office's internet address with a filter. Apply it to a separate view and keep one view unfiltered, because filtered data cannot be recovered.

It will not catch staff on their phones at home, but it removes the steadiest part.

Gaps in the tracking

Some direct traffic is a symptom of a setup problem rather than of visitors.

A landing page missing the tracking code loses the start of the visit, which then turns up from the second page with no usable source. Booking pages and old campaign pages are common culprits.

A redirect that drops the end of an address strips any tags with it. Short addresses on print, and old addresses moved during a rebuild, are worth testing.

Whoever maintains your site can check both in an afternoon.

The counter-case

A large direct share is not always a problem to solve.

A business with a well-known name, vans with the address on the side, or years of radio advertising will genuinely have many people typing its address. That is reputation showing up in a report.

On a small site, untraceable visits may be too few to matter much, and tagging brings clarity rather than any change in the business.

And some direct traffic will always remain, whatever is tagged. The aim is a direct figure you can explain, not a small one.

Read the landing pages and dates first, then tag everything you send out.

This month

  1. Open the channels report for the past year.
  2. List the top direct landing pages.
  3. Match direct spikes to newsletters and mailings.
  4. Tag every link in the next newsletter.
  5. Filter the office in a separate view.
  6. Test print addresses and their redirects.
  7. Note the change date beside your yearly figures.

Step four is the one entirely in your hands. The newsletter is often the largest batch of links a small business sends, and every one of them can carry a tag.

The yearly page those figures belong on is described in writing down last year's numbers first.

Frequently asked questions

What does direct traffic actually mean?

Visits that arrived with no referrer and no campaign tags, so Universal Analytics cannot say where they came from. It does not mean the person typed your address.

What else ends up in direct?

Email links opened in mail programs and phone apps, links shared in messages and many apps, links in documents, visits from secure sites to plain HTTP sites, and your staff.

How can I tell typed visits from others?

Look at landing pages and dates. Home page visits suggest typed addresses; long, specific addresses and spikes on newsletter days suggest links that arrived without a source.

How do I move email visits out of direct?

Tag every newsletter link with a source, a medium and a campaign name, using the medium email so the visits land in the Email channel.

Should I exclude my own staff?

Yes, with a filter on the office's internet address, applied to a separate view while one view stays unfiltered, since filtered data cannot be recovered.

Is a large direct share a bad sign?

Not necessarily. A well-known business genuinely gets many typed visits. The aim is a direct figure you can explain, since some untraceable visits always remain.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Direct traffic your biggest unexplained channel?

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