Comments on: How Google Analytics Tracks ‘Bookmark’ Visits

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:51:32 +0000

Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful comments. I think one common theme that has emerged is that Google has a tremendous amount of data on each visitor. This includes the source of their visit. So, with all of this data, why has Google not created a better campaign tracking solution? I wish I had the answer, but I don't. However, I do think that Google is starting to build a solution. With the introduction of AdWords Funnel Reports Google has started to tackle attribution. Now they just need to figure out the best model for cross campaign attribution modeling and implement it. I have o idea if this is close, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are working on it. Thanks again for the comments.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:21:59 +0000

I know I’m late to the party on this one, but this really troubles me. I understand it’s useful from a campaign attribution standpoint, but from a user activity standpoint it really presents a very cloudy picture.

Noting the comment from Enrique I wonder if there is some way that GA is able to assign immediate session referral credit along with with original referring source credit and reflect both pieces of data in the the Analytics solution. Is this done? possible?

This seems like it would enable GA to deliver more accurate and useful numbers in the referring sources report while at the same time allowing for backward attribution to original referring sources, should the analyst be interested to see this.

There’s a whole added sphere of payoff with that kind of tracking too, where you could analyze your visitor source shift rate, etc.

Any Thoughts?

Nate

By: Google Analytics vs. Piwik | intereye - Web Analytics

Google Analytics vs. Piwik | intereye - Web Analytics — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:02:44 +0000

[...] Besuchern innerhalb des Tages und deren Ausweisung. Google weist diesen Besuchern wieder die ursprüngliche Quelle zu. Piwik scheint den Visit immer wieder neu zu bewerten. Dadurch kann sich ein unterschiedliches [...]

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:44:45 +0000

I’m probably not understanding this correctly but I’m left wondering:

(1) If your are saying that Google’s own documentation stating that “Direct Traffic is visits from people who clicked a bookmark to come to your site…” is false?

(2) If I can use the _utmz cookie to single out bookmark traffic even though I’m not an AdWords user? Enrique’s comment makes think this might not be the case?

Appreciate the insights. Cheers.

By: Gustav

Gustav — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:25:27 +0000

Hi Justin,
and thanx for the eye-opening video. I have seen that visitors sometimes are returning to my blog several times, and I been puzzled that Analytics told me that they made the same organic search each time.

Now I realize that they must have bookmarked my site (which is good news)!
:-)
Keep them comin,
rgds,
Gustav

By: Lynn Brown

Lynn Brown — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:11:12 +0000

Very interesting post, but it still it begs the what exactly are direct visitors? I always assumed they were bookmarks, or typing domain name into a browser.

I have a site which I recently added to analytics, and of 300 visitors in one day, 114 are direct according to GA. I don’t think I believe that 114 people typed a domain name into a browser, especially when 90% of visits were new visitors.

Odd how you can use something like Analytical for so long, and not know what you are reading.

Lynny

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:58:34 +0000

Fascinating.

In the “Traffic Sources Overview” page, “About This Report” section, it says:
‘”Direct Traffic” is visits from people who clicked a bookmark to come to your site or who typed your site URL directly into their browser.’

So, is that info wrong? Sounds like it is.

By: AlaskaWebDesigner

AlaskaWebDesigner — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:19:13 +0000

This clears up something that was bothering me yesterday.

In GA, I saw four visits for the same term: “Anchorage Web Design.” This search term never happens four times daily in GA for our site, so I was interested how this was done.

I was thinking: “Did that user type in ‘Anchorage Web Design’ 4 times in Google?’ and ‘How could 4 different people type this term and come to our site in one day.’

I believe you provided the answer by the bookmarks, which I earlier attributed to direct traffic.

Thanks.

By: 27 Excellent Google Analytics Articles | Pajama Professional

27 Excellent Google Analytics Articles | Pajama Professional — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:08:09 +0000

[...] How Google Analytics Tracks Bookmark Visits [...]

By: bollywood forum

bollywood forum — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:43:49 +0000

Hey…………
I am totally agree with Jacques Warren.I read this post and i felt that GA is applying some restrictions.