How do you track where traffic is coming from?

[Tshepo]

How do you track where traffic is coming from without using a url shortener (is that even possible?) Google analytics?

If you have a domain (example.com) and you want to use that domain name for advertising on Instagram, Twitter bio, Facebook or YouTube. Is it possible to add a multiple tracking codes to a domain url?

 

[Nytshade]

I would recommend wordpress and a free plugin called "Pretty Link", together with Google analytics. You can also use Search Console (webmaster tools) if you're getting search engine traffic.

Hope that helps

 

[hrishivardhan]

I will suggest you to use URL builder service provided by Google to track your traffic source.

Here is the reference: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en

 

[Hawker]

Well there is Goo.gl which is not just a URL shortner but is also an Analytics tool. It will tell you where traffic comes from but only the root domain of that visitor not the exact link.

There's Google Analytics too which can really drill down to where the traffic came from right to the exact page but its rather quite finicky and technical to get your head around for first time users.

I prefer to use StatCounter.com tracking as it can tell you straight away on the Came From page where your most recent visitors came from.

It will show traffic for each URL on your domain.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ron Killian]

How do you track where traffic is coming from without using a url shortener (is that even possible?) Google analytics?

If you have a domain (example.com) and you want to use that domain name for advertising on Instagram, Twitter bio, Facebook or YouTube. Is it possible to add a multiple tracking codes to a domain url?

You're kind of talking about two different things. If your talking about just having stats as to where you traffic is coming from, then yes Google Analytics is a great tool, least from my experience. Not the only one, but it's a good option.

Now, if you talking about tracking paid traffic, that is different because it's not about tracking where the traffic is coming from, it is about tracking conversions, otherwise you have no clue if you advertising spend is making a positive ROI. If you're paying for traffic you HAVE TO track it's conversions, it's only good business sense. Not only to see which ads are working (converting to sales), or if they are not. Any one can throw money at traffic, getting it to convert is another thing.

There are a ton of tracking and conversion tracking services, Improvely comes to mind. You could also do it with Google Analytics, I am just no expert on the subject to explain it. I do know on my stores, I use Google Analytics with the ecommerce option and it shows me exactly where my sales are coming from and how they are converting. Pretty cool actually.

My best advice would be to dive into GA and learn it, it can do amazing things and give you some amazing stats.

Maybe some one else will chime in with useful and legitimate options.

On a side note, Pretty link is not a detailed stats plugin on it's own. It does cloak links and make them pretty, but it does not give you detailed traffic stats or conversions. Least the free version does not.

 

[Developer]

I, too, am no expert in this field, but one important thing I have learned over time is this:

When tracking links and visitors, it's also very important to track exits as well. Yes,
knowing where your traffic is coming IN FROM is VERY helpful in determining where
your marketing dollars will be spent, BUT, knowing where your visitors are LEAVING
TO is also essential on knowing how to keep them on your site once they're there.

 

[Allchat]

As Ron said GA can be very powerful if you learn all the in's and out's of it which is probably a good idea.

But another good tool you can use is StatCounter - it now has a "paid traffic" tracker. I have been using it in conjunction with Google Analytic's for a couple years now and all it requires is you setting up the domain you want to use & placing it's code in the pages.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Interesting. I know they have been around for a very long time. Only remember them as a counter and you'd have to put their button on your site, guess cost of the free service.

 

[Allchat]

Allchat

Exactly, that's what I always remember them doing and being was just a counter and a few other little things.. That's why I thought it was pretty cool when they started doing the paid tracking like that.

 

[DonaldWoods]

Using Google Analytic, You can install multiple instances of the Google Analytics tracking code on your web pages to send data to multiple properties in your account.

 

[tayyabwpb]

You can track your website traffic coming from the different platforms by following the given steps

1. log in to your Google Analytics account
2. Navigate for Acquisition --> All Traffic --> Source & Medium

 

[EntitledStories]

I use Matomo (can't post a link) for tracking traffic to my sites. It's basically a free, self hosted version of Google Analytics. I like having the data locally rather than having Google store all of my user's data, and there's less of a chance it will be blocked compared to Google Analytics, which some users' browsers may block.

 

[hipcat]

GA is flawed. Don't use it.

Your server side raw logs are the most accurate

 

[MeghanIzzo]

It's very easy to see the traffic sources of a specific page in your Google Analytics account. To start, log into your Google Analytics account and navigate to Behavior » Site Content. From there you can choose whether to view the traffic sources of all of your website's pages, the landing pages, or the exit pages.

 

[Traffic]

Install some stats scripts. Many of my sites will tell you who is backlinking to you. I see Jackie chan is sending traffic to me.

 

[Hometutor]

Your cPanel has some tracking features as well as Google Analytics.
If I really want to keep track I'll add ?twittercamp1 at the end of the url for example.

Rick