Direct traffic in Google Analytics 4 (and how to fix it)

What is direct traffic in GA4? How to fix or reduce it? This video will explain all of that.

Direct traffic in Google Analytics is often misunderstood. If you think direct traffic only captures when visitors have typed your website in the address bar or accessed it through a saved bookmark, I’ve got some bad news. The truth is, this is just a fraction of what makes up direct traffic.

The confusion starts with the name itself – “direct.” What does this really mean? In reality, the definition of direct traffic should be, “I don’t actually know where this traffic came from”.

Direct traffic isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, it means that your GA4 setup is incorrect. In this video, I will share a bunch of things that you should verify.

=== TIMESTAMPS ===

00:00 - Intro
00:15 - How GA4 determines traffic source
03:23 - HTTP and HTTPS
05:02 - Consent popup
06:36 - Links in PDFs (and other documents)
07:21 - Some pages are missing GA4 code
08:26 - rel=noreferrer
09:05 - Email links are missing UTMs
09:46 - Unwanted referrals
10:57 - Separate properties for subdomains
11:57 - Cookie limitations/expiration
14:26 - Processing errors
15:06 - More tips & final words


=== LINKS ===

⭐⭐ Learn much more about attribution in the Google Analytics 4 course ⭐⭐

📕 Free e-book: Getting Started with Google Analytics 4

✭ How to install Google Analytics 4 (3 ways)

✭ Find more tips here: Direct traffic in Google Analytics 4 (and how to fix it)

✭ A guide to Referrer in Google Tag Manager

=== CONNECT WITH JULIUS & ANALYTICS MANIA ===

#googleanalytics #googleanalytics4

[nziggypatlechat]

Thank for clarifying the Google analytics 4 'direct' sources issues.

[richardsondan]

Another excellent video - keep it up J!

[NexusCircuit]

Great walkthru of the various misattributions, Julius.
Quick question: for a client, I'm noticing around 50% of key events like purchase being missed. What are some of the reasons for this other than not accepting cookie consent and faults in the datalayer implementation? (I've tested the datalayer multiple times and I don't think it's because of cookie consent)

[Monirul_IslamBD]

Hi Julius, Great video. Thanks a lot. You showed why Direct traffic occurs. Could you please also share info on why unassigned data occurs?

[ChristianValencia-qw]

What about subfolders? Is it ok to create multiple properties for the same domain?

[websuasion]

This was awesome. So many great examples.

[AbhayKanojiaMichaelilu]

GA4 is showing organic traffic to direct traffic to my website... i have added ga4 code to header to all pages.. but I don't understand why it is showing as direct traffic.. could you help?

[daviers]

Sharing here my summary:

Some scenarios where a referrer may lose or be attributed to direct traffic:

- Transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS or vice versa
- Users interacting with the website without updating the cookie consent
- Links in PDFs or Emails do not have UTM parameters
- Some pages missing GA4 / GTM tracking installations
- Use of rel='noreferrer'
- Incorrect handling of unwanted referrals
- Not utilizing a single GA4 properties for different domains/subdomains
- Cookie limitations or expirations
- GA4 processing errors

[apparentlyayesha]

Thanks, Julius for this helpful info. If a user rejects cookies, does google count that as direct or unknown?

[ArturPakosch]

Thanks for the helpful content (as always). Question: How would you exclude that spambot traffic otherwise?

[phuoclongnguyen]

The http to https one is quite enlightening.