Traffic channels
Every visit to your website is put into a channel based on where it came from: a Google search, an ad, an email, a link on another site, or nobody knows. Your report’s Website Traffic section shows how many sessions each channel brought.
What each channel means
Section titled “What each channel means”| Channel | Where the visit came from |
|---|---|
| Organic Search | Unpaid Google, Bing or other search results. |
| Paid Search | Search ads, such as Google Ads. |
| Direct | Someone typed your address, used a bookmark, or the source was lost. |
| Referral | A link on another website. |
| A link in an email or newsletter. | |
| Organic Social | An unpaid post or profile link on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and so on. |
| Paid Social | Social media ads, such as Meta Ads. |
| Organic Video / Paid Video | YouTube or other video sites, unpaid or paid. |
| Display | Banner ads. |
| Affiliates | Affiliate or partner links. |
| Unassigned | Google Analytics couldn’t match the visit to any channel. |
The names are Google Analytics’ default channel groups. Plausible uses the same names.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Your channel mix shows what’s actually bringing people to your site, not just what’s happening on each platform. If most enquiries come from Paid Search but most of your effort goes into social, that’s worth knowing.
Too much Direct or Unassigned
Section titled “Too much Direct or Unassigned”A high share of Direct or Unassigned usually means visits are losing their source. The usual causes and fixes:
- Emails and newsletters without tags. Add UTM parameters to every link, with
utm_medium=email. - Social posts, QR codes and printed links without tags. Tag them too, for example
utm_medium=socialorutm_medium=qr. - Messy tags. A
utm_mediumGoogle doesn’t recognise, such asNewsletterorfb-post, lands in Unassigned. Stick to lowercase standard values:email,social,cpc,paid_social,referral,affiliate. - Google Ads auto-tagging switched off. Paid Search visits then show as Organic Search or Direct. In Google Ads, go to Admin > Account settings > Auto-tagging and make sure it’s on.
- Links from apps. Links opened in some apps, such as WhatsApp or Messenger, don’t pass on where they came from. Tag the links you share there.
Check it worked
Section titled “Check it worked”Click one of your tagged links, then open Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition in Google Analytics. Your visit should appear under the channel you expect.
Google’s guide
Section titled “Google’s guide”Default channel group (Analytics Help)