Whats 'Other' in Google Analytics (in Acquisition)
-
When i look in GA under Channels (under Acquisition) 'other' is listed
What is 'other' ?
I have been told its other unidentified channels as they did not allow 3rd party cookies or surfers were in anonymous/private mode. Other is usually organic traffic that couldn't be identified for the aformentioned reasons. This data is encrypted and available but it violates Google guidelines as they are not allowed to pass personal info//data to third parties so it is automatically filtered. But they are not 'Not Provided' (since that still shows under organic) but is usually/mainly some form of organic visits.
Hence Seo can take credit for much of that traffic, is this correct ?
Many Thanks
-
-
Hello All,
We are not running any paid ads, our all traffic from organic search and social media, referral sites where we promote our website organically then why we are seeing this "other" option in GA. Most of the conversions we are getting from "other" and confused from which source of medium getting this traffic.
Sunil Kumar
KM: Edited to remove unnecessary link
-
Thanks Kate!
-
It's going to depend on how your tracking is setup but out of the box, GA's channel for Social is anything that is tagged as social. Any untagged campaigns, including social ones, are going to be put into Other.
-
Thanks Kate. In terms of social search, does this refer to all traffic generated from social media sites? If 'other' is from untagged paid advertising like Facebook, then 'social search' does not include traffic from FB ads?
-
It's traditionally untagged paid advertising like Facebook. Paid Search is typically campaigns from AdCenter or AdWords, the search engines themselves.
-
How does 'other' differ to paid search?
-
It is most likely the names of campaigns you might have set up. It's best to discussion with your marketing and advertising departments.
-
I am seeing a significant number of sessions under "other" as well. and when I go into Other for details, I see 2 entries - cd and DC. Can any one elaborate on what these mean.
Thanks!
-
great thanks for that additional info Geoff !
all best
dan
-
+1 Kate
To add on what Kate said, you can typically get a little more data to help you pinpoint what it is by clicking on other and then looking at secondary dimensions such as medium, ad distribution network, placement domain, campaign, etc.
-
cool cheers
-
PLA = Product Listing Ads
-
many thnaks for further comments Kate
Sorry but whats PLA ?
No but i will now
All Best
Dasn
-
Paid is typically AdWords and AdCenter, paid search things. But stuff like Reddit advertising, Facebook, Twitter, and other display advertising, and maybe PLA based advertising (that might be your Google), is Other Advertising.
When you click into Google, have you added a second metric of something like destination URL to see where the traffic is going? That might give you some clues.
-
isnt cpc type activity going to show in Paid search ?
when i click on 'other' within channels it shows 4 sub channels no 1 is Google and the others are know activity like Buffer.
When i click on Google there's no further breakdown apart from the traffic details (sessions/goals etc).
-
Not sure. All organic search traffic should be going into Organic and Other is really set to CPC type tracking. Can you list what the other section says for you?
-
ok thanks Kate
Seems a tad strange though since all known paid channels being reported elsewhere.
It would be good to know if theres a way to find out whats causing it since all paid campaigns, PPC, emails, display, etc etc being reported in other places and traffic from this 'Google Other' source is 4x current organic search traffic
All Best
Dan
-
Most of what you see in other is from paid sources, even traffic from Google. I would not count the traffic you see in Other as natural search traffic unless you are 100% sure. Everything in my various client's Other categories are paid sources.
-
what about what these guys are saying:
-
Many Thanks for that Kate !
-
According to Google, Other is actually not organic. It's other advertising channels. See the link below and how they define other.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3297892?hl=en&ref_topic=3125765
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Whatstuffwherebot user agent messing up Google Analytics
Starting yesterday, Aug 26, 2020, I noticed a new bot crawling our site with user agent whatstuffwherebot. Google Analytics is counting these hits as human traffic, completely throwing off my numbers - yesterday, Analytics reported nearly triple my typical number of visitors. As of now, Search Console only shows data through Aug 25 so I don't know if Search Console is also affected. Is anybody else seeing something similar? Does anybody know what the whatstuffwherebot bot is? I don't get any results when I search on Google or Bing. For what it's worth, the traffic is coming from Columbus, OH, running over Amazon AWS via 278 different IP addresses so far. Also, WordFence (my WordPress security plugin) correctly identifies these hits as bot traffic.
Reporting & Analytics | | ahirai0 -
Email traffic tracking in Google Analytics
Hello! I have a question about how to assure email traffic is properly tracked in GA > Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. **First, some background... ** Our company (Wisconsin's largest group dental practice) is about to revamp the way we try to re-capture patients who don't have a future appointment set with us. Part of that process will include emails. Those emails will point back to our website to request an appointment. Now to the question... Is there anything special we should do to assure that links coming to the website and the resulting appointment request goal conversions track appropriately and appear under "Email" in the Default Channel Group of Analytics > Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels area of GA? For example, should we use Campaign URL Builder to establish UTM links? Thanks in advance for any feedback. Erik
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO0 -
Is there a way to filter all computers on a specific IPv6 network in Google Analytics?
Is there a quick way of filtering the IP addresses for all the computers on a network that's using IPv6? I want to filter out visits to our websites from the devices on our office network, but each computer (and phone and tablet) seems to have a different address. It _looks _like they all start the same way, though. One computer is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:aaaa:aaaa:aaaa:aaaa, another is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:bbbb:bbbb:bbbb:bbbb, my phone is xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:cccc:cccc:cccc:cccc, etc. Does this mean that xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx is the address for our network as a whole, and I can just set up a Google Analytics filter for "IP addresses starting with..."? Or would doing that also filter out hits from, like, every visitor within a 20 mile radius of our office? If I need to simply put in the individual addresses for each and every device, I will. I'm just hoping it doesn't come to that. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | BrianAlpert780 -
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
Reporting & Analytics | | Windlass0 -
Google Analytics, new property or views?
Hi All We have an existing Google analytics account which was customised relatively heavily a few years back, with custom variables, e-commerce tracking and the a large number of filters. We have determined that the custom variables and e-commerce tracking, at least for now, are no longer required and actually complicating our lives. We want to simplify the account and add a fresh set of goals and events. Our initial train of thought was to create an entire new property with the usual views, raw, test, main etc. We are proposing to retain both properties (6 months) so we can still do some comparative stuff. We're now wondering if we should retain the existing property and just create new views, the downside being that whilst we can compare data with previous periods it's meaningless to some degree as the filters etc are different. The plus of more views is that we're not firing the tag twice retaining two properties. Views and opinions welcome. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | mde9110 -
Google Analytics Page Metrics and Redirects
Hi All- Context: A site has been redesigned. Pages were renamed in the process. Problem: It's very hard to compare before and after metrics because the page URLs are not the same. Question: Anyone know how to do this in Google Analytics? I'm hoping there's some simple trick I just don't know about. D
Reporting & Analytics | | DonnaDuncan0 -
Google Analytics help - exporting reports
Hey mozzers, A little help if you will. I am in traffic sources > sources > search > organic I am view keywords and comparing 1 month with another. Now I see what 1 keyword sends 1st month, 2nd month and % Change. I want to export this data to an .xls file. When I do, I end up with a file that shows what 1 keyword sends 1st month and 2nd month, but no % Change! I really need to include this in exported document.... Summary: Analytics hates me. 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | MirandaP0 -
Google analytics - help
Hello, What is meant by campaign expiration in Google analytics ? The default value is 6 months. what does it mean ?
Reporting & Analytics | | seoug_20050