Why am I seeing so many referalls to my root domain from Facebook in Google Analytics?
-
When we look at referalls from Facebook in Google Analytics, more than 50% (and sometimes upwards of 80%) of the traffic we're getting is listed as landing on our root domain. The thing is, we don't have any direct links TO our root domain on our Facebook page. So is this legitimate traffic, and how are they getting to our page if we have no links to it?
We do post links to stories, videos, etc, but those are to the individual pages, not to our root domain. When I look at those pages that we link to, they do have traffic numbers, but nothing compared to the root domain. Any thoughts would be helpful.
Thanks.
-
Thanks for the responses. Visit duration for the root domain is 9:31, with an average of almost 10 pages/visit. And while we ARE actively promoting on Facebook, we don't have a link to that specific page. I'm doing an experiment this week - not posting anything at all and seeing if that affects traffic numbers. I have a feeling it won't.
And no, we don't have any purchased traffic that I'm aware of.
-
I guess they don't show the post that it was clicked from, or it was clicked from the news feed section.
What are the page metrics? Bounce rate, exit, visit duration etc. If you are not actively promoting on Facebook and or active users/readers mentioning your brand, it would be extremely odd that you would get that much from Facebook.
It could be purchased traffic, have you hired someone to do this for you? I know there are ways to spoof traffic to look like its coming from a source.
-
The "shared URL" is our root domain.
When you look at the "full referrer" to that shared URL, you get 5 results (attached):
-
There is a difference between referral source and referral path. I think the bigger question is what the referral path is. You should be able to view where the hit is coming from Facebook.
And as Alberto stated, it could be a rewrite, which is how Analytics classifies a URL path.
-
Thanks Alberto. I'll talk with our developer to see if he can take a look at what you're talking about. Interestingly, we do have a link to our page in the "About" section, but it's actually pointing to a different page that barely gets ANY traffic, and none from Facebook. So nobody is clicking that at all.
-
Hello,
It's very rare, it may be that you have some kind of redirection and rewrite your URL, which is confusing Analytics.
Often web technology does not support automatic analysis programs.
It could also be that you had a link to the home page in the information section of the fanpage.
What happens to you is not normal, however it is more about using Analytics with SEO issues.
Greetings.
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
-
Facebook Instant Articles Not Working
I'm getting the following error on Instant Articles despite my site having substantial traffic and hundreds of articles. The provided URL is not being accepted because the site has minimal readership, which violates the Instant Article Policies (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instant-articles/policy/). Please provide a different URL. Here's the blog: http://bit.ly/2Mh1Aes
Social Media | | Neumarkets.com1 -
Facebook page SEO optimization
Hi, how could I optimize Facebook page for SEO? how can I get a title like this: Brand | Facebook in the Search Result pages?
Social Media | | AbacoDigital1 -
Which URL should I share with Facebook and google plus ?
Hi, My question is which URL should I use with the share plugins of Facebook and Google Plus.
Social Media | | Kadel
Should I use the URL of the website or of the facebook's page / google's + page? By the way , may I ask what's the source of the FB Shares that Moz present in the advanced keyword analysis report? and are those shares are of the website or of the facebook's page? Thanks,
Kadel.0 -
How to define image to display on a facebook link?
Currently I am in the process of relaunching http://www.grassrootsseo.co.uk - however a friend pointed out to me that no image displays when I'm on facebook and link to my site. Anyone know how to define which image you want Facebook to show when you link to a certain page? Many thanks...
Social Media | | GrassRootsSEO0 -
Facebook Spam - Suggestions?
We put a blog post up on our Facebook page earlier today. Within an hour, there were 560 likes and over 4,000 comments. While that sounds great, that is nowhere in the universe of normal. Almost all of that was spam (there were no services that we engaged in to bring likes/comments). So, has anyone else here been hit by rapid-fire Facebook spam? Any thoughts on what to do - leave it alone, delete the post, filters, etc.? Would love the advice of the Moz community. Thanks guys!
Social Media | | DeliaAssociates0 -
How to promote a blog after Penguin and the Google blog update
Hello, I have a question, or maybe a discussion. I'm wondering what the best way is to promote a blog from Blogspot or Wordpress nowadays with Penguin and other Google algorithm updates? Looking forward for your answers. Regards, Thomas
Social Media | | ThomasH1 -
Possible to get information about Facebook Likes, Google+ and Tweets via API
As subject reads - I wonder if it possible to get the information about Facebook Likes, Google+´s and Tweets by using your API? It would help a lot.
Social Media | | SEOmannen0