Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 304

Understanding Where Your Traffic Is Coming
From
Many different avenues can lead people to your site, ranging from ads to search queries to
people bookmarking your page and then returning. Here are the common default sources
of traffic as recorded by Google Analytics:
Email: Visits from those who have clicked the links in your email promotions and
newsletter.
Organic search: Visits from people typing search queries into search engines such as
Google or Bing.
Direct: Traffic from users who type the exact domain of your site, such as Pepsi.com,
into their browser and navigate straight to your site. If someone bookmarks your page
and then visits your site again via that bookmark, that visit also registers as direct
traffic.
Paid search: Traffic from paid search is traffic you have purchased, such as pay-per-
click ads from search engines.
Referral: Visitors from sites that link to your website, such as blogs and forums.
Social: Visits from social channels, such as Twitter or Facebook.
One of the most enlightening reports to view in Google Analytics is the
Acquisition Overview report within the Acquisition Suite in Google Analytics. It is the
first report you should view when evaluating the health and performance of a website.
Figure 12-2 shows a pie chart from the Acquisition Overview report containing the
various methods of traffic acquisition for a website.