How do you track where traffic is coming from?

Tshepo

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How do you track where traffic is coming from without using a url shortener (is that even possible?) Google analytics?

If you have a domain (example.com) and you want to use that domain name for advertising on Instagram, Twitter bio, Facebook or YouTube. Is it possible to add a multiple tracking codes to a domain url?
 

Hawker

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Well there is Goo.gl which is not just a URL shortner but is also an Analytics tool. It will tell you where traffic comes from but only the root domain of that visitor not the exact link.

There's Google Analytics too which can really drill down to where the traffic came from right to the exact page but its rather quite finicky and technical to get your head around for first time users.

I prefer to use StatCounter.com tracking as it can tell you straight away on the Came From page where your most recent visitors came from.

It will show traffic for each URL on your domain.

Hope this helps!
 

Ron Killian

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How do you track where traffic is coming from without using a url shortener (is that even possible?) Google analytics?

If you have a domain (example.com) and you want to use that domain name for advertising on Instagram, Twitter bio, Facebook or YouTube. Is it possible to add a multiple tracking codes to a domain url?
You're kind of talking about two different things. If your talking about just having stats as to where you traffic is coming from, then yes Google Analytics is a great tool, least from my experience. Not the only one, but it's a good option.

Now, if you talking about tracking paid traffic, that is different because it's not about tracking where the traffic is coming from, it is about tracking conversions, otherwise you have no clue if you advertising spend is making a positive ROI. If you're paying for traffic you HAVE TO track it's conversions, it's only good business sense. Not only to see which ads are working (converting to sales), or if they are not. Any one can throw money at traffic, getting it to convert is another thing.

There are a ton of tracking and conversion tracking services, Improvely comes to mind. You could also do it with Google Analytics, I am just no expert on the subject to explain it. I do know on my stores, I use Google Analytics with the ecommerce option and it shows me exactly where my sales are coming from and how they are converting. Pretty cool actually.

My best advice would be to dive into GA and learn it, it can do amazing things and give you some amazing stats.

Maybe some one else will chime in with useful and legitimate options.

On a side note, Pretty link is not a detailed stats plugin on it's own. It does cloak links and make them pretty, but it does not give you detailed traffic stats or conversions. Least the free version does not.
 

Developer

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I, too, am no expert in this field, but one important thing I have learned over time is this:

When tracking links and visitors, it's also very important to track exits as well. Yes,
knowing where your traffic is coming IN FROM is VERY helpful in determining where
your marketing dollars will be spent, BUT, knowing where your visitors are LEAVING
TO is also essential on knowing how to keep them on your site once they're there.
 

Allchat

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As Ron said GA can be very powerful if you learn all the in's and out's of it which is probably a good idea.

But another good tool you can use is StatCounter - it now has a "paid traffic" tracker. I have been using it in conjunction with Google Analytic's for a couple years now and all it requires is you setting up the domain you want to use & placing it's code in the pages.
 

DonaldWoods

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Using Google Analytic, You can install multiple instances of the Google Analytics tracking code on your web pages to send data to multiple properties in your account.
 

TerranceM

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There are various looks like Google Analytics, Click, Omniture, SemRush, etc that can help one to know the traffic source, Google Analytics is of the free tool everyone can use.
 

Akshay_M

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For simplicity sake, if you are a wordpress user, just install a jetpack and you can add Google analytics code to your site header. There are numerous plugins that can do this for you and you keep track of views, bounce rate, search for and other stuff for web analytics.

If it is just html site, you can use Google analytics code added to the top of site and also you can use crazy egg and there are lots of it online. Some are paid for others free
 
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