Google Analytics Traffic Sources

[hooperman]

I'm trying to get my head around how to determine where visitors to a particular page came from. I created a new page on one of my sites a few days ago and later that day the page received visits broken down as:

• direct
• google
• referral

The direct visitors I can explain as I think they must be RSS subscribers. The Google search visitors puzzle me because the terms they searched for are not terms that this page would be found for. I think Google search is the original route that these visitors took to find a more appropriate page and they then clicked on my menu navigation to get to the new page. Likewise with the referrals: the referring sites link to my homepage so these visitors must have traveled to the new page in two steps.

So I've deduced that the source of my visitors is the original source of visitors landing anywhere on the site. OK, that's probably obvious to most However, when I look at the source data for a particular page, I expect to see just that, even if it's another page on my site.

What I'm interested in is where my visitors were on my site before they reached my new page. Can Google Analytics tell me a visitor's route through my site, or at least the previous page visited?

[JJMcClure]

Yeah I think so, go to 'Top Content' and pick a page and choose 'Navigation Summary' from the Navigation Analysis menu on the right. Is that what you're looking for?

This is a pretty good explanation of what the data represents - http://www.googlelytics.net/the-diff...paths-reports/

[hooperman]

Yeah I think so, go to 'Top Content' and pick a page and choose 'Navigation Summary' from the Navigation Analysis menu on the right. Is that what you're looking for?

Bingo! Thanks Rich.

Thanks for the link too. I didn't need to read their article as your explanation did the job but I'll look at their site later.

[LukeMoulton]

The direct visitors I can explain as I think they must be RSS subscribers.

I don't think this is the case hooperman. GA doesn't track RSS visits.

[hooperman]

I don't think this is the case hooperman. GA doesn't track RSS visits.

Can't subscribers come directly to the page? That's the only way I can think of for a visitor to come directly to a new page. Don't subscribers get a link to the post?

LOL I've just discovered that I don't have an RSS button on this site! I got 2 visitors to this page who came directly. How would they know about this page..?

[JJMcClure]

Can't subscribers come directly to the page? That's the only way I can think of for a visitor to come directly to a new page. Don't subscribers get a link to the post?

LOL I've just discovered that I don't have an RSS button on this site! I got 2 visitors to this page who came directly. How would they know about this page..?

Your reputation precedes you...