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How does Google Analytics know where visitors were when they came to our website? I understand when the referral source is Google search or Google Ads, but how does it know a user clicked a link on LinkedIn or from WhatsApp?

Sessions by Source

Anders Swanson
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Google Analytics can understand source like Linkedin.com from document.referrer but he can't know source like Whatsapp or Outlook desktop so it will be Direct traffic. You can append UTMs parameters to the querystring of the URL to force custom source/medium.

Michele Pisani
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  • so `document.referrer` is an HTML DOM element right? and are the sources I'm seeing in the console coming from UTM params? I wasn't aware that we were forcing custom sources & mediums, but maybe we are. – Anders Swanson Aug 05 '20 at 16:42
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    document.referrer is a representation of the referrer header sent by the client. I have never seen google-whtsp as source, I would say they can be UTM. – Michele Pisani Aug 05 '20 at 21:31
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  • Log into your Google Analytics account and navigate to the “Acquisition” tab.
  • Click on “Overview” to see an overview of your traffic sources.
  • Click on “Channels” to see a breakdown of your traffic sources by channel.
  • Click on “All Traffic” to see a detailed breakdown of your traffic sources.

Traffic Soucers Google Analytics

https://numbana.co/unlock-the-mystery-of-traffic-sources-in-google-analytics/

Jose Valles
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