Short Desc: Direct Traffic gives us the least control. This guide discusses in detail and addresses some common trends on this

URL: n/a

Description

Traffic comes from several sources (Social, email, search, etc) and as you analyze your traffic flows you may notice fluctuations or even traffic from a particular channel missing.

• Direct Traffic is one of several common traffic types seen in Google Analytics
• Other common traffic types include Organic Search, Paid Search, Display, Email, Referral and Social
• Refer to Traffic Channels Explained for more info

Traffic Trend Troubleshooting

1. Most commonly, the perception is that Direct traffic is the typing URL into browser, clicking bookmarks, etc. however the devil is in the details and the "otherwise ends up on your website"
   1. If Organic Volume is up but Direct traffic is down - This is likely the product of improving website technology making it easier to/more accurate for Google to properly classify traffic
   2. If Email Volume is down but Direct traffic is up - The recommendation to the client here is to inspect or ensure that the clients uses UTM tagging when they send out newsletters
   3. If Direct Volume is up but Paid Search traffic is down
      1. More often than not, this will pertain to non-Google networks (i.e. Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
      2. Where Google and Bing, the auto-tagging is a one-time process in the NCS for platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, etc. it is needed to put in UTM codes. To note, while this should be double checked, more likely this scenario will apply to increase in Social Traffic
   4. If Direct Volume is up with no apparent correlation
      1. Inspect Traffic by OS
         Since iOS14 update in 2021, apple has started to obfuscate traffic types
         1. Go to Reports
         2. Choose > Tech > Tech details
         3. Update your date range.
         4. Change the Primary column from Browser to 'Operating system'
         5. Use the search tool filtering for ios
         6. Check to see if Direct Volume is going up with other traffic source going down

1. Inspect for Robots
   Software from crawlers and automation frequently use the screen resolution of 800x600
   1. Go to Reports
   2. Choose > Tech > Tech details
   3. Update your date range.
   4. Change the Primary column from Browser to 'Screen Resolution'
   5. Use the search tool filtering for 800x600
2. If Direct Volume is up but no other sources are down - This is your best case scenario. While Direct traffic has the least amount of Direct control, efforts in areas such as SEO, Display Network, Reputation Management, etc. can lead and commonly correlates to an uptick in Direct traffic over time.    
   

References

• SEO 
• About Your Reputation