How Yandex Metrica detects the traffic source

Sources of traffic to the site are determined by the referrer (HTTP Referer header) and tags. If you need to replace the referrer with your own, use the utm_referrer parameter.

Yandex Metrica uses a tag to detect traffic sources if the tag is included in the data for the first pageview during a user session. If there isn’t a tag in the first pageview, the traffic source is detected from the referrer.

For example, a user has accessed the site from a browser bookmark (first pageview). Then they have left the site and returned within 30 minutes by clicking a link with a tag from an email newsletter (second pageview in the session). This session would be considered direct traffic to the site.

Source

How it is detected

Description

Default report

Direct traffic

Referrer

Yandex.Metrica attributes traffic to this source in the following cases:

  • The user typed your site URL in the browser’s address bar.
  • The user opened your site from their browser bookmarks.
  • The user clicked a link added to the site tiles on a new browser tab (for example, in Yandex Browser).
  • The user transitioned from a site that uses the HTTPS protocol to a site with the HTTP protocol.
  • The source of the click-through was not passed in the referrer.

“Sources, summary” report

Link traffic

Referrer and UTM tags

Users visited your site by clicking a link on another site. The page URL hosting the link is saved as the referrer.

“Sites” report

"UTM tags" report

Search engine traffic

Users clicked a link to your site in search results. Yandex Metrica can detect the majority of search engines. Yandex Metrica stores the name of the search engine used, usually along with the search query.

“Search engines” report

"UTM tags" report

Traffic from social networks

Users followed a link posted on a social network. Most social networks identify the user who posted a link or the community it was posted by.

“Social networks” report

"UTM tags" report

Yandex Direct traffic

Conditions for linking a tag to a Yandex.Direct campaign

Traffic generated by Yandex services (Yandex Direct, Yandex Market), media platforms, and tagged links (such as UTM, Openstat, or Google Ads). To learn more, see the Ad systems report.

“Yandex Direct, summary” report

"Yandex Direct, sites" report

“Yandex Direct, costs” report

Traffic from other ad systems

Referrer and tags. Complete data is collected only if you create UTM and Openstat tags correctly.

"Ad systems" report

"UTM tags" report

"Openstat tags" report

Other advertising: identified by tags

UTM tags. Conditions that determine the data source.

"Ad systems" report

"UTM tags" report

Messenger traffic

Referrer and UTM tags. Complete data is only collected if you create UTM tags correctly.

Clicks on links posted in messengers are identified by the referrer and UTM tags.

Learn more

Yandex.Metrica collects data on the following messengers:

  • Skype
  • Telegram
  • Viber
  • WeChat
  • WhatsApp

Use these UTM tags to identify your source of traffic:

  • utm_medium (required) with the value messenger (recommended) or social.

  • utm_source. The tag is used to identify the messenger. For example, utm_source=viber. If there is no tag in the URL, the tag value is omitted, or the value isn’t recognized by Yandex Metrica, then the source will be labeled as Other messenger: identified by tags.

    Full tag list:
    • skype — for Skype
    • telegram — for Telegram
    • viber — for Viber
    • wechat — for WeChat
    • whatsapp — for WhatsApp

“Messengers” report

"UTM tags" report

Recommendation system traffic

Referrer and UTM tags

Clicks on links in news feeds, personalized recommendation lists, and similar sources. Does not include data from traffic exchange networks and news aggregators (News, Rambler News, and Google News).

Learn more

Yandex.Metrica recognizes the following recommendation systems:

  • MirTesen.
  • Rambler.
  • Flipboard.
  • Google Discover. It does not take into account click-throughs on devices with the iOS operating system.
  • Opera Personal News.
  • Pulse (Mail.ru).
  • Sony News Suite.
  • Toutiao.

“Recommendation systems” report

Cached page traffic

Referrer

Yandex.Metrica attributes traffic to this source in the following cases:

  • A user arrives at your site from a page saved locally on their computer (the session might have a referrer file:///С:/Documents/User/page.html).
  • The landing page domain contains localhost or 127.

“Sources, summary” report

Internal traffic

If the user stopped doing anything on the site and the session timeout expired but the browser was still open, when the user later resumes activity Yandex.Metrica registers a new session with “internal traffic” as the source.

Note

For accurate detection of internal traffic, make sure that the correct website address is shown in the tag settings (in the Tag section).

“Sources, summary” report

Mailing traffic

UTM, Openstat, From tags. Learn more about proper tag creation.

The user clicked a link in an email. Defined by UTM, Openstat, and from tags.

For more information, see How to correctly create a tag

"UTM tags" report

"Openstat tags" report

"From tags" report

Click-throughs via QR codes

Traffic to the site via QR codes is detected using UTM tags.

For more information, see How to correctly create a tag

“Sources, summary” report

"UTM tags" report

Undefined

—

Undefined means that some of the session characteristics couldn’t be identified, although the session itself was registered in the system. For instance, Yandex Direct traffic may have Yandex Direct: Undefined listed as the source. That means that Yandex Metrica recognized the ad platform, but couldn't identify details such as the campaign, keyword, and so on.

Why sessions aren’t recognized

There are many reasons why sessions might be “undetected” in Yandex Metrica. For example, if the source of Yandex Direct traffic appears as Yandex Direct: Undefined, this could mean that there was a delay between generating the yclid tag in Yandex Direct and registering the session in Yandex Metrica. This can happen in the following situations:

  • The user accessed the page by clicking an ad, left the tab open, and later refreshed the page.
  • The user clicked a link from an ad, but then forwarded it to someone else. The repeat session using this link won't be associated with the click from Yandex Direct, either.
  • Redirects on the site may cause yclid tags to disappear from the link and lose the referrer.

“Sources, summary” report

Learn more

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Loading one of a site’s pages when a user navigates to it. Pageviews also include page refreshes, AJAX site updates, and sending data using the hit method.

A URL parameter processed by Yandex Metrica using a special algorithm. It’s not displayed in the “URL parameters” report. Instead, it’s included in special reports. This lets you create more intuitive and thorough analytic segments.

The sequence of actions (activity) performed by a single user on the site (on a single tag). What is considered as user activity: pageviews, clicks on outbound links, file downloads, and triggers of the functions reachGoal, hit, params, extLink, file, notBounce.

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