Once in awhile I'll be looking at our traffic report in Analytics and notice a blast of traffic to us from a site that I haven't seen before. Unless that traffic is coming from the referring site's homepage, there really isn't a great way to see where it's coming from. This is especially discouraging if the traffic isn't converting at a high conversion rate. I want the opportunity to learn how we're being linked to, reach out to the site owner and discuss ways to improve the conversion rate.
Have you run into a similar issue? It's definitely possible to access the specific referring URL in Analytics, but a custom report is necessary. It takes a few moments to setup, but once it's saved, you'll be able quickly access the report in the future.
To see specific referring URLs:
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Click the Customization link at the top of Analytics.
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Select New Custom Report.
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Under Metric Groups, add the metrics Pageviews, Transactions and Ecommerce Conversion Rate.
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Next to Type, click the Flat Table tab. Add the dimensions Source/Medium, Referral Path, Language and Country.
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Next to Type, click the Map Overlay tab. Add the metrics Pageviews, Transactions and Ecommerce Conversion Rate.
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Save the report.
This custom report will now be available for quick access when clicking the Customization tab. Select the saved report and you'll be given your Source/Medium report. However the difference is when you click one of the specific Source/Medium links, you'll receive a list of the pages for each Source that is referring traffic and sales to your site.
