Referrer Attribution
Articles
Practical writing on referrer attribution, AI traffic, privacy-first analytics, and what the data actually shows. Written by H D Fraser.
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Your Direct traffic isn't all direct
Every analytics report has a problem hiding in plain sight. The Direct channel you have learned to ignore is not direct traffic. It is traffic your tools failed to identify.
Read article →The attribution tool that doesn't need a cookie banner
A session that arrives with no referrer and no UTM parameters has still been classified. The question is whether that classification required you to first ask for consent.
Read article →GA4 gives you three channels. Your traffic uses nine.
Default GA4 channel groupings were designed around Google's own advertising products. AI Referrer traffic is not a channel in GA4. It is an unexamined slice of your Direct bucket.
Read article →We added NotebookLM and DeepSeek to the AI referrer taxonomy
Two more AI tools are now in the default taxonomy, bringing the total to 19. NotebookLM traffic is qualitatively different from ChatGPT or Perplexity traffic, and worth separating out.
Read article →AI referrer traffic converts. Here is what the data shows.
The volume question about AI tool traffic is less interesting than the conversion rate question. Visitors arriving from AI tools have already encountered your content before they click.
Read article →What a WordPress attribution plugin cannot see
This is an unusual post for a product to publish. Here is what CQI Referrer Attribution does not do, stated clearly, so you can make an informed decision about whether it fits your needs.
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