Documentation

Attribution Channels

Definitions and detection logic for all nine channels.

Attribution Channels

CQI Referrer Attribution classifies every session into one of nine channels. Classification happens server-side on first arrival using the HTTP referrer header and UTM parameters.

Channel priority

When more than one signal is present, the plugin applies this priority order:

  1. UTM Campaign parameters
  2. AI Referrer Taxonomy match
  3. Paid search referrers (GCLID / MSCLKID)
  4. Paid display referrers
  5. Social media referrers
  6. Email referrers
  7. Organic search referrers
  8. Referral (any other referring domain)
  9. Direct (no referrer, no UTM)

Channel definitions

AI tools

Sessions where the HTTP referrer matches a domain in the AI Referrer Taxonomy. Includes traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and 13 other platforms. The full taxonomy is documented at AI Referrer Taxonomy.

Organic search

Sessions arriving from a search engine results page without paid click parameters. Detected by matching the referring domain against a list of known search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, and others).

Social media

Sessions from social network domains: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, Snapchat, and others. Detection is by referrer domain.

Email

Sessions with utm_medium=email, or arriving from known webmail domains (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, Apple Mail). The UTM parameter is the primary signal.

Paid search

Sessions carrying a Google Ads click ID (gclid) or Microsoft Ads click ID (msclkid), or sessions with utm_medium=cpc or utm_medium=paid_search.

Paid display

Sessions with utm_medium=display, utm_medium=banner, or utm_medium=cpm. Display and paid search are kept as separate channels so you can compare CPC vs CPM performance.

Campaign (UTM)

Sessions carrying UTM parameters that do not map to a more specific channel. If utm_source is present but does not match paid, email, or social signals, the session is classified as Campaign.

Referral

Sessions from a referring domain that is not in any other taxonomy (not AI, not social, not search, not email). Any inbound link from an external site that is not otherwise classified.

Direct

Sessions with no HTTP referrer and no UTM parameters. Includes typed URLs, browser bookmarks, and some mobile app traffic where the referrer is stripped.

Self-referral exclusion: Your own domain is excluded from the referral channel. Internal navigation does not overwrite the original attribution. Configurable via Attribution → Settings.

CQIP is a methodology standard, not a technology stack. Implementations exist for static PHP sites, WordPress, page generators, and other document management systems. The platform is the implementation detail — the standard and the eight canonical block types are consistent across all implementations.