Why are referrals from Product Hunt showing as "(none)(direct)" on Google Analytics?
So we launched OneUp on Product Hunt yesterday (finished #4 🎊🎉) and saw a huge wave of traffic from it.
I am trying to figure out why some of the traffic shows "Referral - Product Hunt", and others show "(none)(direct)".
I know for a fact the "(none)(direct)" came directly from the PH link click because I tested it myself.
Anyone know why this is?
We append "ref=producthunt" to all product links which you should be able to see in Google Analytics. That said, it should also include producthunt.com when viewing the referral source.
Hmmm, any idea then as to why some of the traffic would show as "(none)(direct)" then?
GA shows the majority of the traffic yesterday and today came from "(none)(direct)", but I know it was actually from PH.
Not a big deal, just curious if it was something I'm doing wrong :)
Yeah, I am getting the same with some of the Reddit and Quora traffic. Maybe adblocker?
Hi Davis!
When I was researching the topic of the (none)(direct) traffic source in general, I learned the ref status may occasionally be lost by leads on mobile.
Not sure if this is it, just my guess.
In any case, this must be solved by using the UTM parameters such as ?ref=producthunt.
Thanks Kyrylo. Did you have the same thing happen during your PH launch?
Yeah. Happened not just with PH, but with other websites as well previously. I got used to it, just assumed that the majority of (none)(direct) traffic was from PH on the launch day and several days after.