Hi folks,
“Came From” Stats
Your StatCounter “Came From” stats provide you with information about how people are coming to your site.
In your “Came From” stats you will see a list of sites via which visitors come to your site. These sites which refer visitors to your site might be forums, blogs, search engines, directories or websites of any kind that provide links to your site. You may also see entries for “No Referring Link” – we’ll explain what this means in this post.
Indirect and Direct Visitors
Visitors to your website can arrive in two distinct ways. For example:
A Vistor Can Arrive at your site INDIRECTLY by:
- Clicking though to your website from a Search Engine
- Following a link to your site on a blog
- Clicking a link in a forum where someone recommends your site
OR a Visitor Can Arrive at your site DIRECTLY by:
- Typing your web address directly into their browser address bar
- Clicking a bookmarked link to your site in their browser
Indirect Visitors
If a visitor arrives at your site via a search engine, the visitor has been referred to your site by the search engine therefore you will see a referring link from the search engine in your stats.
In other words, you will only see a referring link in your stats, if a visitor has been referred to your site by another website, blog, forum or search engine.
Direct Visitors
If a visitor arrives at your site by typing your website address directly into their browser, the visitor has NOT been referred to your site by any other site, therefore you will see a “No Referring Link” entry in your StatCounter stats.
In other words, if a vistor comes to your site directly (i.e. without being referred to your site by any other site), then there is no referring link for that visitor.
No Referring Link – what’s the significance?
There are a number of reasons why you could have a high proportion of “No Referring Link” entries in your stats. For example:
- People may get to know your web address offline (e.g. in flyers or newspapers) so they simply go directly to your site rather than looking for your site in a search engine.
- You may have a lot of returning visitors who have bookmarked your site so that they can quickly revisit it.
As usual, comments, questions and suggestions welcome!
UPDATE: To ensure that all referring links are captured, you should make sure that you have StatCounter code installed on all pages of your site. It is not sufficient to have StatCounter installed on your homepage only. This is because visitors may enter your site at any page not just your homepage.