{"id":20473,"date":"2020-01-29T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T23:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/traffic-source"},"modified":"2026-05-11T23:06:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T23:06:01","slug":"traffic-source","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/traffic-source","title":{"rendered":"Traffic Source"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-23103 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/traffic-source.jpg\" alt=\"Traffic Source\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/traffic-source.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/traffic-source-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/web-analytics-agency-spain\">web analytics,<\/a> <em><strong>traffic sources <\/strong><\/em>are dimensions that are visualized in a report that provides an overview of the sources of traffic to a website.<\/p>\n<p>An example of a traffic source is direct traffic (users typing the URL into the browser or clicking from bookmarks) or traffic from search engines.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"indexed\"><span class=\"heading_text\">Traffic sources in web analytics<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The types of sources that are commonly used in web analytics are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Direct traffic:<\/em>All those people who find a website by typing the URL or through a bookmark.<\/li>\n<li><em>Referral Traffic:<\/em>Other websites that send traffic to a site. These can be as a result of banners, campaigns, blogs, or affiliates linking to the site owner, or news aggregators like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/meneame\">men\u00e9ame.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Organic traffic:<\/em>coming from search engines such as Google, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/yahoo\">Yahoo,<\/a>Bing, Ask or others.<\/li>\n<li><em>Paid traffic:<\/em>coming from PPC and display media, such as Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><em>Social Media traffic<\/em> from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><em>Other:<\/em> These include campaigns, email, direct marketing, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"indexed\"><span class=\"heading_text\">What are traffic sources for?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Once we have understood the different traffic sources by which our users access our website we understand why the traffic sources of any web page are so important.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to an analysis of the traffic sources of a website we can check, for example, <strong>which source is the one that gives us poorer results,<\/strong> this will be a signal to try to improve our strategy in that type of source to be able to attract more customers.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, knowing the sources of access we can better segment our target audience and thus be able to optimize the quality of traffic and increase sales.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions about Traffic Source<\/h2>\n<div class=\"geo-faq-block\">\n<details class=\"geo-faq-item\">\n<summary>What does Traffic Source mean in digital marketing?<\/summary>\n<p>Traffic Source refers to the concept described in this glossary entry: Definition: In web analytics, traffic sources are dimensions that are visualized in a report that provides an overview of the sources of traffic to a website. An example of a traffic source is direct traffic (users typing the URL into the browser or clicking from bookmarks) or traffic from search engines. It gives teams a shared vocabulary for analysing digital projects.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details class=\"geo-faq-item\">\n<summary>When should teams pay attention to Traffic Source?<\/summary>\n<p>Teams should review Traffic Source when it affects acquisition, measurement, user experience, content, automation or campaign performance. The important step is to connect the definition with a real decision.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details class=\"geo-faq-item\">\n<summary>How is Traffic Source used in a digital strategy?<\/summary>\n<p>Traffic Source is used by translating the concept into practical checks: where it appears in the funnel, which data or channel is involved and whether it needs optimisation, monitoring or documentation.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details class=\"geo-faq-item\">\n<summary>What is a common mistake when interpreting Traffic Source?<\/summary>\n<p>A common mistake is using Traffic Source too broadly. It is better to verify the context, the tool or the metric involved before making strategic or technical conclusions.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@graph\": [\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"DefinedTerm\",\n      \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/traffic-source#definedterm\",\n      \"name\": \"Traffic Source\",\n      \"description\": \"Definition of Traffic Source in the Arimetrics Digital Glossary.\",\n      \"inDefinedTermSet\": {\n        \"@type\": \"DefinedTermSet\",\n        \"name\": \"Arimetrics Digital Glossary\",\n        \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\"\n      }\n    },\n    {\n      \"@type\": \"FAQPage\",\n      \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/traffic-source#faq\",\n      \"mainEntity\": [\n        {\n          \"@type\": \"Question\",\n          \"name\": \"What does Traffic Source mean in digital marketing?\",\n          \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n            \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n            \"text\": \"Traffic Source refers to the concept described in this glossary entry: Definition: In web analytics, traffic sources are dimensions that are visualized in a report that provides an overview of the sources of traffic to a website. 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Traffic sources in web [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[416],"class_list":["post-20473","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-traffic-source"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/20473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=20473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}