Referring page

Want to know more details about your referring websites? You can do that with the referral page. This is an extra step you take in Google Analytics if you want to view referring websites. Instead of the general site, you then see the specific page that brought people to your site.

What is a referring page?

So it’s about the page that led to your site. Not about how your visitors get to a specific page on your website. The referring page provides meaningful information because sometimes a referring Web site says little. For example, if the referring website is a social media platform.

The importance of the referring page

The referring page then indicates the exact page or URL from where your visitor landed on your site. For example, you can see which post or group on Facebook or Instagram is driving traffic to your site. This information is more specific than just knowing that you are getting visitors in through a social media platform. This allows you to be more targeted with your online marketing.

The extra step needed to find the referring page is very simple. You add the referral path option in Google Analytics when you have a report created. This way you will see the referring website under the source heading and the exact URL under referral path.(1)

Impact on SEO

The referring page does not necessarily affect SEO. The insight you gain from knowing the specific URL through which your audience comes to your site is especially helpful to your online marketing. You get a better picture of your visitors. With that, you can take a more focused approach to your online marketing strategy. This could indirectly have a positive impact on SEO, though. But in the longer term.

My advice

Those who check the referring website would be wise to also check the referring page. Especially for the big referring websites. It says almost nothing if you know that visitors come to your site through Facebook. You are more likely to have the URL that informs you of the exact page they came from.