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npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill traffic-analysis
When the user wants to analyze website traffic sources, attribution, or dark traffic. Also use when the user mentions "traffic sources," "dark traffic," "direct traffic," "UTM parameters," "traffic attribution," "channel attribution," "attribution optimization," "channel analysis," "traffic analysis," "traffic diversification," "natural traffic benchmark," or "organic vs paid traffic." For GA4 setup, use analytics-tracking.
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill traffic-analysis
Guides website traffic analysis across all channels (organic, paid, social, referral, direct). Covers traffic source attribution, dark traffic identification, and multi-channel reporting.
When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1-2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.
| Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Branded | Higher CTR, conversion, purchase intent; users closer to funnel bottom |
| Non-branded | Touchpoint with future users; most sites get more non-brand traffic; competition fiercer |
Brand traffic grows over time as brand awareness increases.
A large share of traffic can be bot traffic—RPA, search crawlers, spiders, scrapers. Exclude or segment when evaluating real user behavior; use GA4 filters or segments to isolate human traffic.
| Channel | Typical Sources | Attribution |
|---|---|---|
| Organic | Google, Bing, other search | Referrer preserved |
| Paid (web) | Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc. | UTM required |
| Paid (app) | App install ads; Google App Campaigns, Apple Search Ads | UTM; in-app events |
| Paid (TV/CTV) | Streaming ads; Hulu, Roku, YouTube TV | UTM for QR/URL; brand lift |
| Social | Public posts (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) | Often preserved |
| Referral | External sites, backlinks | Referrer preserved |
| Direct | Typed URL, bookmarks | No referrer |
| Newsletters, campaigns | Often dark without UTM |
Traffic without clear origin--analytics tools default to "Direct" when referrer is missing. Common causes:
When traffic was sent from known sources, analytics often misattributed:
| Action | Purpose |
|---|---|
| UTM parameters | Tag links in emails, social, campaigns: ?utm_source=X&utm_medium=Y&utm_campaign=Z |
| Block internal IPs | Exclude company visits from reports |
| Segment direct traffic | Split by page type to estimate dark vs. genuine direct |
Ads, growth channels, and medium can be optimized by viewing attribution data. Clean UTM + conversion tracking feeds attribution models; reliable attribution drives budget allocation and channel decisions.
| Use | Action |
|---|---|
| Optimize ads | Compare paid channels (Google, Meta, LinkedIn) by attributed conversions; reallocate budget to winners |
| Optimize growth channels | Identify which medium (cpc, email, social, referral) drives conversions; scale what works |
| Multi-touch attribution | Requires clean UTM data; inconsistent tagging (e.g., facebook vs Facebook) fragments reports and misattributes |
GA4 Default Channel Grouping: Align utm_medium and utm_source with GA4's rules to avoid "Unassigned" traffic. ~30% of campaigns lack proper UTM markup, leading to wasted ad spend; teams standardizing UTM see 29% improvement in attribution accuracy.
Reference: UTM.io – utm_medium, utm_campaign & utm_source Optimization, UTMs for Marketing Attribution
| Parameter | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source | Origin | newsletter, facebook, google |
utm_medium | Channel type | email, cpc, social |
utm_campaign | Campaign name | summer_sale, product_launch |
utm_content | Variant (optional) | banner_a, cta_button |
utm_term | Paid keyword (optional) | running_shoes |
GA4 alignment (avoid Unassigned):
| Channel | utm_medium | utm_source |
|---|---|---|
| Paid Search | cpc | google, bing |
| Paid Social | paid-social, cpc | facebook, instagram |
email | newsletter, mailchimp | |
| Organic Social | social | twitter, linkedin |
| App install | cpc, app | google, facebook, apple |
| CTV / Streaming | video, ctv | hulu, roku, youtube |
| Display / Banner | display, cpc | Publisher or network name |
| Directory ads | paid, cpc | taaft, shopify, g2, capterra |
| Principle | Guideline |
|---|---|
| Search share | Keep organic search below ~75% of total traffic |
| Health | Higher direct + referral share = healthier profile |
| Brand sites | Diversified traffic is common for strong brands |
| Engagement | Content, email, social, free tools drive return visits |
See seo-monitoring for full SEO data analysis framework.
Location: GA4 > Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition