GA4 for Dummies, this dummy at least :)

[Mark_A]

I am just doing some online training so might find this out myself. Trying to catch up.

GA4 seems to be grouping all traffic etc under the titles "Organic Search", "Direct", and "Paid Search".. etc

It isn't splitting things down into google, bing, DDG etc which is the level of detail that I actually want.

Is there a simple way to see this?

[Mark_A]

I am missing having raw logs to play with ..

[Mark_A]

Actually I think I have sussed it.

But I might be back with other dummy questions!

[Mark_A]

So our biggest category is "Direct" which it doesn't split down further, I need to know more about this.

[phranque]

"Direct" is any visit in which the referring click could not be identified as so it is presumed to be a direct URL entry in a browser.

[Mark_A]

Hi phranque I would be surprised if we are getting that many direct type ins.

[phranque]

i did not intend to suggest that these were all actually direct type-ins - merely that they are "presumed" so due to lack of otherwise identifying information.

therefore the numbers in "Direct" will include all direct type-ins as well as any referred traffic from which the source of referral cannot be identified.

[chewy]

we used to get a metric butt-load of "Direct" traffic - turns out it was coming from overseas and we only work in a single state. pretty sure it was bots.

[Mark_A]

we used to get a metric butt-load of "Direct" traffic - turns out it was coming from overseas and we only work in a single state. pretty sure it was bots.

Hi chewy, without access to anything like raw logs, how can I get closer to finding out if our direct traffic is bots?

We have a WP site set up by a local company, I suppose there could be raw logs but they haven't ever mentioned them .. Grr

[engine]

@Mark_A
Most hosts have raw logs available, some for a fee. Your best bet is to start with whoever set up your hosting and ask them for access.
Depending upon the amount of traffic, the logs could be huge files.
Oh, and it's worth thinking about how you will review the logs. The data contained is very comprehensive and probably has more info than you need for bot identification.

[chewy]

raw logs with this client (seems like any client) are a joke. Used to have a switch in the server environment. And the tech people were happy to hear about it and turn it on.

Today, not so much.

On the subject of Direct Traffic - you can assume most of direct traffic is bots. Am I right?

As far as how I knew this - with GA3 you could easily and clearly see that Direct Traffic - on any day that was high - consisted of mostly zero time on site - one page view - that kind of signal.

Today, I haven't figured out how to "see" this with GA4 other than by absurd 10X to 100X normal traffic on the "Direct" channel.

[chewy]

Here's a question - can Direct Traffic be traffic from people who have browsers that do not allow tracking?

I know that figure is rising no matter if we can see it in GA or not. Man do I miss GA3.

My experience with Direct "bursts" was with GA3 you could look and see by country and once you can see that - no need to discuss this further - or as they say in the UK "Bob's your Uncle"!

[Mark_A]

@engine
Yes, the log files will probably be large, I used to review them in TextPad in the past and thought about importing them into a database, never got round to that though. Not sure how I would identify which log entries would end up in direct, nor how to decide if a bot is included or not so might be a bad idea anyhow.

Will have a further play with GA4 in case there is a way with that ..