Referring sites are not always what they appear

They don't always signify a click-thru from a link, do they ?

[fom2001uk]

I've noticed some of the referring sites listed in the top referrers reports aren't actaully links from other sites. By definition, the referring site is simply the place where the user was before he/she visited your site. They don't have to click on a link to reach your site, or do they ?

Is there another explanation ?

[Brett_Tabke]

Yes, they should have to click on a link to generate a referral. There are many bugs in browser referral schemes - it's amazing they work at all.

If you type in an address at the keyboard, they are not suppose to send a referrer - many do. There are also many that only send offsite referrers. Some send that offsite referrer from every page pulled on your site.

Referrers are wysiwyg in your logs...

[bobriggs]

The referer string is generated by the browser, and it's up to the browser what to send.

I think some really old browsers would send referer as the last place you were.

Nowadays, you usually do have to click on a link to get the browser to send a referer string, it could be within your site or from an outside site.

And with Opera, you can turn off the browser sending the referer string completely. There is a lot of 3rd party software that can turn it off on IE and Netscape.

And if there's a redirect involved, I see some MAC browser referer strings sent as the redirect link, not the page that the user was on.

In general, the answer to your question is that a link must be clicked, but it could be on site or off site.

[chiyo]

We see this from time to time in our logs but not much, and has been discussed a few times here.

I think it may have something to do with a user opening another browser window while surfing your site and clicking another link. We have several "referral" links from por*n sites that couldn't possibly have links to our sites (and yes i did check!). Maybe they get tired of our boring stuff and change to looking for cheap thrills :) We tried to duplicate that behaviour and then looking again at logs but it didnt work so its only a theory..

[fom2001uk]

That's what I mean, there are quite a few site referrals from sites that have never, ever linked to my sites. The multiple browser explanation sounds interesting, but frustrating, if true. It's just another cloud on the already hazy science of website analysis :-(