A question about Google Analytics and referring sites...

woodsphoto

When checking the referring sites on my Google Analytics page, I often see several entries for "smugmug.com (referral)". Now, I know that the referring pages cannot always be taken literally, so what would this referrer most likely be? To my knowledge, there is only one other Smugger that has me listed as a "friend".

On the same topic, when I check my referrals within the SmugMug site Control Panel, I sometimes see that a fellow SmugMug page is credited as being the referrer, but his/her page is in no way related to mine by content or geographic location.

Just curious...

bobbyhero

Hello

The referrals could come from multiple sources. For instance, they could generate from:
1) Any page on SmugMug that's linked to one of your images/galleries (Popular Photos, etc.)
2) If someone searches on SmugMug, and happens upon your images/galleries
3) Etc :-)

Basically, if someone is already on SmugMug - and somehow - through some combination of pages/links ends up on your SmugMug Site - it will register the referral as "SmugMug" :-)

If you'd like to learn more about HTTP referrals, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referrer

As always, if you have any other questions, just head over to http://help.smugmug.com :-)

All the best,
Bobby
SmugMug Support Hero