Web traffic analytics | Frequently asked questions

Find answers and general information about the web traffic analysis in HubSpot.

General

How often does HubSpot update reports data?

In general, HubSpot refreshes its reports data every 40 minutes. Learn more about how frequently HubSpot analytics update.

Why does my past traffic data seem to change over time?

In general, it's expected that your web traffic reports will update over time, as HubSpot will reprocess analytics data if it's able to gather more accurate data.

HubSpot might recalculate analytics data when a contact's original source is updated, either manually or automatically, HubSpot will then recategorize their previous web traffic to match the new source. By default, the web traffic sources report excludes offline sources, so when a contact is recategorized, HubSpot will bring their data into your sources report.

Why was there a spike in direct traffic in the Sources report?

There are several possible causes of a sudden increase in direct traffic in your Sources report:

• Filtered IP addresses were removed or changed, and an internal IP address is now not blocked, leading to an increase in direct visits.
• Traffic from HubSpot emails were categorized in direct traffic because source tracking was disabled for HubSpot emails. Enable this setting for the traffic to be categorized.
• Emails were sent from a non-HubSpot email service that does not include tracking on links clicked in the email. Without any source tracking parameters, visits from these emails are categorized as Direct Traffic.

Learn more about why you may be seeing an increase in direct traffic.

Sources

How do I build a link for my campaign so traffic from the link is bucketed in the correct source?

Your HubSpot tracking URL builder can help you generate tracking URLs with specific parameters to ensure that visits are bucketed in the correct source. Learn more about creating a tracking URL.

What does "Unknown keywords (SSL)" mean?

In September 2013, Google made a change that encrypts the search results for its users. As a result, web analytics packages, such as HubSpot, cannot identify the keywords that generate organic search traffic from websites.

Visits originating from most Google searches are now bucketed under Unknown keywords (SSL) within the Sources report.

For the Paid Search (PPC) category, if the visit originates from Google's HTTPS address (e.g., from users logged into their Chrome browser or other Google apps), you will see Unknown keywords (SSL) listed in the PPC category.

Why do I see 'Auto-tagged PPC' and 'Content network (Adsense or other)' in Paid Search?

• Auto-tagged PPC: HubSpot is able to detect that the visit was from Paid Search, but was not provided with a parameter for the campaign name.
  • If you are using Google Adwords and have auto-tagging enabled, then HubSpot is not able to determine a value for the campaign from Google's auto-tagged URL.
  • Learn more about separating your paid search visits by campaign when using Adwords.
• Content network (Adsense or other): visit came from a content network or HubSpot was not provided with the paid ad's search term parameter for the visit.
  • In most cases, Adsense and other types of shared content network don't pass the search term in the ad's URL.
  • If you created a tracking URL in HubSpot to bucket visits under Paid Search, the search term may also not be included in the ad's URL.

How do I block my visits to my website from being counted by HubSpot?

To prevent your own visits from being counted towards your web traffic analytics, we recommend excluding traffic from your IP address.

What domains can I filter the Sources report by?

In the Sources report, you can only filter the data by the primary domains listed in your domain manager. A domain may be set as primary for blog posts, email, landing pages, or website pages depending on your product subscription.

How do I view form submissions from filtered IP addresses in the Sources report?

To view form submissions from filtered IP addresses in the Sources report, select the Include offline sources checkbox. Because the IP addresses are filtered out, no sessions are recorded and the contact's interactions will be bucketed under Offline sources.

Why is a customer not showing up in the Sources report for the month they converted?

Customers are reported based on the month they first became a contact in HubSpot, not the month in which they were converted from a lead to a customer. For example, if a contact is added in March as a lead and closed as a customer in July, they will appear in the Sources report and dashboard for March under the Customer category.

This analysis is from a closed-loop marketing perspective, where you can analyze the traffic sources that were most effective at creating customers in a specific time period.

Why does a contact have an original source of Email Marketing when they have never been sent a marketing email?

Possible reasons why a contact who has never been sent a marketing email from HubSpot may have an original source of Email Marketing include:

• The contact was forwarded the marketing email and accessed a link in the email to first visit your site.
• The contact received the email as a member of a distribution list and clicked a link in the email to first visit your site. For example:
  • You sent a marketing email to a distribution email employees@company.com.
  • Someone with the email address example@company.com is part of that distribution email.
  • They click a link in the email and visits your site.
  • When they convert, their Original Source Type property would be Email, even though the email was not sent directly to example@company.com.
• The contact received the email in their inbox but submitted a form using a second email address, and their cookies were not tracked. This will create a new contact with the original source Email Marketing.
• The contact clicked a link from a non-HubSpot email that contained email tracking parameters to first visit your site.

Will deleting contacts remove them from the Sources report?

Yes. If you delete a contact, they will be removed from the count of contacts or customers generated by a specific source in the Sources report. Learn more about what happens when you delete contacts in HubSpot.

What happens when I change a contact's lifecycle stage back from Customer?

By default, the Sources report will calculate customers based on the lifecycle stage of the contacts in your database. If any contacts who were already counted as a customer change to a different lifecycle stage, the Sources report calculations for the customer and customer conversion rate reports will update.

Pages

Why is a blog post or page not appearing in my Pages report?