XF 1.5 Why does Google Analytics reports zero referrals from AVForums?

[Stuart Wright]

Have been told (by an ad agency) that AVForums is dead because there are zero referrals from us in their reports of their clients' traffic. I say zero, but it's actually such a small number that statistically it's negligible.

Now I know (from looking at both the number of links to the websites in question) and the link proxy log report below that we are sending lots of traffic to these websites.



So why are Google Analytics referral reports for other websites reporting no traffic from AVForums?
And what can we do to fix this problem urgently?
Thanks

 

[Stuart Wright]

Found the answer.
A click of a link from a secure site to an insecure site strips the referrer information.
The solution is shown here https://www.w3.org/TR/referrer-policy/
And we've added

<meta name="referrer" content="unsafe-url">

into the PAGE_CONTAINER template which has fixed the problem.

 

[motowebmaster]

Ok, I'll bite. I run an https site, and added the meta tag.

There has been a dramatic drop in publisher referrals in Google Analytics for my site, didn't notice until now.

 

[eva2000]

interesting

• https://moz.com/blog/meta-referrer-tag
• http://blog.wsol.com/seo-for-https-sites-should-you-implement-the-meta-referrer-tag

 

[kaieivindm]

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but do I have to get the site that get links from my site to check this? Because I really dont know if I am even affected by this.

Dont have the meta tag that @Stuart Wright pasted above in my page_Container template.

 

[Stuart Wright]

do I have to get the site that get links from my site to check this

? No you don't, and how could you, anyway?
If you run a secure site, then you will be affected and should put the meta tag in there.

 

[kaieivindm]

? No you don't, and how could you, anyway?
If you run a secure site, then you will be affected and should put the meta tag in there.

Well, I have friends that has sites I am linking to for example, so easy enough to have them check.
But Yeah, I run a secure site, so will add the meta tag.

Thanks!