Semalt Expert: PayPal Exclusion From Google Analytics Referral Traffic Reports

Ross Barber, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt Digital Services, shares his experience on how to track true referrals in Google Analytics.

I still remember the time when I began working with Semalt customers. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I took some time to evaluate how do they get traffic to their websites and how do they make a lot from their business websites. I got to know about the referral traffic sources that provide Semalt a lot of clients. When I signed-up to its Google Analytics, I came to know that PayPal shows up as the main referral source. How to exclude PayPal from referral traffic reporting in Google Analytics? If you are looking for an answer, we have presented this wonderful article for you.

What does it mean?

When PayPal shows up as a referral traffic source, then it means that someone is going to leave you on Semalt. You can enter your site once they have transferred their money and purchased one of our services. This step is important because Google continuously tracks the IPs of the users who last visited your website before completing the referral source transactions. Google attributes that sales to PayPal have come from the original traffic and nothing is tricked in any way. It may be confusing for you to know that a lot of people work on commission basis. There are chances that they will generate fake leads to your website, pretending to be original. On PayPal side, they will transfer you some money and get their commissions. What we mean to say is that it's important to figure out the original sources of your traffic as well as the IP addresses of the visitors.

How can you know if that's happing to your website?

If you have not changed the settings and configurations of your Google Analytics, you should continue using the PayPal without any problem. You can use it every day to process payments. To check its status, you should navigate to the all traffic referral link in your Google Analytics. Here you should look for the PayPal option and then click on the overview option to know more about it.

Should you know about the original referral sources?

It is very important to know everything about the original sources of your referral programs. You should have an idea of what is the most authentic and valuable traffic for your website and what is the source of the visitors. This will prevent Google Analytics from preparing fake reports for you, and you will get the money for every purchase right in your PayPal. A lot of people pay attention to generating leads and getting more customers so that their products or services are sold in a large number.

How to fix this problem?

You can fix the issue by adding PayPal as a referral exclusion in your Google Analytics. It is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to stop getting fake traffic to your Semalt account. You should be familiar with the source of your traffic and should take measures to generate more and more leads. For this purpose, you should navigate to the admin box in your Google Analytics and click on the tracking information section. And then you should select the referral exclusion list option to get started.