My own site is appearing in Google Analytics as a referring site, why?

Is your site accessible as www.yoursite.com es well as mysite.com? Google will see them as two different websites and also rate them as having double content.

Is your site accessible as www.yoursite.com es well as yoursite.com? Google will see them as two different websites and also rate them as having double content.

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The Quomon Team

If you see your own website reported as a referral from the All Traffic Sources or Referring Sites report, take a look at the explanations below to help troubleshoot your problem.

1. Tracking across multiple domains or subdomains
If your website contains several subdomains or if you are trying to track across multiple root domains, you need to add some customised tracking code. If you have not yet implemented the customisations or incorrectly done so, you may see your own website as a referring site in your reports. Learn how to track across multiple domains or across subdomains.

2. Redirects
Your website may appear as a self-referral if you are tracking across multiple domains and there is a redirect on any page. When the user is redirected, the Google Analytics Tracking Code records the referral source as the website from which the user was redirected. For example, if a website redirects from www.example.com to www.domain.com, Google Analytics will record the referral as www.example.com. If there is a redirect on your website, we suggest that you remove the redirect or ensure that your redirects successfully pass parameters. If you're not the person who manages the tracking code for your site, your webmaster or your hosting company should be able to assist you in removing the redirect.

3. Splash Pages
If your website contains a splash page that users see at the beginning of their visit (for a loading graphic, allowing users to select language/region, etc.), make sure that it contains tracking code. If it's on a different domain, also make sure that it includes the correct customisations (see No.1 above). Otherwise, the domain of your splash page may appear as a referral in reports.

4. Frames
Frames may also result in self-referrals because the frames in your website may be used to load another web page.