Website Direct Traffic dropped by 50% suddently

[#1]

Hi everyone,

Recently we modified our website URLs, and previous URLs can be redirected to corresponding new URLs. Then the following two weeks, our direct traffic dropped by 50%. And all traffic sources experienced a decrease.

My question is whether this kind of redirection can be counted as direct traffic?  Otherwise, why would the direct traffic drop all of sudden after making these changes?

Would really appreciate any guidance on this problem.

Thanks

[#2]

Hi,

If you are sending visitors to url.com?cid=campaigncode and they are being redirected to urlb.com/redirectedpage, that will most likely result in users not having a campaign code associated with their visit and having most of the traffic as direct. You need to parse through the cid to your redirected page to solve this issue.

Hope it helps.

/Waqas

[#3]

oh forgot to explain why it's happening...   the redirect is happening before the actual adobe analytics code is triggered on your page, so your campaign code. The web analytics code fires on the redirected page,  but by that time the user doesnt have a campaign id in the url.

[#4]

Hi Waqas,

Thank you so much for your prompt response.

But I don't understand, according to your interpretation, shouldn't the direct traffic increased and campaign traffic decreased？

Actually, campaign traffic is quite normal in this period, while direct dropped dramatically.

Would you please explain it further?

Thanks,

[#5]

Hmm that's interesting. Do you mind sending the url in a private message to me and I can try and see if the code is setting anything.  And assuming nothing has changed in the marketing channel setup?