When does a search engine count as such?

[alev1]

When does a search engine count as such and not merely as a referring domain?

I'm asking this question because if I look at our referring domains report it says that we have (for example) 159 Unique Visitors for the item "virgilio.it" (Referrer Type filter selected as "all"). But if I switch the Referrer Type to "Search Engines" I get only 70 Unique Visitors for the same item. How is that possible?

(Same time period, no other segments applied...)

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[Kaushalendra · Accepted solution]

Hi Alessandro,

In addition to Shekhar's response I would like to add the explanation here is that if you check for the second condition in the second article:

• The referring URL contains a keyword query string parameter; in most instances the query string parameter is ?q=.

Some of the Search Engines to enhance security strip off the query parameters from secure (HTTPS) pages and hence those referrers are not qualifies as Search Engines and are instead qualified as Other Sites.

To verify whether this is the case here, breakdown the reports for which you have provided screenshots by Referrer Types and for ALL you will see Referrer Types as Search Engine as well as Other Sites. 

Please let us know in case of any further query.

~Kaushal

[shekhardhiman]

Hi There,

Thanks for reaching out to Adobe Community.

Please go through the below articles and see if these help:

https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/reference/reports_search_engines.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/analytics/kb/search-engines-in-other-websites.html

Thanks!

[alev1]

Thanks for explaining. Indeed, in this case I became aware that the website is not only acting as a search engine but also as a mail provider and a news site. Seems some traffic were some links.