Dark social is one of the newest discoveries when it comes to analyzing traffic that comes to your website. You might have noticed that when you are looking at your traffic data that there might be an amount that is unaccounted for in Google Analytics. This is dark social, and learning how to track it can help your website to perform better and reach the right readers.
Here are some ways you can use dark social to understand your website better and to access its full potential.
Where does dark social come from?
Dark social is not direct traffic, and it is entirely related to the amount of social sharing that can’t be tracked by a web analytics platform. This might be the case when you send a link through a messaging channel such as Google Messenger, iMessage, or WhatsApp. While your link might be shared more than you think, there is no way to track it completely through traditional analytic platforms. This doesn’t give you a fair idea of how well your links are doing, and it doesn’t tell you where that traffic is coming from.
Dark social can give you a better idea of your referrals
What many people don’t know is that dark social can make up a large chunk of your referral traffic. Depending on the type of content you are sharing, some links are better suited for sharing across private platforms than others. That’s why it might be a good idea to invest in a software that can give you a better idea of whether or not your referrals are related to direct sharing or if they might be coming from messaging apps or copy and pasting a link.
It can help you differentiate from shares and traffic from shares
Just because your article might be getting a ton of shares, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are getting traffic from it. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to know how much or how little is actually redirecting people back to your website. The number of shares you have can give you an idea of how popular the article is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is working for you in the best way or leading to conversions. Knowing the difference can help you to create certain types of content that can be used for both sharing and actual sales.
Dark social helps you better understand your audience
One of the main problems with referral traffic is that it only shows you a particular segment of your audience. This can make it difficult to know how to market a product or to make sure that you are reaching the right people. When you understand dark social, then you can improve the amount of engagement on the site and better market to the audience that will most likely buy your product. This is why having software that can track your content better can help you take advantage of dark social and what it can do for your website.
In conclusion
Dark social can be a valuable tool for businesses or websites looking to hone in on where their traffic is coming from. This can help them drive more engagement and eventually lead to better sales and more interest by knowing where referral traffic is coming from.
Guest article written by: Alex Schnee