Glenn GabeNov 10, 2022

I've been digging Mastodon, but I noticed something strange when tracking visits from the growing social network. Mastodon is using rel noreferrer on outbound links, so visits will show up as Direct Traffic in GA!

I hope that changes. You can read more in my post on Search Engine Roundtable today: https://www.seroundtable.com/mastodon-rel-noferrer-tracking-34391.html?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-noreferrer&utm_id=34391

#google #analytics #social #seo #data #googleanalytics

Mastodon Is Using Rel Noreferrer On Outbound Links Causing Visits To Appear As Direct Traffic In Google Analytics

With all of the Twitter chaos over the past few weeks, many have been flocking to Mastodon. I signed up last week and many other SEOs have signed up as well. Although there’s a bit of a learning cur

Search Engine Roundtable
Show threadJohn MuellerNov 10, 2022

@glenngabe What would you like it to be, is "origin" the right level? File an issue -- I would love to see more SEOs involved in shaping the platform :).

More on referrer policies, fwiw: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy#integration_with_html

Referrer-Policy - HTTP | MDN

The HTTP Referrer-Policy response header controls how much referrer information (sent with the Referer header) should be included with requests. Aside from the HTTP header, you can set this policy in HTML.

MDN Web Docs
Show threadSimon Cox Nov 10, 2022
@johnmu @glenngabe I suspect there are very good reasons for the nofollow - perhaps we should understand them first.
Show threadGlenn Gabe
@simoncox It's about noreferrer, not nofollow! :)
Nov 10, 2022 at 1:58pmWeb