Referrer vs Sessions Chart

Referrer Pages vs Sessions shows which pages sent sessions to your tracked content.

Overview

The report uses processed referrer aggregates collected by the Wheremore pixel.

Its display changes with the page selector:

When you select a specific tracked page, a column chart ranks its referring pages by session count.
When you select All Pages, a scatter chart compares how many tracked pages each referrer reached with how many sessions it generated.

Use the report to identify valuable referring pages, campaign URL variants and sources that send visitors across several parts of your website.

A session is not necessarily a unique visitor. One visitor can create more than one session.

Access and scope

Referrer Pages vs Sessions is workspace-, website- and page-aware.

The active workspace controls which websites are available.
The website selector controls which tracked pages are available.
You can select one tracked page or All Pages.
A selected page must belong to a website accessible in the active workspace.
Markets and search groups are not used.

Wheremore validates workspace access and page ownership whenever the report loads.

Before you begin

You need:

A website assigned to the active workspace.
The Wheremore pixel installed.
Tracking enabled.
One or more pages added in Manage Session Tracking.
Processed referrer activity for the selected filters.

If visitors arrive without a recorded referring URL, their activity can appear as Direct.

Quick start

Open the User Behaviour Dashboard.
Confirm the active workspace.
Select a website.
Select a tracked page.
Leave the dashboard Referrer selector at All Referrers.
Select an audience.
Select a date range.
Choose a device or leave Device set to All.
Review which referring pages generated the most sessions.
Select All Pages to compare referrer reach with session volume.

Apply the filters

Website

The active website restricts the page list and the referrer data available to the report.

Changing the website clears the previous page context while the new tracked pages load.

Page

Choose a specific tracked page when you want to answer:

Which pages sent sessions to this content?

Choose All Pages when you want to answer:

Which referrers send the most sessions, and how widely do they distribute those sessions across my tracked content?

The page list comes from Manage Session Tracking. It is not a list of every URL discoverable on the live website.

Referrer

The dashboard Referrer selector does not filter this chart.

This is intentional: referrer is the report’s comparison dimension. Filtering the report to one referrer would remove the comparison it is designed to show.

Other User Behaviour reports can still use the shared Referrer selector where their data supports exact attribution.

Audience

Choose:

All traffic to include all recorded audience classifications;
Prospects to include activity classified as unauthenticated; or
Identified visitors to include activity classified as authenticated or identified by the tracking configuration.

Audience classification depends on the Cookie or Cookieless setup, authenticated-user rules and exclusions configured in Manage Session Tracking.

“Identified” is an audience classification. The chart does not reveal a visitor’s private identity.

Date range

Choose:

7 days
30 days
60 days
90 days
All time, where available in the dashboard selector

The 7-, 30-, 60- and 90-day periods include the current day. For example, a 30-day report includes today and the preceding 29 calendar dates.

Longer ranges provide a larger sample but can combine traffic from different campaigns or versions of a page.

Device

Choose:

All
Desktop
Mobile
Tablet

For a specific page, All combines qualifying session totals for the same referrer across devices.

For All Pages, qualifying devices appear as separate scatter-chart series so that reach and volume can be compared by device.

Read the page-specific column chart

When a specific page is selected:

the horizontal axis lists referring pages;
the vertical axis shows sessions; and
the columns are ordered from the highest session count to the lowest.

Move over a column to see the referring page and its session total.

A tall column

A tall column means that referring page generated more sessions to the selected tracked page during the selected period.

Possible explanations include:

a prominent internal link;
a high-performing external mention;
an active campaign landing path;
repeated navigation between two pages;
a search engine or social result; or
several sessions created by the same visitors.

A short column

A short column means the referring page generated fewer sessions in the selected scope.

It may still be valuable if those sessions convert well or represent a strategically important audience.

Direct

Direct means no usable referring URL was stored for that activity.

Direct can include:

a typed or bookmarked address;
an application that did not pass a referrer;
privacy controls that removed referrer information;
redirects that lost attribution; or
another source that could not be identified.

Direct does not prove that every visitor typed the URL manually.

Read the All Pages scatter chart

When All Pages is selected:

the horizontal axis shows Pages Referred;
the vertical axis shows Sessions;
each point represents one referrer and device combination; and
each qualifying device appears as a separate series.

Move over a point to see its referrer, number of referred pages and session total.

High sessions and high page coverage

A point towards the upper-right represents a referrer that sends many sessions across several tracked pages.

This can indicate a strong navigation hub, campaign source or external source with broad influence.

High sessions and low page coverage

A point high on the chart but towards the left sends substantial traffic to a small number of pages.

This can indicate a focused campaign or a particularly strong link to one piece of content.

Low sessions and high page coverage

A point towards the lower-right reaches several tracked pages but generates relatively few sessions.

This can indicate broad but light navigation, distributed internal links or several low-volume referrals.

Low sessions and low page coverage

A point near the lower-left has limited observed reach and volume in the selected scope.

Do not remove or dismiss a source solely because of its position. Check conversion quality and strategic importance.

How sessions and page coverage are calculated

Wheremore stores daily aggregate rows for:

the tracked destination page;
the full referring URL;
campaign parameters;
device;
audience classification; and
date.

For the report:

session_count is summed across qualifying daily rows.
Distinct tracked destination pages are counted for each referrer and device.
Results are ordered by session total.
Up to the 100 highest referrer/device combinations are returned.

The report does not count aggregate table rows as sessions.

Referrer URL detail and campaign parameters

Referrers are kept as full page-level values rather than being reduced to a domain.

For example, these can remain separate:

example.com/article-a
example.com/article-b
example.com/?utm_source=newsletter
example.com/?utm_source=paid

This helps reveal which referring page or campaign URL generated the activity.

It also means one underlying page can appear more than once when query strings differ. Use campaign and conversion reporting when you need consolidated UTM performance.

Wheremore removes the protocol and leading www. for chart display. This display shortening does not merge otherwise different referrer values.

Interpret the report carefully

More sessions are not automatically better.

A high-volume referrer can produce:

engaged visitors;
low-quality traffic;
repeated internal navigation;
campaign traffic with weak conversion;
returning visitors creating additional sessions; or
traffic concentrated on an outdated page.

Referrer Pages vs Sessions measures traffic contribution and distribution. It does not measure conversion quality, revenue or unique people.

Recommended workflow

Start with All traffic, 30 days, All devices and a specific page.
Identify its leading referring pages.
Compare Desktop and Mobile.
Compare Prospects with Identified visitors when both have enough data.
Select All Pages and look for high-volume, broad-coverage sources.
Review campaign query-string variants.
Use Session Count to compare overall traffic timing.
Use Session Replay to inspect individual journeys from an important source.
Use Page Engagement to understand behaviour on the destination page.
Use conversion reporting to judge whether the referred sessions produced useful outcomes.

Analyse with AI

Use Analyse with AI after selecting the intended workspace, website, page, audience, date range and device.

The analysis should distinguish:

sessions from unique visitors;
page-specific volume from website-wide page coverage;
Direct traffic from known referring URLs; and
traffic volume from conversion value.

Confirm important findings against Session Replay, Page Engagement and conversion data before deciding what to change.

Data timing

The chart uses processed daily aggregates rather than live browser events.

Recent sessions may not appear immediately. Changing workspace, website, page or filters replaces the previous result, and an unfinished older request cannot overwrite the latest selection.

The chart loads as it approaches the visible part of the dashboard. Reports farther down the page can therefore wait until you scroll near them.

What should I do next?

Use Session Replay to see how referred visitors navigate.
Use Page Engagement to understand what referred sessions do on the destination page.
Use Session Count to compare traffic volume over time.
Use the Conversions Dashboard to compare source quality and outcomes.
Use the UTM URL Builder to create consistent campaign attribution.
Use Manage Session Tracking when a website or page is unavailable.

Troubleshooting

The chart asks me to select a workspace

Select an active workspace and confirm that your account can access it.

The chart asks me to select a page

Select a website and then a tracked page or All Pages. If the page is unavailable, add or enable it in Manage Session Tracking.

No data appears

Confirm the Wheremore pixel is installed.
Confirm tracking is enabled.
Confirm the destination page is tracked.
Select All traffic.
Select All devices.
Increase the range to 30, 60 or 90 days.
Allow recent activity to finish processing.

The selected page may simply have no recorded referrer activity in the selected scope.

Identified visitors show no data

The selected page and range may contain no activity classified as identified. Review authenticated-user configuration in Manage Session Tracking, increase the range or select another page.

A device is missing from All Pages

No qualifying aggregate data exists for that device under the current filters.

The shared Referrer selector does not change the chart

This is expected. The chart compares referrers, so it deliberately ignores that selector.

The same referring page appears more than once

Check the full labels for different paths or query strings. Campaign parameters are deliberately preserved rather than automatically merged.

Direct traffic looks unexpectedly high

Browsers, privacy controls, applications and redirects can suppress referrer information. Direct does not always mean a visitor manually entered the address.

The chart differs from another traffic report

Confirm that workspace, website, page, audience, date range and device match. Also check whether the other report groups URLs by domain or campaign while this report preserves full referrer values.

Frequently asked questions

Does the chart show unique visitors?

No. It shows sessions. One visitor can create more than one session.

Are session totals estimated?

No. The report sums the stored session_count values for qualifying aggregate rows.

Does All Pages combine every referrer into one point?

No. Each point represents one referrer and device combination.

What does Pages Referred mean?

It is the number of distinct tracked destination pages that received sessions from the referrer and device combination.

Are desktop and mobile combined?

For a specific page with Device: All, the same referrer’s device totals are combined into one column. In All Pages, devices remain separate chart series.

Are UTM URLs combined?

No. Different stored referrer URLs or query strings can appear separately.

Can I filter this chart to one referrer?

No. The chart deliberately uses referrer as its comparison dimension and ignores the shared Referrer selector.

Can I filter by market?

No. Markets relate to search tracking and do not scope this behaviour report.

Does the report modify my website?

No. It is a read-only report.