What Is Unassigned Traffic in Google Analytics, and What Should You Do About It?

When Google Analytics tags large portions of your web traffic as “unassigned,” you miss out on vital data about your audience. Just what is unassigned traffic in Google Analytics (GA4)?

Find out why you should be aware of GA4 unassigned traffic and how to fix the issue.

What Is Unassigned Traffic in Google Analytics? 

Unassigned traffic is what Google Analytics calls website visitors it cannot categorize into one of its default channel groups. In other words, you’re getting visitors, but you don’t know where they’re coming from. 

This tag occurs when GA4 is unable to determine the source or medium. “Source” refers to the traffic’s origin, such as a website, platform, or search engine. The “medium” describes the type of traffic, i.e., organic search, email, or referral from another site.

What Causes Unassigned Traffic in GA4?

One of the most likely reasons for GA4 unassigned traffic is your Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters are either incorrect or missing. The UTM is a snippet of code at the end of a URL that follows a question mark and tells GA4 the source and medium of the traffic. 

Other common causes are: 

• Server-side issues and web redirects 
• Cross-domain tracking problems
• Bot traffic
• Mobile app tracking issues
• Ad blockers 

However, this list is not exhaustive, and unassigned traffic could occur for many other reasons. Even something as simple as a user manually typing your site’s address or coming to your site from a bookmark can be the cause.

Sometimes, unassigned traffic in Google Analytics is a good sign. You may have so much traffic that GA4 needs a day or so to catch up on categorizing the data. 

Does GA4 Unassigned Traffic Affect Your SEO? 

GA4 unassigned traffic does not directly hurt your SEO, but it affects your overall strategy. You should want to have as much practical data as possible on your site visitors so you can target your ideal customers and boost conversions. 

Therefore, you should try to eliminate unassigned traffic to the extent possible. Regularly check traffic acquisition on GA4 along with other key SEO metrics, such as user engagement and keyword rankings. 

How Do You Prevent or Fix GA4 Unassigned Traffic? 

You can’t totally prevent unassigned traffic in Google Analytics, but you can take some steps to get the number as low as possible. Start by ensuring that all of your backlinks have UTM tags with the correct formatting. Next, make sure your website is handling redirects properly. 

Investigate if any other server-side issues are interfering with traffic data. If you’re using more than one domain, make sure you’ve linked them all correctly to GA4 to prevent any issues with this cross-domain traffic. Also, filter bots and blockers from your analytics data and do the same for mobile apps. 

If none of these steps fix your unassigned traffic, you’ll have to do a deeper dive. You’ll either have to study more about GA4 or work with an SEO expert who can “look under the hood” of your site and assess the situation. 

Need To Fix Your Unassigned Traffic in Google Analytics and Optimize Your SEO?

Monitoring and optimizing your site’s traffic requires constant attention if you’re going to win at marketing. Does your company or digital agency need to focus on activities outside of SEO audits and analysis? We can help. 

Contact us at BKA Content. Our SEO consulting services can take you beyond correcting unassigned traffic in Google Analytics and help you start driving more visibility to your site.