It has been discovered that Google Analytics is categorizing clicks from the Google Home app as direct traffic. This was highlighted by an SEO expert named Max Prin on social media, where he also shared a screenshot:
“FYI, traffic from the #GoogleHome app (“Related to your activity” cards) is considered as direct. #SEO #VoiceSearch” — Max Prin on January 11, 2017
When you ask the Google Home device a question and it responds with a direct answer, it retrieves that information from a web page in Google’s index.
In the Google Home companion app for iPhone and Android, within the Discover tab, users can find a history of their recent queries and a link to the website from where the direct answer was sourced.
Clicking on the “Visit Website” button will redirect you to the original source. Ideally, Google Analytics should consider this traffic as organic since the website was initially discovered through a Google search. However, as illustrated in the shared tweet, Google Analytics records it as direct traffic.
Typically, direct traffic is only counted when someone manually enters a URL into the address bar of their browser, which makes this finding a bit unusual. Google may update this in the future, but currently, all traffic from the Google Home app is being considered as direct traffic.
Keep this in mind as you monitor your analytics—a rise in direct traffic could indicate more people are using the Google Home app to find your content.
