Track source of new member sign up, referring URL

Hi,

We would like to see what the referring link when a new member signs up? Was it a google keyword, facebook ad, etc. How can see where the new member signed up from?

I don't think that by default there is a way to track referrers, at least I have not noticed. For me, I use Google Analytics and LiveZilla. I like LiveZilla a little better because to me the stats are easier to read and understand than Google Analytics.

LiveZilla is actually a help support chat system that includes live tracking of visitors. I get a popup everytime someone visits the site, which I think is cool because I can see when someone visits. It has a bunch of other features as well, such as co-browsing with a visitor.

You could add this to a php block and it will pull in the referrer, whcih - with a little bit of coding - you could populate a join form field with the referrer url

$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];

EDIT: After thinking about this a bit more, getting the referrer url may not be the best option if you want an accurate view of where new users are coming from. Think about this. A user goes to your home page from say facebook. Then they click the link to go to your join page. Technically, the referral url will be your home page, so you do not catch that they came from facebook.

Another scenario - you put a link on facebook that goes directly to your join page. A user decides they want to see other pages of your site before joining. When they return to the join page, the referral url will be the page they were on before they came to the join page. Again, losing that they came from facebook.

Has anyone created a module or simple way to track the referral or incoming link source? We have been getting a ton of new members on our website and we want to know the specific source these new members came from. The prior suggestions are more technical than we are capable of integrating.

 Why don't you use something like Piwik, even statcounter dot com has referral stats.

Isn't this what Google Analytics is all about?

Analytics will tell you everything about your visitors except what they had for breakfast..

I use Google, I find it faster to use something else.