Referrers in Azaz Statistics can help you understand where available link activity may have come from.
A referrer generally identifies the webpage or source that sent a visitor to your Azaz short link. However, referrer information is not always available.
What is a referrer?
When someone follows a link from one webpage to another, the browser may send information indicating the page that the visitor came from.
This information is commonly called a referrer or referring source.
For example, if someone opens your Azaz link from another website, available statistics may identify that website as a referrer.
What can referrer information tell me?
Referrer information can help you understand which websites or sources are sending activity to your links.
Depending on the information available, this may help you identify:
- Websites linking to your short URL
- Pages where your link has been shared
- Some social or referral sources
- Sources contributing activity to a campaign
Where can I view available statistics?
Sign in to your Azaz account and open Azaz Statistics.
Review the information available for your links and reporting period.
You can manage your short links from My Links.
Why does a referrer sometimes appear as direct or unknown?
Browsers and websites do not always provide referrer information.
When Azaz does not receive usable referrer information, the activity may not be associated with a specific referring website.
This can happen for several reasons, including:
- The visitor typed or pasted the URL directly.
- The visitor used a bookmark.
- The link was opened from an application that did not provide referrer information.
- A browser privacy feature limited the information.
- A website's referrer policy restricted the information sent.
- A privacy or security tool removed the referrer.
- The link was opened from certain emails, messages, documents, or QR codes.
Does direct always mean someone typed the URL?
No. A direct or unavailable referrer should not automatically be interpreted as someone manually typing the short URL into a browser.
It can simply mean that usable referrer information was not provided with the request.
Why might I see only a domain instead of a full page?
Modern browsers and websites can limit how much referring information is shared for privacy and security reasons.
In some situations, an analytics system may receive only a domain or limited source information instead of the complete page URL.
The exact information available depends on the browser, source website, privacy settings, and other technical factors.
Can social media appear as a referrer?
Activity from social platforms may sometimes provide identifiable referral information, but this is not guaranteed.
Social media applications can open links inside their own browsers, redirect links through other services, or limit the referral information they send.
Because of this, some social activity may appear differently than you expect or may not include a recognizable referrer.
What about messaging apps?
Links opened from messaging applications may provide limited or no referrer information.
You should not assume that an unknown or direct source means the link was not shared through a messaging application.
What about email links?
Email applications and webmail services handle referral information in different ways.
Some may provide limited information, while others may provide no useful referrer information at all.
If identifying an email campaign is important, consider using a dedicated campaign link or appropriate UTM parameters in the destination URL.
What about QR code scans?
A person scanning a QR code may open the URL without a traditional webpage acting as the referrer.
As a result, QR code activity may not provide the same referral information as a link clicked on a website.
You can create QR codes using Azaz QR Codes.
Use separate links for important traffic sources
If knowing where activity came from is important, relying only on referrer information may not be enough.
Consider creating separate Azaz short links for different campaigns or placements.
For example:
- One short link for Instagram
- One short link for email
- One short link for a website
- One short link for a printed QR code
- One short link for a Bio Page
You can manage these links from My Links and review available activity through Azaz Statistics.
Use UTM parameters for campaign attribution
UTM parameters can provide another way to label campaign traffic for compatible analytics tools installed on the destination website.
For example:
https://example.com/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=launch
The utm_source value can identify the source you intended the campaign link to represent.
Referrers and UTM parameters are different
A referrer and a UTM parameter are not the same thing.
A referrer is information that may be supplied when the browser follows a link from another source.
UTM parameters are values deliberately included in the destination URL for compatible analytics systems to interpret.
Because referrer information can be unavailable, UTM parameters and separate campaign links can be useful when you need more consistent campaign organization.
Can referrers identify a specific person?
Referrer information should not be treated as proof of the identity of a particular visitor.
It generally describes an available source associated with a request, not necessarily the identity of the person who opened the link.
Why might referrer numbers differ from another analytics tool?
Different analytics systems may receive, process, categorize, and filter referral information differently.
Differences can result from:
- Browser privacy protections
- Referrer policies
- Redirects
- Automated traffic filtering
- Different attribution methods
- Different reporting periods
- Different definitions of direct or referral traffic
Referrer totals in Azaz therefore should not automatically be expected to match another analytics platform exactly.
Protect visitor privacy
Use referral and analytics information responsibly.
Do not attempt to treat limited analytics information as definitive identification of an individual visitor.
For more information about how Azaz handles information, review the Azaz Privacy Policy.
Use Azaz responsibly
All Azaz links and their destinations must comply with the Azaz Terms of Service.
If you encounter an Azaz link being used for phishing, malware, scams, or another harmful purpose, use the Report page.
Need help?
If you have questions about the statistics or referrer information available for your links, visit the Contact page.
When contacting Azaz, never send passwords, API keys, authentication tokens, or other private credentials.