Title: Referrers page Author: joshua Published: July 21, 2022 Last modified: January 15, 2026 --- 1. [User handbook](https://docs.parse.ly/user-handbook/) 2. [The Parse.ly Dashboard](https://docs.parse.ly/user-handbook/dashboard/) 3. [Traffic menu](https://docs.parse.ly/user-handbook/dashboard/traffic-menu/) 4. Referrers page # Referrers page The Referrers page of the [Parse.ly Dashboard](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/) offers insights on how audiences are finding your content. It contains three tabs: Overview, Categories, and Groups. Referrers are broken into seven primary categories: Social, Search, Aggregator, AI, Other, Internal, and Direct. Individual referrers can also be saved into custom [referrer groups](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/navigating/groups/). You can find the referrers page in the [traffic menu](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/traffic-menu/) of the [navigation bar](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/navigating/navigation-bar/). Learn more about navigating Pulse and Historical views, plus how to filter Dashboard pages like Referrers: * [Pulse vs. Historical views](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/navigating/pulse-vs-historical/). * [Filter the Dashboard](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/navigating/filter/). ## Referrer overview tab The Overview provides a list of the top referring domains, color-coded to indicate the category for each referrer. ![](https://docs.parse.ly/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/10/SCR-20251014-nfrz-scaled. png) The referrers page of the Parse.ly Dashboard. ## Referrer categories tab The Categories tab contains a 100% stacked bar chart to depict the proportional contribution of each referrer category. Below the bar chart, is a stacked line chart( real-time graph) or stacked bar chart (historical graph), which illustrates the amount of traffic received over the selected time period. Each referrer category (Social, Search, Aggregator, AI, Other, Internal, Direct) is listed below the stacked chart with the top referral domains in that category and a pie chart illustration of the percentage of traffic next to each category. Parse.ly categorizes many domains as [defined below](https://docs.parse.ly/user-handbook/dashboard/traffic-menu/referrers-tab?output_format=md#categories). [[ The pulse timeline of the referrers categories tab [[ The historical timeline of the referrers categories tab **Note** Referrer categorizations affect all Parse.ly users, so customizations aren’t currently possible. If you believe a domain has been misclassified, contact Parse.ly Support at [support@parsely.com](https://docs.parse.ly/user-handbook/dashboard/traffic-menu/support@parsely.com?output_format=md). ### Categories #### Social Parse.ly tracks a number of referring domains as social networks. That list currently includes: | bsky.app | linkinprofile.com | reddit.com | | facebook.com | linktr.ee | shor.by | | fantail.social | lnk.bio | snapchat.com | | gigya.com | meneame.net | stumbleupon.com | | have2have.it | newsin.bio | t.cn | | instagram.com | nextdoor.com | threads.net | | like2buy.curalate.com | pinterest.com | twitter.com | | likeshop.me | plus.google.com | weibo.cn | | linkedin.com | po.st | xing.com | | linkin.bio | qq.com | | For some of the above, Parse.ly can provide more granularity than simply the site that’s driving traffic by plugging into the social media site’s API: **Facebook**: Facebook likes, shares, and reactions are grouped collectively as “ Facebook interactions.” You can sort other Dashboard pages by Facebook interactions. Facebook does not provide Parse.ly with data about individual Facebook posts that drive traffic to your site. **Pinterest**: Pinterest pins appear in the Dashboard as “Pinterest interactions.” You can sort other Dashboard pages by Pinterest interactions. **Reddit**: You can see the links that drove traffic to your site from Reddit by clicking “reddit.com” from the list under the Social referrer category. Once on the Reddit referrer page, click the “Referring URLs” tab so see the URLs that drove the traffic, including specific posts and subreddits. **X**: Tweets appear in the Dashboard as “Twitter interactions.” You can sort other Dashboard pages by X interactions. X does not provide Parse.ly with data about individual tweets that drive traffic to your site. **Pro Tip** Don’t see a social domain you want to track in Parse.ly’s list? You can track other social sites by [adding UTM parameters](https://docs.parse.ly/setting-up-campaign-tracking-parsely/) to the end of your URLs. #### Search Traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Bing falls under the Search referrer category. #### Other Any additional external referral source will be classified here, such as: * RSS feeds. * Other external sites and applications. #### Internal The Internal category includes any traffic from your site’s domain. This can be from the homepage, in-article links, or marketing automation emails (if set up with a matching subdomain). Large numbers of internal traffic on a post can be driven by photo galleries or paginated content, where clicking to see the next image or page registers another [page view](https://docs.parse.ly/measuring-reporting-performance/calculations/page-views/)( [dynamic tracking](https://docs.parse.ly/dynamic-tracking/)), but it can also be a good indication of loyalty throughout a site. **Note** Self-referring [page views](https://docs.parse.ly/measuring-reporting-performance/calculations/page-views/) aren’t included in the Internal page view count. Therefore, adding the number of page views in the Social, Search, Other, Internal, and Direct categories won’t equal the total page views displayed in the Referrers timeline. To get an exact match, include the number of self-referring page views, seen by hovering over the Internal referrers tile. #### Aggregator Aggregator traffic comes from content aggregators such as Google News, Google Discover, Flipboard, and Newsbreak. Note that because Google doesn’t provide Discover traffic in real-time, Parse.ly shows statistically modeled estimates. #### AI AI traffic comes from sources such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini. ### Direct Direct traffic has no referrer data. This could happen for a number of reasons: * The user typed the URL into their browser or clicked on a browser bookmark. * Links were shared via email, SMS, or an app (e.g., TikTok, Truth Social, Mastodon, Discord, etc.). * A privacy-centric search engine, browser, or [operating system](https://docs.parse.ly/ios-26-update-increases-direct-traffic/) stripped out referrer information. Sources of some direct traffic may be identified by [adding parameters to your URLs](https://docs.parse.ly/setting-up-campaign-tracking-parsely/) and tracking them on the [Campaigns page](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/campaigns-tab/). ## Referrer groups Tab If you want to organize the Referrers into your own groupings, then check out the [referrer groups](https://docs.parse.ly/dashboard/navigating/groups/) tab. ![](https://docs.parse.ly/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/10/image-16-scaled.png) The referrer groups tab with one referrer group expanded to view additional details Last updated: January 15, 2026