How to Find Full Source / Medium / Referral URLs in Analytics

Understanding where your traffic really comes from is crucial for every marketer, SEO specialist, and business owner. Standard reports in Google Analytics often show only partial information—listing domains without revealing the exact pages that referred your visitors. If you’ve ever spotted mysterious traffic spikes or unexplained conversions, this guide will show you how to uncover the full Source / Medium / Referral URLs in Analytics with accuracy and consistency.

When done right, this process transforms your analytics from vague summaries into precise referral maps that reveal the exact pages sending valuable users to your site. Let’s break down how you can create, use, and automate a powerful custom report that gives you full visibility.

Why You Need to See Full Referral URLs

Every click comes from somewhere. But when Google Analytics groups visits under generic domains—like facebook.com / referral or medium.com / referral—you lose sight of which specific posts or pages actually drove traffic. Knowing the full referral URL helps you:

• Identify which articles, posts, or campaigns are performing best.
• Discover new partnerships and link opportunities.
• Understand which content formats engage audiences most effectively.
• Filter out low-quality or spammy referral traffic.
• Make smarter, data-driven marketing decisions.

For hosting providers, SaaS businesses, or e-commerce sites—like those powered by Serverfellows.com—having clear source data means you can optimize landing pages, improve conversion tracking, and refine campaign ROI with precision.

The Core Problem: Limited Referral Data in Default Reports

By default, Analytics gives you the source and medium of traffic—like “twitter.com / referral” or “google / organic.” But these reports usually stop there. They don’t tell you which specific tweet, which Medium article, or which partner blog page sent the visit.

This limitation makes it difficult to attribute results to specific marketing efforts or content placements. Imagine spending hours crafting a guest post that drives conversions—but Analytics just shows “referral from example.com.” You can’t connect that success back to a particular page without deeper visibility.

That’s where the custom report technique comes in.

The Solution: Build a Custom Report That Reveals the Full Picture

The best way to find the full Source / Medium / Referral URLs in Analytics is to create a one-time custom report. Once saved, it becomes a permanent dashboard you can revisit anytime.

Here’s what the setup looks like in simple terms:

1. Go to Customization → Custom Reports in Google Analytics.
2. Click New Custom Report and give it a clear name, such as Full Source and Referral Path Report.
3. Set the Report Type to Flat Table — this displays each combination in a clean, line-by-line format.
4. Under Metric Groups, add:
   • Pageviews
   • Transactions
   • Ecommerce Conversion Rate
5. Under Dimensions, add the following (in order):
   • Source / Medium
   • Referral Path
   • Language
   • Country
6. Save your report.

Once created, this simple report instantly reveals not just who referred your visitors—but the exact URLs behind each referral.

Interpreting Your Custom Report

When you open your custom report, you’ll see rows showing Source / Medium, Referral Path, and metrics like Pageviews, Transactions, and Conversion Rate.

For example:	Source / Medium	Referral Path	Pageviews	Transactions	Conversion Rate
exampleblog.com / referral	/best-tools-for-creators	856	21	2.45%
newsletter.example.com / referral	/weekly-insights-27	233	5	2.15%

This gives you a detailed, data-rich understanding of which referring pages bring in real engagement—not just empty visits.

With this setup, marketers can isolate high-converting referrals and decide where to invest more resources or outreach efforts.

Bonus Tip: Sort, Filter, and Segment for Clarity

You can refine your report further to find trends and hidden insights:

• Sort by Pageviews to spot top referral drivers.
• Sort by Conversion Rate to identify quality over quantity.
• Filter by Country or Language to segment performance by region.
• Apply Segments to compare organic vs paid vs referral patterns.

When you have multiple campaigns running—say across affiliates, influencers, or review sites—this clarity helps you channel marketing spend more efficiently.

If you manage multiple domains through Serverfellows.com, for example, setting up these filters ensures you know which sites are contributing meaningfully to your business goals.

Handling Referral Spam and Bot Traffic

One major challenge in analytics data is spam and bot referrals. These fake entries can inflate numbers, distort averages, and mislead decision-making.

Here’s how to keep your data clean:

1. Enable Bot Filtering – Under Admin → View Settings, check “Exclude all hits from known bots and spiders.”
2. Filter by Hostname – Create an include filter that only tracks valid hostnames (your own domain).
3. Block Spam at the Server Level – Use .htaccess or your hosting firewall to block spammy domains with regex rules.
4. Regularly Audit Referrals – Watch for suspicious traffic patterns that spike without engagement.
5. Use GA4 Data Filters – In GA4, create data filters to exclude internal, developer, or invalid traffic.

Consistently cleaning your data ensures your full Source / Medium / Referral URLs in Analytics reflect real humans, not bots.

Many hosting platforms, such as Serverfellows.com, already offer robust server-side filtering and analytics integration tools to help with this.

How This Works in GA4

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) uses a different interface but allows the same level of detail. Instead of Custom Reports, GA4 uses Explorations.

Follow these steps in GA4:

1. Go to Explore → Blank Exploration.
2. Add Session source/medium and Page referrer (or Full referrer) as dimensions.
3. Add metrics like Views, Conversions, and Purchases.
4. Drag dimensions into the rows area and metrics into the values area.
5. Save the exploration for reuse.

This effectively replicates your classic “Full Source/Medium/Referral URLs” view inside GA4’s interface.

You can also customize the Traffic Acquisition report by adding “Page referrer” as a secondary dimension for a similar result.

Automating Your Report for Weekly Insights

Manually checking referral data can get repetitive. The good news: you can automate report delivery directly from Analytics.

Here’s how:

1. Open your custom report.
2. Click Share → Email.
3. Choose frequency: Weekly.
4. Add recipients and include a message like “Weekly Referrer Insights.”
5. Attach as CSV or PDF.
6. Save.

Now your team, clients, or stakeholders automatically receive weekly updates highlighting Source / Medium / Referral URLs with key metrics.

Automation ensures no referral spike or partner contribution goes unnoticed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even when using this approach, some pitfalls can distort your results. Watch out for these:

• Using filtered views – Filters permanently alter data and may hide referrals. Always use an unfiltered view for analysis.
• Ignoring sampling – Sampling can misrepresent smaller referral sources. Narrow date ranges to reduce it.
• Not updating your GA4 property – Ensure “Page referrer” and “Session source/medium” are enabled dimensions.
• Failing to test reports – Always test with a known referral source to confirm setup accuracy.
• Relying on surface data – Numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Combine data with context and qualitative feedback.

Maintaining discipline in setup and validation ensures you’re getting truthful insights rather than noisy estimates.

How to Turn Referral Data Into Actionable Strategy

Knowing where visitors come from is just the start. The real value lies in how you act on that knowledge.

1. Strengthen High-Performing Partnerships

If certain blogs or creators consistently send converting visitors, reach out to collaborate further. Offer them updated content, exclusive offers, or affiliate incentives.

2. Improve Low-Conversion Referral Pages

If a source sends many visitors but low conversions, check message alignment. Maybe the landing page doesn’t match the referrer’s promise.

3. Identify Emerging Audiences

Track new referral paths over time to spot niche communities or unexpected interest areas.

4. Align Campaigns With Real Traffic Behavior

Instead of assuming where traffic comes from, base future campaigns on what your Analytics report actually proves.

By connecting your analytics data with powerful hosting and optimization tools from Serverfellows.com, you can quickly implement and test these improvements for faster results.

Advanced Tips for Power Users

Once comfortable with custom reports, you can elevate your setup even further:

• Add UTM Parameter Tracking – Combine with full referral URLs for even deeper campaign attribution.
• Integrate with BigQuery – In GA4, export data for custom SQL queries and unsampled reports.
• Use Data Studio (Looker Studio) – Visualize referral URLs, conversion rates, and geographies in one dashboard.
• Compare Time Frames – Identify which sources are gaining or losing momentum.
• Create Alerts – Set email alerts for sudden spikes in referral traffic to catch viral opportunities early.

These techniques turn a simple Source / Medium / Referral URL report into a strategic growth engine.

The Bigger Picture: Why This Matters for Business Growth

Attribution accuracy is more than a technical goal—it’s a revenue multiplier. When you understand which sources truly drive performance, you can:

• Allocate marketing budgets intelligently.
• Strengthen partnerships with proven traffic senders.
• Detect anomalies faster during promotions or campaigns.
• Build credibility with stakeholders by showing exact referral paths behind conversions.

Platforms like Serverfellows.com complement this approach with analytics-ready hosting environments and reliable uptime—ensuring your data reflects consistent user behavior without noise or interruptions.

Conclusion

Finding the full Source / Medium / Referral URLs in Analytics isn’t just a reporting hack—it’s a clarity tool for growth. By setting up a one-time custom report or GA4 exploration, you unlock granular visibility into the precise pages and sources fueling your traffic and conversions.

Armed with this insight, marketers can prioritize outreach, eliminate wasted ad spend, and focus on what truly drives value. Over time, these refined insights transform your analytics into a map of influence—showing not just where traffic comes from, but why it converts.

If you’re ready to take control of your data, streamline performance tracking, and host your reports on reliable, fast servers—explore Serverfellows.com. The right