Tracking Your "Social Traffic" on Etsy: Part 2

As Etsy develops more social features on the site, the user profile is becoming the gateway for browsers who want to surf through their circle of friends looking for new and interesting items. Etsy has add a tag to the links from profile pages, allowing sellers to trace this surfing activity as it passes through their shops. A list of these tags follows:

ref=pr_shop - Individual items listed on your profile link in your profile. Also the link to the shop in the lefthand sidebar.

ref=pr_shop_more - the "See More" link in the shop section on your profile page

ref=pr_faveitems - Link from a profile page to an individual favorite item

ref=pr_faveitems_more - Link from the "See more" link on a profile page to the favorite items of that profile

ref=pr_faveshops - Link from a profile page to a favorite shop

ref=pr_faveshops_more - Link from the "See more" link to a profile's favorite shops

These codes have been added to the updated list of reference codes.

What do these codes mean? Well, if you see them as part of the addresses that appear in your Google Analytics reports, they indicate that someone has visited one of your pages from a profile - either your own profile, or from someone else's.

To look for these codes, go your Content report in Google Analytics.

Select Top Content

At the bottom of the list of addresses is a box that reads Filter Page. In the box, type in ref=pr



Click Go.

This will filter your content to show you all the traffic you have received through user profiles.
The first interesting number is in the summary at the top, which is the percentage of your visits that are coming through profiles (both yours and others combined.) This will give you a quick overview of how much "social" traffic you're receiving.

The filtered list will have a variety of addresses with different tags. Here's how to decode them:

ref=pr_shop If you see an item listing with this tag in the address, it means that someone visited your profile and then clicked on one of the individual items shown in the box on the upper right.

ref=pr_shop_more If you see this tag in the address for your main shop page, it means someone clicked on the link that reads "See More" in the box on your profile that shows your individual items.

ref=pr_faveitems If you see this tag in an address for one of your individual items, it means that item appeared on someone else's profile in their Favorite items section. In other words, someone visited a user profile, saw your item on that user's profile page, and clicked directly to it. If you see this tag in the address for your shop name, then someone clicked on your avatar in another user's Favorite items box.

ref=pr_faveshops Is similar to the faveitems tag. If you see it in an item address, then someone clicked directly to that item from another user's profile page. If you see it in your shop address, then your visitor clicked on your avatar on another user's profile page.

ref=pr_faveitems_more and ref=pr_faveshops_more If these appear in the address for your own favorite items or favorite shops, it means someone visited those pages using the "see more" link on your own profile."