About default channels

Piwik PRO automatically assigns your incoming traffic to five different channels based on data available in the page URL and referer HTTP header. These are the default channels that you can easily group into custom channels. In this article, we’ll explain how we define default channels and how we recognize them.

Default channel definitions

Here’s a list of channels and their definitions. Definitions can help you set up custom channel groupings.

1. The social channel is available from version 16.11.0. In lower versions, it is part of the website channel.

How Piwik PRO detects a channel

When Piwik PRO receives a tracking request, it checks the page URL and referer HTTP header to uncover the traffic source. The check can take one or more of the following steps:

Step 1: Campaign

Piwik PRO checks if the page URL contains campaign parameters (utm_*, pk_* or a custom one) or the Google Click ID parameter (gclid). If it finds these parameters, it assigns the channel as Campaign, the source as the value from the campaign source (pk_source, utm_source or a custom one), and the medium as the value from the campaign medium (pk_medium, utm_medium or a custom one.)

See more about tagging campaigns in Piwik PRO.

Notes:

• If a page URL contains only the gclid (Google Click ID) parameter and no other parameters, the source is set as google and the medium as cpc.
• If a page URL contains two or more parameters of the same type, Piwik PRO takes the value from the parameter that is last on the list in Administration > Sites & apps > Data collection > Campaigns > defined parameter or Administration > Settings > Global site & app settings > Data collection > Campaigns > defined parameter.

  Example: The defined parameter is “Campaign name: pk_campaign, utm_campaign, my_campaign.” The page URL is https://example.com?my_campaign=winter_promo&pk_campaign=summer_promo. Piwik PRO sets the campaign name to winter_promo because my_campaign is the last item on the list of defined parameters.

• If a page URL contains the same parameter multiple times, Piwik PRO takes the last value in the page URL.

  Example: The page URL is: https://example.com?pk_campaign=winter_promo&pk_campaign=summer_promo. Piwik PRO sets the campaign name to summer_promo because it’s the last value for pk_campaign in the page URL.

• If a page URL contains the same parameter in the URL and the URL fragment, Piwik PRO takes the value from the URL fragment.

  Example: The page URL is https://example.com?pk_campaign=winter_promo#pk_campaign=summer_promo. Piwik PRO sets the campaign name to summer_promo because it’s in the URL fragment.

Step 2: Direct entry

If Piwik PRO doesn’t see campaign parameters in a page URL, it looks at the referer HTTP header. If the header is empty or contains one of the domains defined in Administration > Sites & apps > Data collection > Site or app address, it assigns the channel as Direct entry, the source as direct, and the medium as direct.

If Piwik PRO goes through all steps and fails to assign the channel, it’ll assign the channel as Direct entry.

Step 3: Search engine

If the step 2 fails, Piwik PRO checks if the referer HTTP header contains a search engine (see the full list). If so, Piwik PRO assigns the channel as Search engine,  the source as the search engine name, and the medium as organic.

Step 4: Social

If the step 3 fails, Piwik PRO checks if the referer HTTP header contains a social media platform name (see the full list). If so, Piwik PRO assigns the channel as Social, the source as the social media platform name, and the medium as referral.

Step 5: Website

If the step 4 fails, Piwik PRO checks if the referer HTTP header contains any other URL (not the defined domain in Administration > Sites & apps > Data collection > Site or app address, not search engine name, not social media platform name). If so, Piwik PRO assigns the channel as Website, the source as the referrer domain name, and the medium as referral.

Detected search engines

We detect about 275 search engines. Here’s the current list:

1.cz, 118 700, 123people, 360search, Abacho, ABCsøk, Acoon, Aguea, Allaverksamheter, Alexa, Alice Adsl, All.by, Allesklar, AllTheInternet, AllTheWeb, AlohaFind, AltaVista, AOL, Apollo lv, Apollo7, Aport, Arama, Arcor, Arianna, Ask, Avira SafeSearch, Atlas, auone, auone Images, Austronaut, Babylon, Baidu, Biglobe, Biglobe Images, Bing, Bing Images, blekko, Blogdigger, Blogpulse, Bluewin, Brave, Canoe.ca, Centrum, Charter, Claro Search, Clix, Cốc Cốc, Comcast, Compuserve.com (Enhanced by Google), Conduit.com, Crawler, Cuil, Daemon search, DasOertliche, DasTelefonbuch, Daum, Delfi EE, Delfi lv, Digg, dir.com, DisconnectSearch, dmoz, DuckDuckGo, Earthlink, Ecosia, El Mundo, Eniro, Entireweb, eo, EpicSearch.in, Eurip, Euroseek, Everyclick, Exalead, Excite, Facebook, Fast Browser Search, Findhurtig, Fireball, Firstsfind, Fixsuche, Flix.de, Fooooo, Forestle, Francite, Free, FreeCause, Freenet, FriendFeed, Frontier, GAIS, Genieo, Geona, Gibiru, Gigablast, Gigablast (Directory), Gnadenmeer, Gomeo, goo, Google, Google Blogsearch, Google Custom Search, Google Images, Google Maps, Google News, Google Scholar, Google Shopping, Google syndicated search, Google Translations, Google Video, GoYellow.de, Gule Sider, Haosou, HighBeam, Hit-Parade, Holmes, Hooseek, Hotbot, I-play, Icerocket, ICQ, Ilse NL, iMesh, Inbox, InfoSpace, Interia, Isodelen, IxQuick, Jungle Key, Jungle Spider, Jyxo, K9 Safe Search, Kataweb, Kensaq, Kvasir, La Toile Du Québec (Google), Laban, Latne, Lilo, Lo.st, LookAny, Lookseek, Looksmart, Lycos, maailm.com, Mailru, Mamma, Meinestadt.de, Meta.ua, MetaCrawler DE, Metager, Metager2, Mister Wong, Mojeek, Monstercrawler, mozbot, MySpace, MyWebSearch, Najdi.si, Nate, Naver, Needtofind, Neti, Nifty, Nifty Videos, Nigma, Onet.pl, Online.no, OnlySearch, Opplysningen 1881, Orange, Paperball, PeopleCheck, PeoplePC, Picsearch, Plazoo, PlusNetwork, Poisk.Ru, qip.ru, Qualigo, Qwant, Rakuten, Rambler, Riksdelen, Road Runner, rpmfind, Sapo, Scour.com, Search.ch, Search.com, Searchalot, SearchCanvas, SearchLock, Searchy, SeeSaa, Setooz, Seznam, Seznam Videa, Sharelook, Skynet, sm.cn, sm.de, SmartAddressbar, SmartShopping, Snap.do, So-net, So-net Videos, Softonic, Sogou, Soso, Sputnik, start.fyi, StartPage, Startpagina (Google), Startsiden, Suche.info, Suchmaschine.com, Suchnase, Surf Canyon, T-Online, talimba, TalkTalk, Tarmot, Technorati, Teoma, Terra, Tiscali, Tixuma, Toolbarhome, Toppreise.ch, Trouvez.com, TrovaRapido, Trusted Search, Twingly, uol.com.br, URL.ORGanzier, Vinden, Vindex, Virgilio, Voila, Volny, Walhello, Web.de, Web.nl, weborama, WebSearch, Wedoo, Winamp, Wirtualna Polska, Witch, Woopie, www värav, X-Recherche, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Images, Yahoo! Japan, Yahoo! Japan Images, Yahoo! Japan Videos, Yam, Yandex, Yandex Images, Yasni, Yatedo, Yellowmap, Yippy, YouGoo, Zapmeta, Zhongsou, Zoek, Zoeken, Zoohoo, Zoznam, Zxuso, 묻지마 검색

Detected social media platforms

We recognize about 75 social media platforms. Here’s the current list:

Badoo, Bebo, BlackPlanet, Buzznet, Classmates.com, Cyworld, Gaia Online, Geni.com, GitHub, Google+, Douban, Dribbble, Facebook, Fetlife, Flickr, Flixster, Fotolog, Foursquare, Friends Reunited, Friendster, gree, Haboo, Hacker News, hi5, Hyves, identi.ca, Instagram, lang-8, Last.fm, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mastodon, MeinVZ, Mixi, MoiKrug.ru, Multiply, my.mail.ru, MyHeritage, MyLife, Myspace, myYearbook, Nasza-klasa.pl, Netlog, Odnoklassniki, Orkut, Ozone, Peepeth, Pinterest, Plaxo, reddit, Renren, Skyrock, Sonico.com, StackOverflow, StudiVZ, Tagged, Taringa!, Telegram, Tuenti, tumblr, Twitter, Sourceforge, StumbleUpon, Vkontakte, YouTube, V2EX, Viadeo, Vimeo, vkrugudruzei.ru, WAYN, Weibo, WeeWorld, Windows Live Spaces, Xanga, XING