A referrer URL is the address of the webpage where a person clicked a link that sent them to your page (where they were before they got to your site). You can target visitors based on the page that sent them to your site. This is helpful if you want to engage visitors who arrived at your site via a press article, blog post, etc.
To target by referrer URL:
- In the sidebar menu on the right, open the Segments tab.
- Click Add Segment in the upper right hand corner, or click Edit to modify an existing one.
- This will open a window with all of the different Segment options.
- Choose Traffic Source from the menu on the left.
- Select Custom Traffic Source. This will open a list of custom traffic sources.
- Select Referrer URL.
- Enter part or all of the referrer URL, according to the following formats:
CONTAINS - This is the most typical usage of the feature. Here you can type a word or words that appear in the URL which distinguish the pages you want to target. If you type the word "nytimes," then any links containing that structure will be included in the segment.
MATCHES - This format allows you to be extremely precise. For example, if you want to target visitors who arrived at your page from one specific blog post, you can match the entire URL - http://blog.40nuggets.com/how-the-pros-use-40nuggets-a-case-study/
REGEX - Regular expressions (regex or regexp for short) are special characters that match or capture portions of a field, as well as the rules that govern all characters. It's a language you can use which allows you maximum specificity and flexibility when defining your rules for which pages to include. For more info, see Google's article about regular expressions, or learn how to write them here: http://www.regular-
expressions.info/ - Name your Segment something that will remind you of its function, and click Save.
**Nota Bene: Targeting by traffic source is persistent during the browsing session only.