New Facebook Referrals in Google Analytics – The Last Hurdle

WHAT L.FACEBOOK.COM AND LM.FACEBOOK.COM REFERRALS ARE IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Website owners checking their Google Analytics recently may have noticed a mysterious change in their referral section and many are scratching their heads as to what it means. The cause for concern is a couple of new referral sources from Facebook: l.facebook.com and lm.facebook.com which started appearing around the beginning of April 2014.

Some information on the web has cited that this is something to worry about – the referral links point to warning pages that suggest your site is insecure and that this could have detrimental effects on visitor trust for your product and reputation. Many have postulated that it has something to do with Facebook ad campaigns while a few others have suggested that it is something to do with the change in the news feed algorithm a while back.

Speculation is beginning to grow without too much in the way of concrete answers for businesses hoping to make sense of their analytics.

Myth Busting Time! The reason you are seeing these new referral sources is because instead of these Facebook referrals being returned as ‘none’ they are now being identified by Google Analytics as a referral from Facebook, that’s it! Nothing sinister, your page isn’t being classed as spam or black marked.

Author Jules White – The Last Hurdle