What is Direct Traffic in Google Analytics?

First, when does a Direct session occur? It could be that someone typed a domain name (like Megalytic.com) into their browser or used a bookmark to directly access your site. However, Direct also includes a much broader pool of traffic, far beyond those two instances. Essentially, Direct sessions occur any time Google Analytics cannot determine another referrer. Other instances can include:

• Clicking a link from an email (depending on email provider/program)
• Clicking a link from a Microsoft Office or PDF document
• Accessing the site from a shortened URL (depending on the URL shortener)
• Clicking a link from a Mobile social media apps like Facebook or Twitter. Phone apps often do not pass referrer information.
• Going to a non-secure (http) site from a link on a secure (https) site, as the secure site won’t pass a referrer to the non-secure site. For instance, if someone clicks a link on https://example.com to go to http://example2.com, the analytics for example2.com will show the session as direct.
• Accessing a site from organic search, in some instances, will end up being reported as Direct due to browser issues. An experiment conducted by Groupon showed as much as 60% of direct traffic may be from organic search.