I'm trying to get an understanding of how many visits to landing pages (e.g. /) are coming from external referrers (e.g. Google/other search engines, direct) vs. self referrers (people clicking links that take them back to landing pages while active on our site). But it seems like most reports on referrers focus on external/direct referrers and not self referrers.

I've tried going to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, then clicking the landing page I'm trying to understand (/, the home page), and then adding Source as a secondary dimension, but it seems all sources are either other sites (google, github.com, etc.), or are (direct) (which I understand to mean either typing the URL in the address bar, bookmarks, or visiting the site after the GA session expires). I'd expect to see either our domain show up in the list, or something like (self), but none of the results show anything like this.

I've also tried going to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals, but all of these are external sites. Acquisition > All Traffic > Treemaps would be helpful, as it shows the medium (e.g. organic search, referral, direct, social, email, (other)), but still doesn't seem to include self referrals.

Would self referrals be included in direct? (Hopefully not, as it seems important to be able to distinguish between self-referrals and bookmarks/address bar referrals.) Or am I missing something?

I'm trying to get an understanding of how many visits to landing pages (e.g. /) are coming from external referrers (e.g. Google/other search engines, direct) vs. self referrers (people clicking links that take them back to landing pages while active on our site). But it seems like most reports on referrers focus on external/direct referrers and not self referrers.

I've tried going to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, then clicking the landing page I'm trying to understand (/, the home page), and then adding Source as a secondary dimension, but it seems all sources are either other sites (google, github.com, etc.), or are (direct) (which I understand to mean either typing the URL in the address bar, bookmarks, or visiting the site after the GA session expires). I'd expect to see either our domain show up in the list, or something like (self), but none of the results show anything like this.

I've also tried going to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals, but all of these are external sites. Acquisition > All Traffic > Treemaps would be helpful, as it shows the medium (e.g. organic search, referral, direct, social, email, (other)), but still doesn't seem to include self referrals.

Would self referrals be included in direct? (Hopefully not, as it seems important to be able to distinguish between self-referrals and bookmarks/address bar referrals.) Or am I missing something?

Update

In reading more about this, it seems like in GA, a referral is what brought the user to your site originally, even if it was several pages prior.

What I'm looking to gain more understanding from is the page they were on immediately before visiting the landing page, including visits to (referrals from) another page on our site (for example, the HTTP_REFERER header). Does GA not capture/report on this immediate referrer page?

I'm trying to get an understanding of how many visits to landing pages (e.g. /) are coming from external referrers (e.g. Google/other search engines, direct) vs. self referrers (people clicking links that take them back to landing pages while active on our site). But it seems like most reports on referrers focus on external/direct referrers and not self referrers.

I've tried going to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, then clicking the landing page I'm trying to understand (/, the home page), and then adding Source as a secondary dimension, but it seems all sources are either other sites (google, github.com, etc.), or are (direct) (which I understand to mean either typing the URL in the address bar, bookmarks, or visiting the site after the GA session expires). I'd expect to see either our domain show up in the list, or something like (self), but none of the results show anything like this.

I've also tried going to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals, but all of these are external sites. Acquisition > All Traffic > Treemaps would be helpful, as it shows categories of referrals (e.g. organic search, referral, direct, social, email, (other)), but still doesn't seem to include self referrals.

Would self referrals be included in direct? (Hopefully not, as it seems important to be able to distinguish between self-referrals and bookmarks/address bar referrals.) Or am I missing something?

I'm trying to get an understanding of how many visits to landing pages (e.g. /) are coming from external referrers (e.g. Google/other search engines, direct) vs. self referrers (people clicking links that take them back to landing pages while active on our site). But it seems like most reports on referrers focus on external/direct referrers and not self referrers.

I've tried going to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages, then clicking the landing page I'm trying to understand (/, the home page), and then adding Source as a secondary dimension, but it seems all sources are either other sites (google, github.com, etc.), or are (direct) (which I understand to mean either typing the URL in the address bar, bookmarks, or visiting the site after the GA session expires). I'd expect to see either our domain show up in the list, or something like (self), but none of the results show anything like this.

I've also tried going to Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals, but all of these are external sites. Acquisition > All Traffic > Treemaps would be helpful, as it shows the medium (e.g. organic search, referral, direct, social, email, (other)), but still doesn't seem to include self referrals.

Would self referrals be included in direct? (Hopefully not, as it seems important to be able to distinguish between self-referrals and bookmarks/address bar referrals.) Or am I missing something?