Referrer detection does not recognize subdomains when wildcards used in site URLs

[utrautmann]

In some individual Matomo websites that I maintain the transitions report shows the own website as traffic source in category "Website". I mean with "own website" the measurable URL that was set up that the visitors use to access this website.

However, the number of accesses "From Website" is significantly lower than in the incoming traffic for internal pages (see screenshot please), so I assume that only very specific pageviews with my domain are counted under the category "From Websites" .

As URL was set up http://mydomain.com and (!) https://www.mydomain.com because as a workaround of Page Overlay bug #12418

The acquisition report does not show the "own website", correctly.

The expectation is that only external websites will be listed in the transitions report.

Is here a relationship to #15039 ?

• Matomo version: 4.1, 4.2.1

[diosmosis]

Hi @utrautmann, sorry you're experiencing this. If your website URL is being listed as an external website here, then that must mean for one or more visits, that website URL is treated as the referrer URL. Would you be able to check if this is the case in the Acquisition > Websites report? Would you also be able to try and find a visit that has this as a referrer in the Visits Log (maybe by using the referrerUrl segment)?

I can think of one case where this might happen:

• visitor visits a site for a while then stops w/o closing their browser
• a couple hours later, the clicks a link in the website that goes to another page in the same site. this is treated as a new visit, w/ the same website as the referrer.

Finding a visit in the visits log would help determine if this is the case.

[utrautmann]

Hi @diosmosis , I tried to analyze it more closely.

In addition to the www domain, I also track a subdomain on the Matomo website. The configured URL is http://domain.de, so that I also include the subdomain in addition to www (sub.domain.de). I also track one other domain so that enableCrossDomainLinking is switched on.

_paq.push(["setDomains", ["*.domain.de", "*.seconddomain.de"]]);
_paq.push(["enableCrossDomainLinking"]);

Here are the results of my research that I have done.

1. My www-domain is never being listed in the Acquisition > Websites report.
2. But my subdomain is being listed in the Acquisition > Websites report.
3. And my www-domain and my subdomain are being showed in the Visitor Log and in the Transitions report

I exported the visits in question to Excel. If the visitor now jumps back and forth between pages on www and the subdomain, different referrer entries are created in the visitor profile.

I found at least 4 different combinations of datas. There is even another external URL included (that has nothing to do with my Matomo or my mentioned seconddomain.de - see Profile 3) .

In Profile 1 the transition report looks so:

I am sorry, unfortunately I have no precise identification of what happens when and at what point in time.

[diosmosis]

Hi @utrautmann, apologies for another late reply. From looking at the code it seems like the referrer is being set incorrectly when the Referer header is set to sub.domain.de. It should be recognized as part of the same site (if it's listed in the URLs portion of the site's settings). Can you tell me if your website is configured like this in Matomo:

? Or is sub.domain.de explicitly set?

I can definitely confirm that *.subdomain.de is not handled correctly in the tracker.

[utrautmann]

Hi @diosmosis , my website is configured im Matomo like this

• https://mydomain.com
• https://www.mydomain.com
• https://seconddomain.com

The explicit www entry is configured because as a workarround for #12418 The tracking snippet contains following script:

<!-- Matomo -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || [];
  _paq.push(["setCookieDomain", "*.mydomain.com"]);
  _paq.push(["setDomains", ["*.mydomain.com","*.seconddomain.com"]]);
  _paq.push(["enableCrossDomainLinking"]);
  _paq.push(['trackPageView']);
  _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']);
...
<!-- End Matomo Code -->

[diosmosis]

@utrautmann Are you able to add the sub.domain.com URL that appears as a referrer? I believe that might workaround the problem.

[utrautmann]

@diosmosis : Where should I exactly add the subdomain-URL? In the backend configuration or/and in the tracking script ("setDomains..."-method)? Thank you.

[diosmosis]

@utrautmann in the backend configuration. This is what's used when detecting whether a referrer URL is from a the same site or somewhere else.