How to See Referring URLs in Google Analytics 4

Finding out which specific web pages are sending traffic to your site is one of the most fundamental tasks in analytics, but Google Analytics 4 can make it feel surprisingly difficult. If you're used to Universal Analytics, you might be frustrated looking for a simple list of referring URLs. I'll show you exactly how to find this data, create a reusable report, and turn that information into actionable marketing insights.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

What is Referral Traffic (and Why Should You Care)?

Referral traffic simply means visitors who land on your website by clicking a link from another website. This isn't traffic from Google searches (organic), social media platforms, or ads you’re running. It's word-of-mouth in digital form.

Tracking your referrals is crucial because it helps you:

• Discover collaboration opportunities: Find bloggers, news sites, or complementary businesses that are talking about you and sending engaged visitors your way.
• Gauge content marketing success: See if your guest posts or digital PR efforts are actually driving traffic back to your site.
• Identify your biggest advocates: Recognize the partners and communities that are vouching for your brand without you even asking.
• Understand the user journey: See what non-search or social paths people take to discover your business.

In short, your referral traffic is a goldmine for understanding your digital footprint and finding new growth levers.

How to Find Referring URLs in a Standard GA4 Report

Out of the box, GA4’s standard reports focus on the referring domain (like linkedin.com or forbes.com) rather than the full referring URL (the specific article or page). To get the full URL, you need to add a secondary dimension. It sounds technical, but it’s just a couple of clicks.

Here’s the simplest way to see the full referring pages for a quick analysis:

1. Navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition in your GA4 dashboard.
2. By default, the table shows the Session default channel group. To get more specific, click the dropdown and change the primary dimension to Session source / medium. This separates traffic by its origin.
3. In the search box just above the table, type "referral" and press Enter. This will filter the report to show only your referral traffic.
4. Now for the key step: Click the blue + icon next to the primary dimension dropdown to add a secondary dimension.
5. In the search field that appears, type "Page referrer" and click to select it from the list.

Voilà! The table will now display a second column showing the exact URL that sent the traffic, right next to the source domain. You can see precisely which articles, blog posts, or directory listings are linking to you.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Cleaning Up Your Referral Data: "Not Set" and Unwanted Referrals

As you look through your report, you might notice some odd entries. A common one is "(not set)," which means GA4 doesn't have the data. Another issue is "self-referrals" - traffic that looks like it's coming from your own website or a third-party payment processor.

For example, if a customer navigates from your checkout page to PayPal and then returns to your thank-you page after payment, GA4 might see PayPal as the referrer. This throws off your data, attributing the conversion to PayPal instead of the original source that brought the customer to your site in the first place.

You can tell GA4 to ignore these domains by adding them to the "unwanted referrals" list:

1. Click on Admin (the gear icon) at the bottom left.
2. In the Property column, click on Data Streams and select your web data stream.
3. Scroll down and click on Configure tag settings.
4. Under the Settings section, click Show more, then select List unwanted referrals.
5. Choose the match type "Referral domain contains" and enter the domain you want to exclude (e.g., paypal.com, stripe.com, or even your own domain to prevent self-referrals).
6. Click Save.

This setting cleans up your data moving forward, ensuring that transitions through payment gateways or subdomains aren't mistakenly counted as new traffic sources.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Building a Reusable Referral Report in GA4 Explorations

The method above is great for a quick check, but any changes you make to a standard report aren’t saved permanently. If you plan to analyze your referral URLs regularly, building a custom report in the 'Explore' section is the way to go. This creates a saved view you can return to anytime.

Follow these steps to build your dedicated referral dashboard:

1. Create a New Exploration Report

Go to the Explore tab on the left-hand navigation and select Blank to create a new report from scratch.

2. Name Your Report

Click on "Untitled exploration" at the top left and give it a descriptive name like "Detailed Referral Report" or "Top Referring Pages."

3. Add Your Dimensions

Dimensions are the 'what' in your data - the descriptive attributes. In the Variables column, click the + icon next to Dimensions. Search for and import the following:

• Page referrer (the full URL of the referring page)
• Session source / medium (the general source of the traffic)

Click the blue Import button in the top right.

4. Add Your Metrics

Metrics are the numerical data - the 'how many'. In the Variables column, click the + icon next to Metrics. Search for and import the metrics that matter most to you, such as:

• Sessions (the number of visits)
• Conversions (based on the conversion events you've set up)
• Total users
• Engaged sessions (a measure of visitor quality)
• Total revenue (if you run an e-commerce store)

Click Import once you've selected them.

5. Build the Report Canvas

Now, you just have to drag and drop your selected variables onto the report canvas on the right:

• From the Dimensions list, drag Page referrer into the Rows box in the Tab Settings column.
• From the Metrics list, drag Sessions, Conversions, and any others you chose into the Values box. Your table will start populating with data.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

6. Filter for Only Referral Traffic

Right now, your table is showing referrers for all your traffic sources. The last step is to filter it to include only referral traffic.

• From the Dimensions list, drag Session source / medium into the Filters box.
• Click "Select match type" and choose contains.
• In the text box, type "referral".
• Click Apply.

Your table will instantly update to show only traffic from referring URLs. This custom report is now saved automatically in your Exploration hub, ready for you whenever you need it.

What to Do With Your Referral Data

Finding the data is only half the battle. The real value comes from what you do with it. Here are a few ways to use this report:

• Find partnership goldmines: Sort your report by Conversions or Engaged sessions. Are there a few unexpected websites sending you highly qualified traffic? Reach out to them! Explore guest posting, co-hosting a webinar, or setting up a formal affiliate relationship.
• Spot broken inbound links: If you see a referring URL sending lots of traffic but it all has a 100% bounce rate, the link on their site might be broken. It might be pointing to a page on your site that no longer exists, causing visitors to hit a 404 page and leave. A friendly email to the site owner could fix this and reclaim that traffic.
• Validate your PR efforts: Did you recently get featured in an online publication? Use your referral report to see exactly how much traffic and how many conversions that single placement generated. This helps justify the ROI of your PR and content activities.

Final Thoughts

Getting a clear view of your referring URLs in Google Analytics 4 is achievable once you know where to look. While the standard report requires adding a secondary dimension, building a custom Exploration report provides a more powerful and permanent solution for analyzing a critical marketing channel.

Navigating the GA4 interface to create and filter these custom reports still takes time and practice. At Graphed, we've built a way to skip these steps entirely. Instead of clicking through menus and adding dimensions, you can simply connect your Google Analytics account and ask a question like, "Show me a chart of my top 10 referring websites by conversions for the last quarter." We instantly build a real-time dashboard for you, no configuration needed. If you want to spend more time on insights and less on reporting, you can start building a dashboard for free with Graphed.