Referrer conditions
Target visitors by the website that first sent them to you. You can check a referring domain or URL, or whether the browser supplied a referrer at all.
You can show visitors a message based on the website that first sent them to you, using the referring address their browser shared.
What it checks
Referred By conditions use the referrer associated with the visitor's first recorded page. They don't switch to the most recent internal page each time the visitor follows a link on your site.
When to use it
Use a referrer condition to target traffic from a particular website or referring page, or to distinguish arrivals with and without a referrer.
If the referrer is incomplete, UTM parameter conditions can give you explicit campaign context. To check the visitor's current and previous pages on your site, use Pages and visits conditions.
Options
What to match
| If you'd like to match… | Choose | Value field |
|---|---|---|
| An empty first recorded referrer | No one (direct traffic) | None |
| A nonempty first recorded referrer | Any site (not direct traffic) | None |
| A hostname or one of its subdomains | Specific domain | Domain, initially blank |
| A text comparison against the first recorded referrer | Specific URL | Operator and URL or text value, initially Equals and blank |
The domain field takes a hostname such as partner.example.com, without a protocol or page path.
How to compare a URL
Specific URL offers Equals, Does not equal, Contains, Does not contain, Starts with, Ends with, Wildcard match, Is set, and Is not set.
Equals, Does not equal, and Starts with validate the comparison as a URL. The other text operators allow a partial value. Is set and Is not set don't need a comparison value, even if the editor keeps the value field visible.
RightMessage removes a trailing slash from the recorded referrer and your comparison value before matching. Other text comparisons are case-sensitive. The text operator reference covers comma-separated alternatives and wildcard behavior.
Examples
A Specific domain rule for facebook.com also matches a recorded referrer on m.facebook.com. It doesn't match notfacebook.com just because the name contains the same letters.
If someone follows a link to your site from WorkForge (opens in a new tab), you could check for a particular referring page. For example, Specific URL → Contains with /solutions/agencies.html matches a recorded referrer that includes that path, such as https://workforge.rightmessage.com/solutions/agencies.html.
Use a domain rule instead when the browser supplies only the referring hostname.
Things to know
Missing referrers
Direct traffic means the browser supplied no referrer. Someone may have typed your address, but bookmarks, apps, privacy settings, and referrer policies can also omit it.
Any site (not direct traffic) means a nonempty referrer was recorded. This condition doesn't separately classify same-site and external traffic. The source labels in Activity use their own arrival classification.
A missing referrer can satisfy Is not set and negative text comparisons against a nonempty value. Is set requires a nonempty recorded referrer. An unavailable historical page isn't the same as a known page with an empty referrer.
How long the history lasts
The first recorded arrival can still apply after the visitor browses elsewhere or returns later. Supported first-referrer comparisons can also use retained attribution data. This source has no first-versus-last selector or duration field.
History belongs to the browser and depends on available storage. Clearing browser data or using another browser can establish a different first arrival. RightMessage can't reconstruct a referrer the browser never supplied.