Referrer Mappings
Referrer Mappings let you assign a specific source, medium, and campaign to traffic that arrives from a known referrer domain. When a visit comes from a domain you have mapped and the URL carries no UTM parameters, SealMetrics applies the UTM values you configured automatically.
This is useful for properly attributing traffic from:
- Partner sites
- Affiliates
- Internal domains
- Any referrer you want to label with a consistent source/medium
Referrer Mappings act on the referrer domain of an incoming visit. They are different from UTM Mappings, which rename or group UTM values that are already present in the URL. See How to change UTM parameters for UTM Mappings.
How It Works
- When traffic comes from a matched referrer without UTM parameters in the URL, the configured UTM values are applied.
- Existing UTM parameters in the URL are never overwritten. An explicit
utm_source/utm_medium/utm_campaignalways wins. - When several mappings could match, the one with the highest priority is applied first (priority is a
0–1000scale).
How to Set It Up
Referrer Mappings are configured per account, in the site settings:
- Open Settings → Sites and select the site (account) you want to configure.
- Open the Referrer Mappings tab.
- Fill in the fields:
- Referrer Domain — the domain to match (e.g.
partner-site.com). - Match Type — how the referrer domain is compared to the pattern (see below).
- UTM Source — required; the source to apply (e.g.
partner). - UTM Medium — defaults to
referral. - Under Show advanced options: UTM Campaign and an optional Label (a human-readable name such as
Partner Site Traffic).
- Referrer Domain — the domain to match (e.g.
- Click Add Mapping to save.
Each saved mapping is listed below the form. To remove one, click the delete (trash) icon next to it.
Match Types
The Match Type controls how the referrer domain of an incoming visit is compared against your pattern:
| Match type | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Exact | Matches the domain exactly |
| Contains | The domain contains the pattern |
| Starts with | The domain starts with the pattern |
| Ends with | The domain ends with the pattern |
| Regex | The domain matches a regular expression |
The referrer pattern is normalized when saved: the protocol (http://, https://) and any path are stripped, and the value is lowercased. Enter just the domain.
Fields Reference
A referrer mapping stores the following fields:
| Field | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
referrer_pattern | Yes | — | Domain pattern to match (max 255 chars) |
match_type | No | exact | One of exact, contains, starts_with, ends_with, regex |
utm_source | Yes | — | Source to apply |
utm_medium | No | referral | Medium to apply |
utm_campaign | No | empty | Campaign to apply |
utm_term | No | empty | Term to apply |
utm_content | No | empty | Content to apply |
label | No | — | Human-readable label |
description | No | — | Optional description |
priority | No | 0 | Higher priority mappings are checked first (0–1000) |
is_active | No | true | Whether the mapping is applied |
API
Referrer Mappings can also be managed through the API under the /referrer-mappings endpoint (scoped per account with the account_id query parameter). It supports listing, creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting mappings. Creating or modifying mappings requires editor-or-higher (write) permissions.
Related
- How to change UTM parameters — rename or group UTM values already present in the URL (UTM Mappings).
- Passthrough Referrers — preserve the original session source when visitors return from external domains such as payment gateways.