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In general, a referrer is a Web page that directs visitors to another Web page. Examples of referring pages are a search engine like Yahoo and a Web page that has a link to another page on the same site.

On the Referrer Summary in NetTracker, a referrer is the Web site that directed a visitor to the first page he or she saw on your Web site during the current visit. If a visitor typed the URL of your Web site directly into the browser or used a bookmark to your site, the referrer will be None. A single visitor could have a different referrer for each visit, if he or she arrived at your site in a different way each time.

An initial referrer is the Web site that directed a visitor to your site the very first time he or she visited your site. For example, suppose a visitor originally found your site on Yahoo and bookmarked your home page. For that first visit, Yahoo would be both the referrer and the initial referrer. If the visitor used the bookmark to visit the site again, the referrer for the second visit would be None, but Yahoo would still be the initial referrer. A visitor can only have one initial referrer. The initial referrer stays the same from visit to visit.