Referral traffic is the visitors who reach your site by clicking a link on another website, as opposed to arriving from a search engine, an ad, or by typing your address.
Analytics tools group visits by where they came from. Referral visits show the site that sent them, so you can see which listing, post or mention actually brought people.
Referral visitors from a relevant page often convert better than search visitors, because someone already told them what your product is before they clicked.
Why it matters for a launch
In the first weeks after launch, before search has noticed you, referrals from launch platforms, directories and communities are most of your traffic. Watching them tells you where to spend more effort.
Read more: How to get your first users