Organic traffic reported as direct

The explanation for this is comparatively simple. If Guestmode is activated, the page is reloaded with the initial request, but before GA can register this request. If GA registers this request after the reload, but the information is lost through the reload as to whether it is an organically generated request or directly. The only consequence is to deactivate the Guestmode.

The problem described cannot be solved by any setting in the cache plugin, except by deactivating the Guestmode.

Why would it happen only on 2 website?

Good question, next question. I don’t know it. I’m just trying to think logically and logic says it can only happen the way it’s described, but there’s a possible reason the problem isn’t happening on all pages.

Whether GA registers the initial request depends largely on how long it takes for the reload to start. For example, if you have a site that makes multiple external requests to other sites, then these external requests slow down and block the page build, or the rendering of the HTML code. This delays the page reload, but this delay is enough for GA to initialize the request.

What also affects it is whether a page is already cached or not. If the page is not yet in the cache, it also takes longer until the page is reloaded.

Ultimately, an uncached page has a positive effect on GA, but negatively on load time, especially on the first request.