Page views
This is the number of times users
view a page that has the Google Analytics tracking code inserted. This covers
all page views; so if a user refreshes the page, or navigates away from the
page and returns, these are all counted as additional page views.
Visits
Visits are the individual periods of
time (also known as “sessions”) that visitors spend on your site. A visit is
ended either after 30 minutes of inactivity or if the user leaves your site for
more than 30 minutes (if a user leaves your site and returns within 30 minutes,
this is counted as part of the original visit).
Unique Page views
The unique page view number counts
all the times the page was viewed in an individual session as a single event;
so whether a visitor viewed the page once in their visit or five times, the
number of unique page views will be recorded as just one.
Unique Visitors
When a user visits your site for the
first time, a new visit and unique visitor are both recorded. If the same user
returns to the site after their initial visit, only a new visit is added. Google
Analytics is able to recognize whether a user has been to the site before
through the use of cookies. This means that if a user deletes their
cookies, or accesses the site through a different browser or machine, then they
may be mistakenly added as a new unique visitor; for this reason Google
Analytics tends to place more prominence on the visits data.
New vs. Returning Visitors
New visitors are those users that
have not visited your site before the time period specified, while returning
visitors will have made at least one visit to at least one page on your site
previously. This is again determined by whether Google Analytics can detect
cookies, which indicate previous visits. If Google cannot detect a cookie one
will be set for future recording, unless the user has disabled cookies in their
personal browser preferences.
Segments
Segments enable you to analyse your
data in more detail, by filtering the results to show only information for
certain kinds of traffic. You can also use segments to compare results between
groups of visitors; for example new vs. returning, or paid vs. organic search
traffic. Google also allows you to set up custom segments to for even more
granular analysis.
Landing Page
The page your user begins their visit
to your site on; quite simply, how they ‘land’ on your site.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is given as a percentage,
and represents the number of visits when users leave your site after just one
page; regardless of how they got to your site or how long they stayed on that
page.
Visitors Flow
The visitors flow report shows how
users moved through your site, from landing page to exit page. Visitors flow reports
can be customized to show additional detail, such as the geographic location of
users or the traffic source, and also shows how many people exited at each
stage of interaction.
Traffic Sources: Direct vs. Referral
Traffic sources show you how users
got to your site, and in Google Analytics are split into direct and referral
traffic.
Direct traffic is made up of visitors
that type a URL directly into the address bar, select an auto-complete option
when typing the URL, or click on a bookmark to get to your site (however,
instances when Google Analytics cannot determine a source also get
automatically assigned as direct).
Referral traffic is when a user has
landed on your site by clicking on a link from somewhere else; this could be
another site, a social media profile, or a search engine.
Search Traffic: Organic vs. Paid
Google Analytics also lets you see
what percentage of your traffic came from search engines, and this is further
broken down into organic and paid search.
Organic search shows the users who
came to your site by clicking on the organic links on the search engine results
page (SERP); these results appear below that adverts and are determined by how
well the page is optimized for search engines.
The paid search results show users
who clicked on one of your paid search engine adverts; these typically appear
at the top and side of the SERPs and are managed via an advertising account
such as Google AdWords or Bing Ads.
For both organic and paid search
channels, Google Analytics records the keyword: the word or phrase a user
entered into the search box that led them to click on one of your links.
Events
Events can be set up within Google
Analytics to help you measure activity that may not otherwise be recorded by
the tracking code; these may include when a user plays a video, downloads a
fact sheet, uses an embedded tool, or other on-site interactions.
Goals
For critical site objectives, such as
getting users to fill in a contact form, complete an online transaction or
spend a certain amount of time engaging with your site, goals can be set up to
monitor the conversion rate of these activities. There are four types of goals
available in Google Analytics: URL Destination, Visit Duration, Pages (or
Screens)/Visit and goals tied to existing events. You can also assign a
monetary value to each goal completion, to help determine the return on
investment from your website or application.
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