Google Analytics Vocabulary and Definitions

Have you ever wondered what some of the terms mean when looking at your Google Analytics account? In this blog post, we give you some of the most popular Google Analytics vocabulary and their definitions to help you get more from all the reports and data Google has to offer.

Be sure to download our list in a single page, easy-to-use list.


Affinity Category: groups of interests enjoyed by site visitors, typically at the top of the sales funnel

Average Session Duration: the average amount of time active users are on the site

Behavior Flow: traces the path users took from landing page to exit point, starting with the landing page

Bounce: when the user’s only activity on the site is viewing a single page of the site

Bounce Rate: percentage of visits in which the visitor only views one page of the site before leaving

Channels: source of traffic; for example, direct, organic, referral, etc.

Conversion: an activity carried out by the user which fulfills the intended web page purpose (product purchase, download, subscription, etc.)

Direct Traffic: a type of channel; visits to the site where the user types the URL into the brower address bar or when a visitor uses a bookmark to get to the site

Engagement: uses visit duration and page depth to measure how active users are

Entrances: number of times visitors entered the site through a specified page or set of pages

Event: a user’s interaction with an independently tracked element on a page, like clicking a link or watching a video

Exit Point: last page viewed by a site visitor

Frequency: the number of times visitors return to the site within a given period of time

Impression: when a referral link or advertisement is displayed on a web page

In-Market Segment: people Google deems as being ready (in the market) to buy a specific product or service

Landing Pages: first page viewed by a site visitor; outside of Google Analytics, can refer to a specifically designed page that leads prospects to a specific offer or other purpose

Network Referrals: traffic from social media sites and pages connected to those sites

Organic Search: traffic from people searching keywords on search engines

Organic Traffic: a type of channel; visits to the site from unpaid (organic) search engine results

Page/Session: average number of pages viewed during a visit to the site; repeated pageviews are counted

Page Depth: the number of pages visited on the site

Page Impression: page is loaded or reloaded by a user

Page Timing Report: analyzes speed by page performance

Pageviews: total number of pages viewed; repeated views by the same user are counted

Paid Traffic: a type of channel; visits to the site from paid search engine keywords, Google AdWords ads, and other online paid ad campaigns

Percent of New Sessions: percentage of total visits that were first time visits (people who had never visited the site before)

Queries: the phrase a user entered into a search engine

Recency: the time between a visit and the visit immediately prior

Referrals: a type of channel; visits to the site where the user has come directly from other sites, i.e. referring sites

Referring Sites: external sites that send, or refer, visitors to the site

Session: activity from a unique user in one visit to the site; the time period a user is actively engaged with the site

Site Speed: how fast the site or specific page loads for a user; based on pageload time, execution speed, and browser parsing

Unique Visitors: number of unduplicated visitors to site over the course of a specified time period

User Timing Report: analyzes speed by resource performance (images, videos, etc.)

Users: total number of distinct devices that have accessed site

Users Flow: the path users took from landing page to exit point, starting with country of origin

Visits: total number of visits to site, from unique or repeated visitors

Visit Duration: the amount of time spent in a session or on a page


While this list isn’t exhaustive, it should help you get a better grasp on what you see when you take a peek behind the curtain of Google Analytics. Let us know in the comments section if there are terms you don’t see here and would like us to add to our list

 

Click below to download this list in download a free, one-page document.

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