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Google Analytics Metrics

Using Google Analytics reports requires you to understand metric definitions. Google Analytics Metrics include:

Session User Pageview Unique Pageview Pageview per Session Average Session Duration Avg Time on Page Bounce Rate Exit Rate / % Exit Entrances Page Value Goal Value Time on Site New User Returning User Click

Session: The period time a user is actively engaged with your website, app, etc. A session begins the moment a user arrives at your website and includes all of the actions they take during that session. If a user opens your website and then goes idle for 30min or returns later after 30min, that will count as two sessions User: These are the actual visitors to your website. A user is measured as having at least one session on your website within the selected data range dates

Pageview: The total number of times your website’s pages are viewed. If a page is viewed more than once in a session, each view counts towards this number. The count adds on, even if it’s pressing a back button, refreshing a page, or jumps any other pages within a website Unique Pageview: This metric only counts a pageview once per user session, even if the users comes back to the page repeatedly or refresh a page, giving you a clearer picture of engagement for that page

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Pages/Session (Average Page Depth): The average number of pages viewed during a session. This is a great way to gauge, if your audience is sticking to 1–2 pages, versus perusing multiple pages while on your website. Repeated view of a single pages are counted. Average Session Duration

Measures the average length of sessions in your data range dates Avg. Time on Page The average time users spend on a specific page or screen, or set of pages or screens

Bounce Rate Bounce Rate measures percentage of single-page visits, where users entered and exited your site from the entrance page without interacting with any other pages

% Exit (=Numbers of Exits/Number of Pageviews) for the pages or set of pages. It indicates how often users exit from the page or set of pages, when they view the page. Entrances Number of times visitors entered your site through a specified pages or set of pages Page Value The average of a page or set of pages. Page value is (Transaction Revenue + Total Goal Value) divided by Unique pageviews for the pages or set of pages

Goal Value

Total value produced by Goal conversions on your site. Multiply no. of goal conversions by the value that you assigned to each goal Session vs Users Google Analytics measures sessions & users to your site. Visits (or session) are the unique sessions initiated by all the visitors/users. Google Analytics’ time-out period for a visit is 30 minutes.

If a user leaves your site and returns within 30 minutes, the user’s subsequent activities on your site will be attributed to the original session.

If a user is inactive on your website for 30 minutes or more, the original session will be terminated.

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A visit consists of one or more web site page views. The difference between a Session and User in Google Analytics’ definitions is:

The initial session by a user regardless of date range is an additional session and an additional user.

Any future sessions from the same user during the selected time period are counted as additional sessions, but not as additional users.

Page views vs Unique Page views Page views are the number of times a web page (an analyst-definable unit of content) is

viewed. Additional page view counts can be triggered via visiting the same web page multiple times by the same visitor, when the visitor:

Reloads after reaching the web page. Navigates to a different webpage and then returns to the original webpage.

Unique page views are the total number of unique users to a given web page during the same session. A unique page view is the number of sessions during which the page is browsed one or multiple times. Session vs Pageviews

Sessions are the number of times your visitors has been to your website, while pageviews are the number of times web pages are viewed. Sessions and pageviews form the pageviews per visit metric: The number of page views divided by number of visits in a given time period. New User vs. returning User Google Analytics can identify new user and returning user.

A new visitor is a user that visits your site for the first time. A returning visitor is a user that has previously browsed your website.

Bounce Rate vs Exit Rate Google Analytics records bounces and exits. What are exits, exit pages and exit rate?

Exits are the number of users that leave your site after 2/3 or more instances. Exit page is the last page on your site accessed during a visit. Exit rate is the percentage of site exits that occurred from a webpage or set of

WebPages. Exit rate will always be identical to the number of visits when applied over your entire site.

What are bounces and bounce rates?

Bounces are the number of single-page visits to your site, regardless of the number of times the page is viewed.

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Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits to your site – Visits in which the user leaves your site from the entrance page.

Time on Page vs Time on Site Time on Page is the time a visitor spent on a particular web page or set of pages. It is calculated by subtracting the initial view time for a particular page from the initial view time for a subsequent page. So time on page does not apply to exit pages of your website. Time on site is the time a visitor spends on your site during a given session

Clicks vs Session Clicks are the number of times a user has clicked on your ads, for example your Google Adwords ads. In Google Analytics reports, often the number of clicks does not match the number of visits. Google Analytics reports more visits than Adwords reports clicks, when: (Part-1)

AdWords automatically filters invalid clicks (due to Adwords click fraud), but Analytics reports all visits to your website.

A visitor clicks on your ad, and then during a different session returns to your site through a bookmark or visits your site directly. Google Analytics reports multiple visits as the referral information from the original visit is retained, but Adwords reports one click.

Adwords reports more clicks than Google Analytics reports visits, when: (Part-2)

A visitor may click your ad multiple times during a session, AdWords records multiple clicks but Google Analytics reports the separate pageviews as one visit.

A visitor may click on your ad, but closes his browser before your web page fully loads, Google Analytics does not recognize the visit, but Adwords records the click.

A visitor with either javascript or cookies disabled clicks on your ad, Google Analytics cannot record this visit, but AdWords reports this click.

Redirects in landing pages prevent Google Analytics tracking code from loading, but Adwords records the click.

Adwords auto-tagging is turned off and the destination URLs do not contain manually tagged campaign tracking variables, the visits (that come through Adwords) are recorded as Google Organic visits instead of Google CPC visits.

Author:

Ranjan Jena, Founder & Director “eMarket Education”, a full-time Google AdWords PPC

Course Trainer & Speaker with 10+ years’ experience in Digital Marketing Industry while

Google AdWords PPC & Google Analytics as his core specialization along with SEO, Affiliate

Marketing, Social Media & Content Management.