You all should be familiar with Google Analytics, since it is installed on your website and the largest website traffic reporting tool used across the world wide web. However, that doesn’t mean you fully understand what the terms commonly used by Google Analytics mean and/or how you should be using that statistic.
Here are definitions for some of the commonly used Google Analytic terms ::
Pageview ::
This number represents every time a page is viewed and served in your browser window. This figure also includes when someone hits “refresh” in their browser window or the back button.
Pageviews are one of the primary statistics your sponsors will want to know, however keep in mind that due to varying visitor sessions this number could vary drastically across your user base. Just because you have a high number of pageviews doesn’t necessarily mean your readers are engaging with your site, so look at this stat in conjunction with the others outlined below.
Unique Pageview ::
Pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session. This figure represents the number of sessions during which that page was viewed one or more times.
This number gives you a more accurate idea of how many pages are being viewed on a session by session basis, meaning one user session can contain multiple pageviews, which are only accounted for one time.
Visit ::
The collection of pageviews that an individual visitor makes during a specified period of activity. The end of a visit is considered when the visitor either closes the browser, clears cookies or is inactive for a period of time (default is 30 minutes, however this is customizable).
This statistic provides insight onto how visitors are using your site and their level of engagement. The higher number the better for this statistic.
Visitor ::
Defined by a unique ID that is typically stored in a visitor’s cookies. A visitor is indicated whenever your tracking code is executed and a new cookie with a new ID is found.
Don’t place as much emphasis on visitors as you would visits, due to the inaccuracies of trying to track individual users. Individual users may use multiple computers and/or browsers, which would cause a discrepancy in tracking.
New Visitor ::
Indicates a visitor that does not have Google Analytics cookies when they visit the first page in a session. So, essentially someone who may have never visited your site before, or someone who recently cleared out all their browser cookies.
This number gives you an okay idea of how many new readers you have for a given time period.
Bounce Rate ::
This number represents a visit with one pageview.
You want this number to be low, since it technically means you had a visitor come to your site and leave without further interaction than that one page.
Time on Page ::
Represents how long a visitor was on a specific page. Google figures this out by subtracting the time a visitor hit a page from the time they hit another page on your site.
Again, you want to see this number higher or at least in line with how long it would take to read one of your posts. If the number is too low than people might not be reading all your content or closing out the session after getting to your page.
Time on Site ::
The duration of a visit, meaning it is the recorded time from when a visitor viewed the first page and the last page in a visit.
The higher this number means the higher the reader engagement. Your goal is to get readers to your site and to have them stay and read more of your content.
Pages / Visit ::
The average number of pages viewed per visit.
This number gives you a good idea as to how many pages a visitor is viewing in a given session. The higher the number, the more engagement from your readers.
Direct Traffic ::
Traffic that comes to your site by directly typing in your URL into their browser window or through bookmarks.
This number can be used to measure awareness of your URL and see how many people visit your site directly without going to Facebook, Pinterest, FeedBurner, etc.
Referring Traffic ::
Traffic that is identified by a referrer, which is not a search engine. The referring URL (or the page that contains the link to your website) is also stored as referral traffic.
This is a great statistic to use in seeing how people are getting to your site without going directly to your site. In most cases, Facebook and other social media outlets would rank pretty high.