9 Must Know Google Analytics Terms

About Google Analytics

The Google Analytics tool is most commonly used to present data which reflects how visitors interact with your website. Understanding the data correctly can often give you a good indication of your website’s performance.

Most importantly Google Analytics can also highlight areas which may need altering or adapting in order to make the experience more valuable for the visitor once they land on your website. This is vital to achieving online success because as we all know the more you improve the visitor experience, the better chances you have of them buying your product or choosing your company for your services.

If you're new to the Google Analytics tool, or you've just recently started using it, you might have found some of the terminology a little confusing. The following tips will hopefully help to make things clearer.

9 Basic Google Analytics Terms

1. Sessions

A session is the time which a user has been actively enganged with your website.

2. Users

The total amount of people who have visited your website for the very first time.

3. Returning Visitors

The total amount of people who have returned to your website after a first visit.

4. Page Views

This is the total amount of pages which have been viewed. It is important to remember that repeated views of a single page are still counted.

5. Bounce Rate

The Bounce rate reflects the number of people who have entered your website and leave without viewing any other pages. Furthermore it is the number of single page visits to your website where the visitor left the site at the same page of entrance. This should not to be confused with exit rate.

6. Exit Rate

This represents the percentage of visitors who exit the website after possibly viewing various pages. The highest exit rates can often exist on pages whereby they have (successfully or unsuccessfully) fulfilled the visitor experience.

It is common for exit rates to be significantly higher on some pages. For example a page which contains contact details can often be seen as the final stage in the visitor’s decision making process and therefore this often the most logical point of exit, although sometimes this is not always the case.

7. Average Visit Duration

This is the amount of times a visitor will spend on your website in one session.

8. New Visitors

This is the total amount of visitors which are new to the website within a selected time frame.

9. Social Referral

This is the total amount of traffic to your website which has come from content or links which has been posted across your social networking sites.

To find out what PS Website Design can do to help make your website perform the way you expect, get in touch with us today.

 

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