The Google Analytics Glossary

Google Analytics is one of the best, most overwhelming tools for bloggers.

Before we get into how get information from Google Analytics, it’s important to know what all of the buttons mean. Let’s look at the Google Analytics Glossary!

% Exit – Found in the Behavior section. The percentage of time the specified page is the last page visitors are on before they exit your website.

% New Sessions – Found in the Audience section. An estimated percentage of the number of first-time visits to your website.

% Search Exits – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The percentage of times a visitor exited your site directly after completing an internal search.

% Search Refinements – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The percentage of times a search is refined on your site. For example, if a user searches “burrito,” “burrito,” “taco,” “taco,” the metric is 1 because the search query was changed from “burrito” to “taco” one time. Can you tell I’m hungry?

Acquisition – Found in the left-hand menu. These pages tell you where your visitors have come from.

AdWords – Found under Acquisition -> AdWords. Google’s advertising arm. These pages are only necessary if you also use AdWords for advertising on Google.

Audience – Found in the left-hand menu. These pages tell you various analytics about your audience.

Average Domain Lookup Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average amount of seconds spent in DNS lookup for the specified page.

Average Order Value – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The average value of transactions on your site.

Average Page Download Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average number of seconds it takes for the specified page to download.

Average Page Load Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average number of seconds it takes for a certain set of pages on your website to load.

Average Price – Found under Conversions – Ecommerce. The average ecommerce revenue per product.

Average Quantitiy – Found under Conversions – Ecommerce. The average number of products sold per transaction.

Average Redirection Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average number of seconds it takes your website to redirect.

Average Search Depth – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The average number of pages a user visits after completing an internal search on your site.

Average Server Connection Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average number of seconds it takes for the server to connect to your page.

Average Server Response Time (sec) – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed. The average number of seconds it takes your server to respond to a user request.

Average Session Duration – Found in the Audience section. The average time a user is spending on your website during a session.

Average Time on Page – Found in the Behavior section. The average amount of time users spend on a specified page.

Average Value – Found under Behavior -> Events. The average value of each event.

Behavior – Found in the left-hand menu. This section provides you with analytics of your audience’s behavior around your website.

Behavior Flow – Found in the Behavior section. See User Flow.

Bounce Rate – Found in the Audience section. The percentage of single-page visits, or the percentage of time the user is only viewing one page and then leaving your website.

Campaign – Found under Acquisition -> Campaigns and Acquisition -> AdWords -> Campaigns. The titles you manually assign to various AdWords campaigns.

Channels – Found under Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Channels. Groupings of where your site’s visitors are coming from. The automatic groupings are Organic Search, Social, Direct, and Referral.

Conversions – Found in the left-hand menu. When a user completes a desired action on your site, such as an email subscription or a purchase.

Cost Analysis – Found under Acquisition -> Campaigns -> Cost Analysis. A way to view performance data of your paid marketing campaigns via AdWords.

Dashboard – Found in the left-hand menu. A dashboard is a page where you can organize different analytics however you’d like. You can have as many dashboards as you’d like, and you can include a plethora of different analytics on them.

Data Hub Activity – Found under Acquisition -> Social -> Data Hub Activity. In-depth analytics of social shares of your website from specific social media sites.

Destination URL – Found under Acquisition -> AdWords -> Destination URLs. The URL that your AdWords campaigns sent users to after they clicked on it.

Direct Channel – Found in the Acquisition section. When the user types your URL directly into their browser to bring up your website.

Ecommerce Conversion Rate – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The percentage of visits that resulted in an ecommerce transaction.

Entrances – Found under Behavior -> Site Content. The number of times the specified page is the first page a visitor sees when entering your website.

Event Category – Found under Behavior -> Events. The category that was assigned to a triggered event.

Event Value – Found under Behavior -> Events. The total value given to an event or set of events.

Events – Found in the Behavior section. User interactions with content that can be tracked, including downloads, mobile ad clicks, flash elements, and video plays.

Events / Session with Event – Found under Behavior -> Events. The average number of events per session in which at least one event was triggered.

Events Flow – Found under Behavior -> Events -> Events Flow. A flowchart of the event path users take when exploring your website.

Exits – Found under Behavior -> Site Content -> Exit Pages. The number of times the specified page is the last page a visitor sees before exiting your website.

Goal Completions – Found under Conversions -> Goals. The total number of conversions.

Goal Conversion Rate – Found under Conversions -> Goals. The sum of all goal conversion rates.

Goal Value – Found under Conversions -> Goals. The total value produced by the goal conversions on your site. The value is assigned manually when you create your goal.

Goals – Found in the Conversions section. Goals that you can set manually for Google Analytics to track.

Hour of Day – Found under Acquisition -> AdWords -> Hour of Day. The hour of the day that your AdWords campaigns appear. They are displayed in military time, with 00 meaning midnight and 23 meaning 11 PM.

Intelligence Events – Found in the left-hand menu. Intelligence events are automatically generated reports for different topics. Some are set up to begin with, while others can be added manually.

Keywords – Found under Acquisition -> AdWords -> Keywords. Any keyword (paid or unpaid) that users type into a search engine to get to your website.

Landing Page – Found under Acquisition -> Search Engine Optimization -> Landing Pages and Acquisition -> Social -> Landing Pages. The specific URL that a user lands on.

Network Referrals – Found under Acquisition -> Social -> Network Referrals. The specific social networks that people were using when they clicked on your website.

New Visitor – Found under Audience -> Behavior -> New vs Returning. A visitor who has never visited your site before.

Organic Keywords – Found under Acquisition -> Campaigns -> Organic Keywords. The keywords that you did not pay for that people searched for and found your site through.

Organic Search – Found in the Acquisition section.When a user finds your website through a search engine like Google or Bing, and don’t click on an ad to get to your site.

Page Value – Found under Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages. The average value of the specified page, based n previous AdWords campaigns.

Pages / Session – Found in the Audience section. Pages per session. The average number of pages a user has visited per session.

PageSpeed Score – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed -> Speed Suggestions. A score that Google gives your page based on how many improvements can be made to your site’s speed. It doesn’t necessarily mean how fast your page is. A high score means few improvements can be made, while a low score means many improvements can be made.

PageSpeed Suggestions – Found under Behavior -> Site Speed -> Speed Suggestions. Suggestions from Google on how to make various pages on your website faster.

Pageviews – Found in the Audience section. The number of pages users have viewed in the selected time range. If I visit your site two times, viewing three different pages each time, that’s six page views.

Paid Keywords – Found under Acquisition -> Campaigns -> Paid Keywords. The keywords you have paid for via AdWords.

Quantity – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The total number of units sold in ecommerce transactions.

Queries – Found under Acquisition -> Search Engine Optimization -> Queries. The phrases that people have typed into a search engine to find your site.

Real-Time –  Found in the left-hand menu. Real-Time is pretty amazing. It will tell you how many people are currently on your website, where they are, and how they got to your website. You can organize the information by location, traffic source, content (active page), events, and conversions.

Referral Channel – Found in the Acquisition section. When a user clicks on a link from a different site to get to your website. Social media is excluded.

Results Pageviews / Search – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The average number of times a visitor viewed a results page after completing a search.

Returning Visitor – Found under Audience -> Behavior -> New vs Returning. A visitor who has visited your site before.

Revenue – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The total amount of revenue from ecommerce on your site.

Search Engine Optimization – Found under Acquisition -> Search Engine Optimization. Also known as SEO. How well your website ranks when people search for various phrases in search engines.

Search Queries – Found under Acquisition -> AdWords -> Search Queries. The phrases that people typed into Google that triggered your AdWords ads to come up on a search.

Search Terms – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The phrases that people used to search your site internally.

Sessions – Found in the Audience section. A session is the number of times a person visits your site in the selected time range. If I visit your site two times, viewing three different pages each time, that’s two sessions.

Sessions with Event – Found under Behavior -> Events. The total number of sessions in which at least one event was triggered.

Sessions with Search – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The number of sessions in which at least one site search was done.

Shortcuts – Found in the left-hand menu. Shortcuts are quick links to the reports you access the most. Any time you add a shortcut, it appears under this header.

Social Channel – Found in the Acquisition section. When a user gets to your website via a link on social media.

Source / Medium – Found under Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Source / Medium. Where your visitors are coming from.

Start Page – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The page from which visitors made a search on your site.

Time after Search – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The amount of time a user spent on your site after an internal search.

Total Abandonment Rate – Found under Conversions -> Goals. The rate at which goals are abandoned.

Total Events – Found under Behavior -> Events. The total number of events that occurred in the specified time frame.

Total Unique Searches – Found under Behavior -> Site Search. The number of times your site was searched, excluding the same search within one session.

Transactions – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The total number of purchases on your site.

Trackbacks – Found under Acquisition -> Social -> Trackbacks. Places where other sites have shared your content.

Treemaps – Found under various Acquisition subheadings. A graph that shows you trends and trouble spots in your account. You compare two different metrics (like Sessions vs. Pages / Session).

Unique Events – Found under Behavior -> Events. The unique number of events per category, action, or label.

Unique Pageviews – Found in the Behavior section.The number of pageviews during a particular session.

Unique Purchases – Found under Conversions -> Ecommerce. The total number of times a specified product or products are included in a purchase.

Users – Found in the Audience section. The number of people who have visited your website in the selected time range. If I visit your site two times, viewing three different pages each time, that’s one user.

Users Flow – Found under Audience -> User Flow and Acquisition -> Social -> Users Flow. A flowchart of the link path users take when exploring your website.

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Whew! That was a big one. Anything you need clarification on? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be diving more into Google Analytics strategy in later posts.