Google Analytics: Understanding the basic metrics

Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that tracks activity and engagement on a website.

It provides an insight into how many visitors your web pages receive, how engaged those visitors are and what they do once they arrive.

As a University this information helps us to make informed decisions when shaping content and the website structure. We have both a central view and a departmental view set up so you can focus on the pages that matter to you.

Metrics that matter

These are the main metrics you will come across inside Google Analytics.

Sessions

Also known as Site Visits. Sessions are the number of visits we have had to the website. A session lasts for 30 minutes and is reset when there is activity such as clicking through to another page. This means if someone comes to one of your pages, then goes to a different browser or leaves their computer for 30minutes their session will end. Any action they take when they return will be counted as a new session, even though they technically never left the website.

Users

Also known as Unique Visits. This is a unique individual, or more accurately a device, that visits our website. I say device because if someone visits a website on their desktop and also on their mobile phone then they will be classed as two Users. Google Analytics has no way to match the different devices as being the same individual.

Page views per visit

This is known as Pages/Session in Google Analytics and is pronounced ‘Pages per Session’. It’s usually displayed as a number with two decimal places. Pages/Session is how many pages an average user views per session. So if this number is 3.42 then it means for each Session the average user will view 3.42 pages.

Average time on page

This is how long a user spends on that specific page.

Avg. Session Duration

This is the average amount of time a user spends on your website per session.

Exit Rate and Bounce Rate

Exit Rate is different from Bounce Rate. Although they both deal with Users leaving your website Exit Rate is how many users leave your website on a specific page. Which is different from Bounce Rate, which is the percentage of users who leave your website after only viewing 1 page.

One way to remember is like this: Every user has to leave your website at some point (that’s Exit Rate), but not every user has to leave on the first page they visit (Bounce Rate). Exit Rate tells you on which page a User is leaving. Bounce Rate tells you which pages are not retaining a User – i.e. performing poorly.
Bounce rates of around 40-50% are average.

Returning Visitor vs New Visitor

A new visitor is someone who has visited your website for the first time. Though as mentioned before, if someone uses a different device then Google Analytics will assign them as a new visitor. This is also true if a returning visitor clears their cookies.

Introducing tracked links for advertising

If you’re running a digital campaign then tracked links or URLs are an important way to track how your campaign has performed and give you feedback for the next campaign.

You can learn how to set up tagged URLs by viewing the Link tracking manual for guidance. 

What next?

If you’re a manager who wants to understand the analytics reports your team are delivering then Google has a number of training videos on the fundamentals of Digital Analytics. They can be found at the following link: https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/course/1

If you’re a practitioner who needs to know how to implement something on Google Analytics then I recommend the Analytics Academy by Google. This can be found at: https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/