• Visit
• Pageview
• Unique Pageview
• Pageview per Visit
• Visitor
• New Visitor
• Returning Visitor
• Bounce Rate
• Exit Rate
• Time on Page
• Time on Site
• Click

Visits vs Visitors

Google Analytics measures visits and visitors to your site.

Visits (or session) are the unique sessions initiated by all the visitors. 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.

A visit consists of one or more web site page views.

The difference between a visit and a visitor in Google Analytics’ definitions is:

• The initial session by a user regardless of date range is an additional visit and an additional visitor.
• Any future sessions from the same user during the selected time period are counted as additional visits, but not as additional visitors.

Pageviews vs Unique Pageviews

Google Analytics reports visits and visitors to your site.

Pageviews are the number of times a web page (an analyst-definable unit of content) is viewed. Additional pageview 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 pageviews are the total number of unique visitors 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.

Visits vs Pageviews

Visits are the number of times your visitors has been to your website, while pageviews are the number of times web pages are viewed.

Visits and pageviews form the pageviews per visit metric: The number of page views divided by number of visits in a given time period.

New Visitors vs Returning Visitors

Google Analytics can identify new visitors and returning visitors.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Clicks vs Visits

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 do not match the number of visits.

Google Analytics reports more visits than Adwords reports clicks, when:

• 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:

• 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.

Adwords auto-tagging was explained in Google Analytics PPC Conversion Tracking.

Other Resources to Google Analytics Metrics Definitions

Google officially explains the web analytics metrics definitions of visits, clicks, visitors, page views, unique page views, bounce rates, exits, new visits, time on page and time on site.

Google’s Solutions for Southeast Asia blog offers tips to troubleshoot discrepancies between Google Analytics visits and AdWords clicks.

Set up Google Analytics to track and report either PPC campaign data or PPC keyword data by using Google Analytics campaign variables.

PPC Campaign Level Tracking

To create PPC campaign level conversion tracking for your Yahoo Search Marketing account, append the 3 compulsory campaign variables with assigned values to each keyword URL:

• Source (utm_source): e.g. yahoo
• Medium (utm_medium): e.g. cpc
• Campaign (utm_campaign): e.g. google analytics campaign

Example URL with campaign level tracking:

http://www.gordonchoi.com/cat/google-analytics/?utm_source=yahoo
&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google%20analytics%20campaign

PPC Keyword Level Tracking

To create PPC keyword level conversion tracking for your Microsoft Bing Adcenter account, append all 5 campaign variables with assigned values to each keyword URL:

• Source (utm_source): e.g. bing
• Medium (utm_medium): e.g. cpc
• Campaign (utm_campaign): e.g. google analytics campaign
• Term (utm_term): e.g. google analytics tips
• Content (utm_content): e.g. version1

Example URL with keyword level tracking:

http://www.gordonchoi.com/cat/google-analytics/?utm_source=bing
&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google%20analytics%20campaign
&utm_term=google%20analytics%20tips&utm_content=version1

Google Analytics URL Builder

Google offers the URL Builder Tool to help you generate your tracking URLs.

Google Adwords Auto-tagging

Google Adwords has an advantage over other PPC search engines when tracking conversions through Google Analytics. Turn Auto-tagging on in your Adwords account and Google Analytics will track and report your Adwords account’s conversions down to the keyword level, without having to append any of the utm parameters to your URLs.

Auto-tagging automatically associates a parameter with the click on your ad which then allows Analytics to report the details of the click, including which AdWords keywords brought a visitor to your site, which campaign that keyword was from, and how much that click cost.

PPC Traffic in Google Analytics Reports

In your Google Analytics account, PPC traffic will be reported as “Source/Medium” under the “All Traffic Sources” report:

• Google / cpc
• Baidu / cpc
• Yahoo / cpc
• Bing / cpc

Alternatively, use “Advanced Segments” and select “Paid Search Traffic”.

Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

If Adwords Conversion Tracking code snippet has previously been installed onto the confirmation/thank you pages of your website, you can also run Google Analytics PPC Conversion Tracking which will not conflict with Adwords Conversion Tracking.

The benefits you get for your Adwords account include:

• You can correlate your Google Analytics data (e.g. goals, transactions and pageviews) with your Adwords ad clicks.
• With both Google Analytics data (goals and transactions) and Adwords Conversion Tracking data available for consideration, Adwords Conversion Optimizer will be able to automate your keyword bidding more accurately.

You will not have to separately tag your Adwords destination URLs, but only have to ensure automatic Adwords URL tagging is enabled. The only prerequisite is that you will have to opt into one of the two data sharing options:

• Share your Google Analytics data with Google products only (recommended)
• Share your Google Analytics data anonymously with Google and the benchmarking service

To import your Google Analytics goals into your Adwords account:

• Link your Google Analytics account to your Adwords account, if you have not yet done so
• Ensure you have previously set up a goal in one of your Google Analytics profiles
• Select one of the two data sharing options within your Google Analytics account
• Click the “Link your Analytics goals and transactions” link in Adwords account

Prior linking to your Adwords account, your Google Analytics account is subject to a limit of up to 5 million pageviews per month. By linking your Google Analytics account to your active Adwords account, the pageview limit will be completely removed.

Note that Google Analytics and Adwords record conversions differently, so you tend to see discrepancies.

• Clicks vs. Visits: Adwords conversions (1-per-click) are usually lower than Google Analytics conversions per visit
• Invalid clicks can be filtered out by Adwords but not by Google Analytics
• Cookie expiration: Adwords cookies are set to expire 30 days after the ad click, while Google Analytics cookies by default are only expires in 6 months
• Data processing delays between Adwords and Google Analytics that cause mis-matched statistics

By integrating your live chat statistics with the powerful Google Analytics reporting engine, you can measure how your marketing activities translate into chats, as well as the impact of those chats on your online sales and lead generation.

A wealth of Google Analytics statistical reports puts vital data at your fingertips. For instance, you can:

• Measure how your marketing activities translate into chats, as well as the impact of those chats on sales
• Track the market segments of visitors who chat and make purchases
• Classify visitors according to the pages they visit on your site

Liveperson also provides a tool called Campaign Viewer, which allows the tracking of each visitor on your website in real time.