Web Analytics – Basic Terminology

If you are new to web analytics, it all may sound pretty confusing but once you learn and
adopt the terminology, you will be ready to go deeper and explore the world of web
analytics. That’s why we’ve created a list of words that you will encounter on a daily basis
if you decide to start your web analytics journey.

(Image source: http://blog.alexa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Unknown.jpeg)

What is...
... conversion?
The conversion is what happens when a visitor completes an activity which we consider
important. This activity may vary depending on the type of your business and your website. For
example, it can be a purchase, survey filling etc. For example, in Google Analytics, we can define
up to twenty goals per profile to measure the conversions realized by the users.

... conversion rate?

Conversion rate is the primary and basic indicator which allows us to know the percentage of
the visits gives the best results related to the goal of our website.

... bounce rate?

Bounce rate is the percentage of the visitors who only enter the website to visit only one page
and leave the website without any further action. Practically, this rate shows us the number of
visitors who didn’t find what they were looking for on our web page.
... internal search?
If our web page has a search engine and the search parameter is reflected in the URL, we can
track internal searches in Google Analytics. Knowing this data help us figure out what the
visitors look for but they cannot find it right away.

... visitors’ loyalty?

The more innovative content and the more diverse products we have, the higher is the visitors’
loyalty. A larger number of loyal users increases the profitability as long as they realize the
conversion.

... keyword?
In search engine marketing and web analytics, the keyword is the word that directs the users
towards your website after they’ve entered it into their search engines. The brand keyword is
the type of keyword that includes the name of a brand or a company.

... filter?
The filter is a word or an expression that is used to separate certain data from the rest of the
data in the Google Analytics report (it either includes specific data or excludes them). Normally,
it is used

 to filtrate certain content, or

 to configure special reports which only show one part of the content – for example,
the access to a determined section on a website.

... traffic?
In the context of following marketing campaigns, the source and the origin show the place where
the visitor has come from to a specific website, for example - Google, the name of a newsletter
etc. Traffic can be organic, direct, and CPC.

 Organic traffic is the traffic that is provided by the pages which are the results of a
search through a specific search engine. However, you should have in mind the traffic
provided from the sources such as sponsored links is not considered as CPC.
 Direct traffic is the traffic created when a visitor directly accesses a certain website by
entering its URL in the search engine or clicking on it from its favorites list.

... referral?
A referral occurs when the visitor comes to a website after clicking its post which is shared on
another website. When a user comes to a website from the another one, Google Analytics keeps
the information about it in order to show it in the reports of the traffic sources.

Of course, there is a large number of other concepts and words that should be adopted during the
introduction with web analytics. However, these several can be a good basis for learning the other
ones, as well.