Common terms:

• Analytics
  • Information resulting from the systematic analysis of data and statistics
• JavaScript
  • A programming language that makes web analytics possible
• Tracking Code
  • The JavaScript code that sends data to Google
• Cookies
  • How your browser helps websites remember you
  • First-party cookie: personal data only accessed by domain
  • Third-party cookie: personal data accessed by multiple domains
• Filters
  • Limit the data that makes it into Google Analytics
• Account
  • Where each company (or business unit) stores their data
• Web Property
  • Each domain name (or app) you would like to track uniquely
• View (formerly Profile)
  • A specific way of looking at a web property
• Interface
  • Where we view our analytics reports and settings

Basic Metrics in Google Analytics Interface

• Sessions (formerly Visits)
  • When someone visits your website or app for a specific amount of time (default is 30 minutes)
  • New Sessions – A new session occurs when a Google Analytics cookie is set for the first time
  • Returning Sessions – A returning session means that the visitor cookie has been set previously
• Users (formerly Visitors or Unique Visitors)
  • A user is counted by the number of unique cookies that have been seen over a specified period of time
• Pageviews
  • The number of times that a page has loaded and data was sent to Google Analytics
• Session Duration (formerly time on site)
  • The time between your first pageview and your last page view (as long as it is within a 30-minute session window)
• Bounce Rate
  • The Number of sessions where a user views only one page (They came, they left)
• Goals
  • Teaching Google Analytics the purpose of your website
• E-Commerce
  • Tracking the selling of products online