Analytics Glossary
Clear definitions for web analytics terms. Learn what metrics mean and how to use them.
34 terms defined
B
C
Channel
A grouping of traffic sources by type, such as Direct, Organic Search, Social, Referral, Email, Paid, and AI, providing a high-level view of how visitors find your website.
Continuation rate
The percentage of visitors who view at least one more page after landing on a specific page, indicating how well that page encourages further site exploration.
Conversion rate
The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up, or clicking a specific button.
Cookieless analytics
Web analytics that tracks visitor behavior without using browser cookies, typically using privacy-first techniques like salted rotating identifiers or server-side counting.
Custom event
A user-defined tracking event that captures specific interactions beyond pageviews, such as button clicks, form submissions, video plays, or any action meaningful to your business.
E
Email traffic
Website visitors who arrive by clicking links in emails, including newsletters, marketing campaigns, transactional emails, and personal correspondence.
Entry page
The first page a visitor views when arriving at your website, also known as a landing page. Entry pages are where sessions begin.
Exit page
The last page a visitor views before leaving your website, ending their session. Exit pages show where visitors choose to stop browsing.
Exit rate
The percentage of pageviews that were the last in a session. Measures how often a specific page is the final page visitors see before leaving your site.
F
File download
A tracked event when visitors download files from your website, such as PDFs, documents, images, or software. Download tracking measures content distribution.
Fingerprinting
A technique for identifying visitors by combining browser and device characteristics like screen resolution, timezone, and browser version, without using cookies.
G
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation, a European Union law that governs how organizations collect, store, and process personal data of EU residents.
Goal
A defined action or destination that represents a valuable visitor behavior, such as completing a purchase, submitting a form, or viewing a specific page.
O
Organic search
Traffic from unpaid search engine results, where visitors find your website by searching on Google, Bing, or other search engines.
Outbound link
A hyperlink that points from your website to an external domain. Tracking outbound link clicks reveals which external resources visitors find valuable.
P
Pages per session
The average number of pages a visitor views during a single session on your website, indicating engagement depth.
Pageview
A pageview is recorded each time a page on your website is loaded or reloaded in a browser.
Paid traffic
Website visitors who arrive through paid advertising channels such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, sponsored content, or other paid promotional campaigns.
Privacy-first analytics
Web analytics designed with privacy as a core principle, typically avoiding cookies, not collecting personal data, and not requiring consent banners.
R
Real-time analytics
Analytics that show website visitor activity as it happens, typically displaying current active visitors, live pageviews, and recent activity within seconds of occurrence.
Referrer
The URL of the previous page that linked a visitor to your website, indicating where your traffic originates.
S
Scroll depth
A metric that measures how far down a page visitors scroll, typically expressed as a percentage of the total page height.
Session
A session represents a single visit to your website, encompassing all pageviews and interactions from arrival until the visitor leaves or becomes inactive.
Session duration
The total amount of time a visitor spends on your website during a single session, measured from their first pageview to their last interaction.
Social traffic
Website visitors who arrive by clicking links shared on social media platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, or Instagram.
Subdomain tracking
Analytics capability to track visitor activity across multiple subdomains of the same root domain, such as blog.example.com and app.example.com.