When you start to use Google Analytics there’s a chance that you might not understand the terminology used. It might be that your web developer or Digital Marketing Professional will start using terms and language that you don’t understand or unfamiliar with. Sometimes it’s unintentional and occasionally it’s because they want to deliberately cause confusion and convince you of their expertise because that can speak the “lingo”.
I prefer not to do that, I use simple English and “translate” any and all of the acronyms in to easily understood English and the purpose of my Analytics Glossary of Terms page is to help put an end to the confusion caused by Google Analytics terminology.
Google Analytics Terms
Bounce Rate
Translation
The percentage of people who leave your site from the page they landed on, without navigating anywhere else.
It could be because
– They lost interest
– Were confused by the content/navigation
– Visited because an expectation had been set and the site failed to meet it
– The site was slow to load and they gave up waiting
– They found what they wanted
– A Bounce Rate over about 45% sends out warning signs and should be investigated and one below about 15% either indicates a phenomenal website or a problem with the tracking code and is worth taking a look
Clicks
This data comes from the Google Search Console and records the number of people who have clicked through to your site when they found it in Google’s search results.
The Click Thru Rate (CTR) is a number calculated by dividing the number of Clicks by the number of Impressions (The number of times your site was seen in the Search Results Page
Entrances
This is recording the first page that people land on when visiting your website.
Hint: With a well optimised site, it won’t always be your Home Page