FIRST, THE MYTH:

The web offers irrefutable tracking data that is more

reliable than other audience measurement data in other

mediums.

FALSE

THE REALITY

WEB METRICS: KEY TERMS

HITSPAGE VIEWS

UNIQUESVISITS/SESSIONS

CONVERSIONSBOUNCE RATE

REFERRERENTRY/EXIT PAGESORGANIC SEARCH

HITS

“How Idiots Track Success”

PAGE VIEWS

Occurs when a users browser requests a web page. A single page view may create multiple hits to the server if the page contains multiple

elements such as banners.

Since page views do not take into consideration users who may have their browsers set to disable images, they are of little value to

advertisers.

UNIQUES

A term used to describe the total number of visitors to a site over a certain time period.

Relying exclusively on IP addresses in a log file is not recommended as it would not take into

consideration multiple users accessing ones site through the same IP address such as would

happen at companies and schools. Cookies are also used sometimes, but since they can be

disabled or cached, they cannot be relied upon exclusively

VISITS/SESSIONS

A visit is an interaction a unique visitor has with a website over a specified

period of time or activity.

In most cases, if a visitor has left a site or has not executed a click within 30

minutes, the visit session will terminate.

CONVERSIONS

An action that signifies a completion of a specified activity. For many sites, a user converts if they buy a product, sing up

for a newsletter, or download a file. The conversion rate is the percentage of

visitors who do convert.

CONVERSION RATE

The relationship between visitors to a web site and actions

considered to be a "conversion," such as a sale or

request to receive more information. This metric is often

expressed as a percentage.

BOUNCE RATE

The percentage of entrances on a web page that result in an immediate exit

from the web site.

High % = bad

Low % = good

REFERRER

The location that visitors come from, particularly the sites,

search engines or directories.

ENTRY/EXIT PAGES

The first/last viewed page on a visitor's path through a site.

ORGANIC SEARCH

A type of search in which web users find sites having unpaid

listings, as opposed to using the pay-per-click advertisement listings displayed among the

search results.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS