Glossary
The analytics glossary
Ten terms, each with a definition short enough to quote and a page that goes deeper, with examples and links to the guides that use them.
- AAttribution model
- BBounce rate
- CConversion rateCookieless tracking
- D
- E
- FFirst-party dataFunnel
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- RReferrer
- SSession
- T
- UUnique visitorUTM parameters
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
- Attribution modelAn attribution model is the rule that decides which visit, channel or campaign gets credit when someone converts. A customer may arrive three times before buying, and the model says who earned the sale: the first visit, the last one, or a share for each. It changes who gets credit, never the total.
- Bounce rateBounce rate is the share of visits in which a person views one page and leaves without doing anything else on it. A high rate is not bad in itself. It depends on what the page is for: a post that answers a question completely can bounce and still do its job.
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the share of visitors who complete a goal you chose, such as signing up, starting a trial or buying. You divide the number of people who did it by the number of people who could have, and multiply by 100. It tells you how well a page turns attention into action.
- Cookieless trackingCookieless tracking counts visits without storing anything on the visitor's device: no cookie, no local storage, no stored id. The tool recognises a visitor within a day from a hash of data the request already carries, and keeps nothing that follows them from one day to the next.
- First-party dataFirst-party data is information you collect yourself, directly from people using your own website or product: the pages they view, the forms they fill in, what they buy. It differs from third-party data, which another company gathers across many sites. You know where it came from and you are accountable for it.
- FunnelA funnel is an ordered series of steps people take toward a goal, such as visit, view pricing, start checkout and pay, with the number who reach each step. The drop between steps shows where people give up. It is the quickest way to find the one place worth fixing first.
- ReferrerA referrer is the address of the page a visitor was on just before they arrived at yours. The browser sends it with the request, and analytics uses it to name the source of a visit: a search engine, a social site, another website. When it is missing, the visit is usually called Direct.
- SessionA session is one visit to your site: the run of pageviews and actions by one visitor, from arrival until they stop for long enough that the next click counts as a new visit. Most tools end a session after 30 minutes of inactivity. Sessions are the unit behind bounce rate, entry pages and sources.
- Unique visitorA unique visitor is a person, or more exactly a browser, counted once in a period no matter how many times they come back. Analytics cannot see people, so it recognises a browser by a stored identifier or a hash. The count is an estimate of people, and a good one if you read it consistently.
- UTM parametersUTM parameters are up to five tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source and utm_campaign, that tell your analytics where a click came from. They are how you separate a newsletter from a social post when both send people to the same page.
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