In the early days of a website, you don’t need a web analytic report to tell you there is no traffic.

However, when you receive your first report, the terms might leave you scratching your head.

Since we are all about keeping it simple, here are the basics about web analytics.

What is Web Analytics?

Web analytic reports  —

• Track visitors’ behavior once they click on your website
• Track the pages viewed, time spent, etc.

There are all kinds of tools out there. Some use logfiles, while others do page tagging. Others combine the two.

• Logfile method – uses files already available in the web server
• Page tagging method – uses an outsource service – e.g., Google Analytics

There are arguments for and against that are far beyond my comprehension.

Keeping this to its most basic, here is a brief summary of some of the terms used in web analytic reports.

Say What?

As often is the way in technology, there are various definitions for the same term.

The following are some of the generally accepted definitions.

• Visitor – may also be called Unique Visitor or User – individual accessing site – identified from the computer so if individuals use different computers, they count as a visitor for each computer
• Visit – may also be called Session – relates to the activity of the Unique Visitor – starts when they click on your website and ends when they leave your website – some reports indicate a First Visit from a new visitor or designate a Repeat Visitor
• Hit – applies only to log files – occurs when a visitor requests a file – don’t get too excited about a lot of hits – typically one webpage contains multiple files so a visitor could view one page, but show multiple hits
• Page View – again, this would be a log file, but one defined as a page – also used in page tagging, it’s each time the page is accessed
• Visit Duration – may be called Session Duration – it’s the average time your visitors stay on your website
• Page View Duration – may also be called Time on Page – this is the average time visitors spend on each page
• Bounce Rate – this measures the percentage of visitors that accessed your site, looked at the one page and left-Daily Blog Tips had a good post on what is considered high, normal and low bounce rates
• Landing Pages – this shows you the most popular pages your visitors first come to – you can use the information for featuring ads or other information you want to make sure your visitors see

These are the bare bones of terms on web analytic reports.

I am by no means an expert. I am still experimenting with different tools.

If you have suggestions, recommendations or questions, please let us know in comments.

Together, we can figure out what the heck this stuff means.

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