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Metrics & analytics

Glossary

Metrics & analytics

The numbers that tell you whether SEO is working, and the tools that report them.

83 terms, each answer-first and checked against a primary source.

assisted conversions Assisted conversions are conversions where a given marketing channel appeared somewhere on the conversion path but was not the final click that closed it. The channel helped move the user toward converting without earning last-click credit for the result.
attribution Attribution assigns credit for a conversion to the touchpoints (ads, clicks, organic visits, other interactions) along a user's path to that action. An attribution model is the rule or algorithm that decides how much credit each touchpoint receives.
attribution model An attribution model is the rule or machine-learning algorithm that decides how conversion credit is split across the touchpoints (ads, clicks, organic visits) on a user's path to converting. It answers "which channel gets credit for this sale," and that choice shapes how you value SEO, ads, and every other channel.
audience In Google Analytics 4, an audience is a group of users who share conditions you set: behavior, demographics, events, or acquisition source. Membership is dynamic, so users join and leave as they meet or stop meeting the criteria. Audiences feed reports, explorations, and Google Ads remarketing.
average engagement time Average engagement time is a Google Analytics 4 metric: the mean time your page was in focus (or app in the foreground) per active user. It counts only active viewing, not idle or background-tab time, so it reflects real attention rather than a tab left open.
average position Average position is a Google Search Console metric showing the mean topmost rank your page or query held across the impressions it received in a chosen period, where 1 is the highest slot. Google records a position only when the result is actually seen, so it reflects real impressions, not theoretical rank.
average session duration Average session duration is the total duration of all sessions divided by the number of sessions, in other words the mean length of a visit. In Google Analytics 4 it reports the average time in seconds a user spends before a session ends or times out after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Bing Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) is Microsoft's free service for monitoring and improving how a site performs in Bing search. It is Bing's equivalent of Google Search Console, offering site verification, URL and sitemap submission, index and crawl reports, and search-performance data (clicks, impressions).
bounce rate Bounce rate is the share of website sessions that end without meaningful engagement. In GA4 it equals 100% minus the engagement rate, so a bounce is a session that lasts under 10 seconds, has no key event, and has fewer than two page views.
branded traffic Branded traffic is the visits a site earns from search queries containing its brand name, product names, or close variations and misspellings. In Google Search Console it is the "Branded" half of the branded-queries filter, split from non-branded (discovery) traffic.
channel grouping A channel grouping is a set of rules that sorts incoming traffic into named channels such as Organic Search, Direct, Paid Search, Referral, and Email, based on each visit's source and medium. In GA4 the default channel group is fixed; custom channel groups let you define your own.
click-through rate (CTR) Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who click your result after seeing it in search, calculated as clicks divided by impressions and expressed as a percentage. In SEO it reflects how compelling your title and snippet are for a given query.
click-to-conversion rate Click-to-conversion rate is the share of clicks that end in a conversion, calculated as conversions divided by clicks over the same period. If 1,000 clicks produce 50 conversions, the click-to-conversion rate is 5%. It measures how well a page turns arriving clicks into completed actions.
clicks Clicks are the number of times a user followed a link from Google search results out to your site. In Google Search Console, repeat clicks on the same result in one session count once, while clicks on different URLs of yours count separately.
cohort analysis Cohort analysis groups users by a shared starting trait, usually the date they first arrived, then tracks how that same group behaves over later days, weeks, or months. It exposes retention and decay patterns that aggregate totals hide.
conversion A conversion is a tracked, valuable action a visitor completes, such as a purchase, form submission, signup, call, or download. It is how you connect traffic to business outcomes: the goal your SEO is meant to drive, not just visits or rankings.
conversion path A conversion path is the ordered sequence of touchpoints (channels, pages, and interactions) a person moves through before completing a conversion such as a purchase or form fill. It captures the whole journey, not just the last click that closed it.
conversion rate Conversion rate is the percentage of visits or visitors that complete a desired action, calculated as conversions divided by sessions (or users) times 100. In Google Analytics 4 the same metric now appears as session key event rate and user key event rate.
cost per acquisition (CPA) Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the total marketing spend divided by the number of conversions it produced, so it tells you what one customer, lead, or signup actually costs. Google also calls it cost per action, calculated as marketing cost divided by number of actions.
data stream In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a data stream is the flow of data from one website or app into a GA4 property. Each property supports web, iOS, and Android streams, and Google recommends at most one of each, for a maximum of three per property.
data-driven attribution Data-driven attribution (DDA) assigns conversion credit to each touchpoint from your own account data instead of a fixed rule, using machine learning to compare converting and non-converting paths and reward the interactions that most raise the odds of a key event.
DebugView DebugView is the Google Analytics 4 panel that shows the events and user properties a device sends in real time, so you can confirm your tracking fires correctly before trusting the numbers in your reports. You open it in Admin under Data display once debug mode is on.
direct traffic Direct traffic is the analytics channel for visits that arrive with no identifiable referrer. In GA4 a session is tagged Direct only when the source is exactly (direct) and the medium is (none) or not set, which makes it a catch-all for any origin the tracker cannot attribute.
dwell time Dwell time is how long a searcher stays on a page after clicking it in the results before returning to the search engine. A long dwell time suggests the page satisfied the query; a quick bounce back to the results (a short click) suggests it did not.
engaged sessions In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), an engaged session is a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, records at least one key event (conversion), or includes 2 or more pageviews or screenviews. Engagement rate is the percentage of sessions that qualify; bounce rate is the inverse.
engagement rate Engagement rate is a Google Analytics 4 metric showing the percentage of sessions that were engaged. GA4 counts a session as engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, fires a key event, or has at least 2 page or screen views. Bounce rate is its exact inverse.
enhanced measurement Enhanced measurement is a Google Analytics 4 setting that automatically collects common interaction events, page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, site searches, video engagement, file downloads, and form interactions, from a web data stream without any extra tracking code.
entrance In web analytics, an entrance (or entry page) is the page where a visitor's session begins. Google Analytics 4 counts it as the number of times the first event in a session happened on a given page. Entrances closely track a site's total sessions, though the two can differ because some sessions start without a pageview.
estimated traffic Estimated traffic is a modeled figure for how many organic visits a page or site likely receives, calculated by SEO tools from each ranking keyword's search volume multiplied by an assumed click-through rate for its position. It is a projection, not a measured count.
event In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), an event is any single tracked interaction or occurrence on your site or app, such as a page view, click, scroll, or purchase. Every hit GA4 collects is an event, made of an event name plus optional parameters that add context.
exit page An exit page is the last page a visitor views before their session ends, whether they close the tab, move to another site, or time out. In Google Analytics 4 this is counted by the Exits metric: how many times the last event in a session happened on a given page.
exit rate Exit rate is the percentage of pageviews for a given page that were the last in the session, meaning the visitor left your site from that page. It is calculated as exits divided by pageviews for that page, no matter how the visitor first entered the site.
first-click attribution First-click attribution is a single-touch model that gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the first channel or interaction in a customer's journey. Also called first-touch, it answers what originally brought someone to your brand, ignoring every later touchpoint before the sale.
GA4 property A GA4 property is the data container in Google Analytics 4 that collects and stores measurement data for one website and/or app. It sits below an account, holds one or more data streams, and uses an event-based model, replacing the retired Universal Analytics property.
goal In web analytics, a goal is a defined user action you track as a success signal, such as a form submission, purchase, or newsletter signup. "Goal" is Universal Analytics terminology; in Google Analytics 4 the equivalent is a key event, an event you mark as important to your business.
Google Analytics Google Analytics is Google's free web analytics platform that collects data from your website and apps to report how visitors find and interact with them. The current version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), uses an event-based model and replaced Universal Analytics in 2023.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's analytics platform that measures website and app activity with an event-based data model, where every interaction (pageview, scroll, click, purchase) is recorded as an event. It replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data on July 1, 2023.
Google Discover Google Discover is a feed inside the Google app and mobile Search that surfaces content matched to a user's interests, with no search query involved. Pages become eligible automatically once Google indexes them and they follow Discover's content policies; no special tags or structured data are required.
Google Search Console (GSC) Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's free tool for site owners to see how their site performs in Google Search. It reports the queries you rank for, plus clicks, impressions, average position, and which of your pages Google has crawled and indexed.
Google Tag Manager Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management system from Google that lets you deploy, edit, and organize tracking tags (analytics, ads, and marketing snippets) on a website or app through a web interface, without editing the site's source code each time.
impression share Impression share (IS) is a Google Ads metric: the percentage of impressions your ads actually received divided by the total impressions they were eligible to get. A low IS signals that budget or Ad Rank is keeping your ads out of auctions they could have entered.
impressions In SEO, an impression is counted each time a link to one of your pages appears in a search result the user has seen or could have seen. Google Search Console logs an impression when your result loads on the current page of results, even if the user never scrolls to it or clicks.
index coverage Index coverage is the state of which pages on your site Google has actually indexed versus excluded, reported in Google Search Console's Page indexing report (formerly the Index Coverage report). It shows how many URLs are indexed, how many are not, and the reason attached to each exclusion.
key event In Google Analytics 4, a key event is any event you flag as important to your business, such as a form submission or purchase, so GA4 counts it separately. On March 21, 2024, Google renamed Analytics "conversions" to "key events," reserving "conversion" for Google Ads.
landing page A landing page is the first page a visitor lands on when they enter your site during a session, also called an entrance page. In marketing and paid ads, the term also means a standalone page built for one campaign or conversion goal.
last non-direct click Last non-direct click is an attribution model that ignores direct visits and gives 100% of the conversion credit to the last channel a user clicked before converting. It was Universal Analytics' default and remains a selectable model in GA4, where Google also labels it "paid and organic last click."
last-click attribution Last-click attribution is a reporting model that gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final channel a user clicked before converting. In Google Analytics 4 it is called "Paid and organic last click," and it ignores direct traffic, crediting the last non-direct channel instead.
lifetime value (LTV) Lifetime value (LTV), also called customer lifetime value, is the total revenue or profit a business can expect from one customer over the whole relationship. A common formula is average purchase value multiplied by purchase frequency and average customer lifespan.
linear attribution Linear attribution is a measurement model that gives every touchpoint in a conversion path equal credit. If four channels touched one sale, each gets 25%. Google retired it from GA4 and Google Ads in 2023, leaving data-driven and last-click, but you can still apply it in spreadsheets and BI tools.
lookback window A lookback window is the time span before a conversion during which a marketing touchpoint stays eligible for attribution credit. In GA4 it defaults to 90 days for most key events and 30 days for acquisition events, and it caps how far back any attribution model can look.
Looker Studio Looker Studio is Google's free reporting and dashboard tool for turning data from sources like Search Console, GA4, and Google Ads into shareable visual reports. In April 2026 Google reverted its name to the original, Data Studio.
macro conversion A macro conversion is the primary action a site exists to drive, the outcome tied directly to revenue or your main business goal, such as a completed purchase, a submitted lead form, or a booked demo. It is the endpoint that smaller micro conversions build toward.
measurement ID A measurement ID is the unique identifier GA4 assigns to a web data stream, formatted as "G-" followed by letters and numbers (for example, G-PSW1MY7HB4). It tells the Google tag which GA4 property and stream to send your website's data to.
micro conversion A micro conversion is a small, measurable action a visitor takes that signals progress toward your main goal (the macro conversion), such as a newsletter signup, a PDF download, or reaching a pricing page. It has value on its own but is not the primary outcome the site exists to drive.
multi-channel funnels Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) was a Universal Analytics report set showing the full sequence of channels a visitor touched before converting, so you could see how organic search, paid, social, and direct assist each other. Google retired it; the GA4 successor is the Attribution paths report.
new vs returning users New vs returning users is the analytics split between first-time visitors and people who have been to your site before. In Google Analytics 4, a new user triggers the first_visit event, while a returning user has initiated at least one previous session on the same device or browser.
non-brand traffic Non-brand traffic is organic search traffic from queries that do not mention your company, brand, or product name, such as "project management software" rather than "Asana." It measures how well a site attracts people who do not yet know the brand.
organic search Organic search results are the unpaid listings on a search engine results page that rank purely on an algorithm's read of relevance and quality, not on advertiser payment. Google defines them as free listings that appear because they are relevant to someone's search terms.
organic traffic Organic traffic is the visitors who reach a site by clicking unpaid search listings, the free results a search engine shows because they match a query rather than because someone paid for placement. Analytics tools count a visit as organic when its medium is "organic" or its source is a known search engine.
organic traffic value Organic traffic value is an SEO tool's estimate of what your organic search traffic would cost if you bought the same clicks through paid ads. Tools calculate it by multiplying each ranking keyword's estimated organic clicks by its cost-per-click, then adding those figures together.
pages per session Pages per session is the average number of pages a visitor views in one visit, calculated as total pageviews divided by total sessions. Google Analytics 4 renames it Views per session (API name screenPageViewsPerSession); Universal Analytics called it Pages / Session.
pageviews A pageview is a single instance of a page loading (or reloading) in a browser. In Google Analytics 4 it is counted as the page_view event, and the metric that tallies these in reports is called Views.
paid traffic Paid traffic is website visits that arrive because you paid for the click or impression, such as pay-per-click search ads, paid social, shopping listings, or retargeting. In Google Analytics it is grouped into channels like Paid Search and Paid Social, where the medium is cpc, ppc, or paid, as opposed to unpaid organic clicks.
performance report The Performance report in Google Search Console shows how a site performs in Google Search using four metrics: clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and average position. You can break these down by query, page, country, device, search appearance, and date.
pogo-sticking Pogo-sticking is when a searcher clicks a result, quickly returns to the search page, and picks a different result instead. It signals the page did not match the query intent, the same return-to-SERP behavior Google's click systems treat as a bad click.
position-based attribution Position-based attribution, also called U-shaped attribution, is a multi-touch model that gives most of a conversion's credit to its first and last touchpoints. The standard split is 40% to the first interaction, 40% to the last, and 20% shared across the middle touches.
referral traffic Referral traffic is website visits that arrive when someone clicks a link on another site. In Google Analytics 4 these sessions carry the medium referral and are labeled by the linking domain, for example example.com / referral.
return on ad spend (ROAS) Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the revenue earned for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as conversion value divided by ad cost and usually shown as a ratio or percentage. A 4:1 ROAS (or 400%) means every $1 of ad spend returns $4 in revenue.
scroll depth Scroll depth measures how far down a page a visitor scrolls, expressed as a percentage of total page height (50% is halfway, 100% is the bottom). GA4's enhanced measurement fires a "scroll" event the first time a user reaches 90% vertical depth.
search queries Search queries are the exact words and phrases people type or speak into a search engine like Google to find something. In SEO analytics, the Search Console "queries" report shows the real terms that led users to your site, alongside impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for each one.
search visibility Search visibility estimates how often and how prominently a site appears in organic search results for a tracked set of keywords, usually shown as a percentage of the clicks its rankings could capture. Tools calculate it by weighting each ranking by search volume and expected click-through rate.
SEO KPI SEO KPIs (key performance indicators) are the specific metrics used to measure whether SEO work is moving toward a business goal. Common ones include organic traffic, keyword rankings, organic CTR, search visibility, and organic conversions, plus, increasingly, AI-search citations.
SEO ROI SEO ROI measures the revenue your organic search work returns against what it cost, as a percentage: (revenue from SEO minus cost of SEO) divided by cost of SEO, times 100. A 400% ROI means every $1 spent returned $4 in value.
session In analytics, a session is a group of a single user's interactions with your site inside one time window. In Google Analytics 4 it opens with a session_start event and closes after 30 minutes of inactivity by default, so one visit can cover many pages and events.
share of voice (SOV) Share of voice (SOV) is the percentage of total available search traffic a brand captures for a defined keyword set, measured against every competitor ranking for those terms. It collapses a scattered list of keyword rankings into one number that shows your competitive share of visibility.
time decay attribution Time decay attribution is a multi-touch model that gives more conversion credit to the touchpoints closest in time to the sale and less to earlier ones, using an exponential decay (Google's version halved credit every 7 days). Google Analytics 4 removed it in November 2023.
time on page Time on page is a web analytics metric measuring how long a visitor spends on a single page before moving on. Universal Analytics reported it as "average time on page" (retired July 2023); GA4 replaced it with "average engagement time," which counts only the seconds a page is actually in focus.
traffic acquisition Traffic acquisition is a GA4 report that shows where your website sessions come from, grouped by the Session default channel grouping (Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct, Referral, Organic Social, Email). It is scoped to sessions, so it counts both new and returning visits, not just first visits.
unique visitors A unique visitor is a single distinct person who visits a website within a set time period, counted only once no matter how many times they return. In Google Analytics 4 this maps to the Total users metric. The label "unique visitors" is older than GA4: it was Google's original metric name, which Universal Analytics renamed to "Users."
user acquisition User acquisition is the GA4 report showing how new users first found your site or app. It groups people by their First user source, medium, and channel using first-touch attribution, so every later visit stays credited to the channel that first brought them in.
users In web analytics, users are the count of distinct people (technically, distinct identifiers) who interacted with your site over a date range. In GA4, the default "Users" metric is Active users: the number of unique users who engaged with your site or app in that period.
UTM parameters UTM parameters are tags added to a URL's query string (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, plus optional utm_term and utm_content) that tell analytics tools like GA4 where a click came from and which campaign drove it, so you can attribute traffic to specific sources.
visibility index A visibility index is a single composite score that estimates how visible a domain is in organic search. It combines the keywords a site ranks for, each keyword's search volume, and the click-through rate expected at its ranking position, so it rises and falls with a site's overall Google presence.

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