The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics Metrics

Feb 05, 2020 ● 4 min read

Google Analytics is a powerful tool available to measure the performance of your website or mobile app. Google Analytics is a free tool offered by Google that is easy to use once you understand how it works. Before we go any further, the first step is to sign up for an account. After signing up, you can obtain the tracking code and place it on each page of your website you want to track.

Measuring is the most crucial part of success; for instance, without knowing and keeping track of what is working or not working, you cannot maintain or improve your performance. However, first, you need to set up the goals you want to achieve and then choose the right metrics that best fit to achieve your goals.

The following are some of the most important Google Analytics metrics to track, optimize and use these metrics to reach the goals you have set up for your brand and website. You will find these metrics under categories such as:

• Audience: This metric provides you with information about your users' location, device categories, and demographics.
• Acquisition: Acquisition metric shows you where your audience is coming from.
• Behavior: The behavior metric tells you what the audience does on your website. It shows how much time users spend on your site.
• Conversions: Conversions show you the conversion rate, it tells you if your visitors are converting and are you achieving the goals you have set up.

Pageviews

A pageview is a metric that measures the performance of your page over a specific period. It refers to the number of times a page is viewed; the count increases whenever a user loads a page. A pageview is the total number of visits by users; it can be a different user loading the page or the same user hitting the page multiple times.

Unique pageviews: Unique pageviews metric count the visitors per session. No matter how many times a user loads the page in one season that counts as one visit in unique page views. 

Moreover, the pageviews are always higher than the unique page views, as unique views count unique visitors.

Landing Pages

A landing page is the first page that your visitors see on your website; it tracks how many people visit your page. From here, you can attract your audience and make sure they stay on your site longer.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate tells about the percentage of the visitors who - after landing on your page - leave it immediately without any interaction.

It is essential to have a lower bounce rate; a high bounce rate means your visitors are not seeing what they come searching for or are not interested and leave. You may need to change your strategy and look at keywords and sources of your traffic and make it more relevant.

You can also improve the content of your website to make them more attractive. People will stay on your site longer if they find the information they come looking for and the information you provide is also good quality.

Exit Pages

You can view exit pages under the behavior category. An exit page is the last page your visitors see before leaving your site. It refers to the number of times the visitors have left from a specific page. When visitors come to your website, they have to leave at some point, so in a nutshell, the exit page may just be a page they exit.

However, if the visitors are leaving from a specific page repeatedly, it might be because they lose interest. In this case, if the exit rate of a page is too high, you can make the page more engaging.

Traffic sources

You can find traffic sources under the Acquisition metric. Traffic is the most vital metric to track as without traffic; you can't reach any of your goals. Thereby, it is crucial to know where most of your traffic is coming from. There are different ways people can reach your website, such as organic traffic, direct hits, referrals, Ads or via social media.

Users

The user’s metric you will find under the Audience category, it tells you how many users interact with your website. It keeps track of all types of users’ data such as active users, new users, and returning users. You not only want to attract new users but also want to keep the returning users interested.

Sessions

Sessions show you the experience of your users while they stay on your website as it tracks the user’s all activities on your website until the user leaves. If the same user comes back after 24 hours, it will count as a second session.

Page per session refers to the average number of pages visited in a whole session, while the Average session duration shows you the average time visitors spend on your webpage.

Site Speed

Site speed is an important metric to track; you do not want your visitors to leave your site if it's taking too much time to load. Side speed can be improved by looking at the factors that are causing the delay and fixing them.

Conversions

Conversion is one of the most important metrics to track. It is closely related to your goals, as it is an action that you have set up as a goal you want to reach. No matter what your goal is, if the users are not converting and your conversation rate is low, then you need to change something. A high conversion rate tells you that what you are doing is working. Additionally, you can track more than one type of conversation.

Goals

The first step you take is when you set up your goals, and then all the steps you have taken in between are to ensure you reach those goals. Thereby, goals are the most important metrics you track, so after careful consideration and understanding your objective set up your goals. Furthermore, your conversion rate tells you how successful you are in achieving your goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a “dimension” in Google Analytics?

Dimensions are the attributes that are used to describe the metrics. Dimensions are the characteristics of your visitors, while metrics are measurable numbers. In Google Analytics reports, dimensions are expressed by non-numerical values in rows.

• What are the four scope levels available for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics?

The four scope levels available for dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics are product level, hit level, session level, and user level.

Written by Mike

Former data analyst and the head of Whatagraph blog team. A loving owner of two huskies, too.