6 Web Traffic Terms You Need To Understand

The Internet can do a lot for your business. But as you expand from website to blogs to business pages on social media, you want to measure how well these platforms are working for you. For small and mid-sized businesses, there are many free or relatively inexpensive web analytic tools available, such as Google Analytics and HubSpot. These can tell you the traffic you're getting on each of your platforms, so you can eliminate ones that aren't working and improve those that are. In order to make data-backed web decisions, you need to understand the web traffic terms these analytic tools use:

1. Pageviews/Views. A pageview, called a view by some analytic tools, is logged every time a browser loads a page on your website. That means if a visitor views a page, goes to a second page on your site, then returns to the original one, that counts as three pageviews. This data determines your site's stickiness, since it tells you whether visitors are seeing one page and then leaving, or sticking around to check out more content.

2. Visits. A visit is counted when someone lands on your site from a source outside your website domain. Analytic tools usually count only one visit, even if a user goes to several pages on your site while there. This is why visit counts are generally smaller than pageviews, since multiple pageviews still only log as one visit. With some analytic tools, when a person visits your website, clicks a link to another site, but then comes back to yours, it counts as two visits.

3. Sessions. In Google Analytics, this is a series of interactions on your website by a visitor, occurring within a given time frame. Think of it as a container for the actions a visitor takes during a specific period of time. Google's default sessions are 30 minutes, but you can specify any time, from a few seconds to several hours. A session ends and a new one starts when either: 1) the day ends at midnight; 2) there's been no activity for the specified length of time and the user resumes activity; or 3) a visitor comes from one campaign, leaves, then returns by a different campaign.
4. Unique Pageviews. This term is used within sessions. If a person views the same page two or more times during a single session, all those views are counted as only one unique pageview.

5. Visitors or Users. A visitor, called a user by some web analytic tools, is someone who lands on your site. One visitor can make multiple visits to a site, or be involved in multiple sessions (in Google Analytics). Some tools track visitors by placing cookies in their browsers, which are generated by tracking code installed on your site. Others use complex calculations to tell you how many different people-"unique visitors"-visited your site during a particular time frame.

6. New vs. Returning Users or Visitors. Data comparing these gives you a sense of how well you're keeping visitors interested, as well as how good you are at attracting prospects. Some tools, however, will track a visitor on a computer as new again if they visit for the second time on a mobile device.
Bear in mind that different web analytic tools can have different definitions for the same term. Check the tool's documentation to understand what it in fact is measuring. Here's to your continued success online and off-line, as you keep putting together your best year ever... Enjoy a great month!

Provided by:
Danene Strand
Senior Mortgage Consultant
Veritas Funding
NMLS# 4424935926 S Fashion Pointe Ste 210
South Ogden, UT 84403
Direct: 801-645-5363
Fax: 866-825-6714
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