The basic terms of web analytics can include the following:
- Traffic – the amount of users who visited the site in a given period.
- Views – the number of pages that the user opened.
- Depth of view – the number of pages that the user opened and viewed in one session.
- Session (visit) – number of visits to the website. As long as the user has not left the site, all of his actions will be counted as one session.
- Events – user interaction with site elements. For example, filling out a form, playing a video, downloading a price list, copying an email field, etc.
- Bounce – the percentage of sessions when users left the site immediately after entering it, or looked at only one page without committing anything.
- Conversion – the percentage of visitors who completed the targeted action.
- Sources of traffic – channels through which visitors came to the site. These can be mailing lists, search results, direct link clicks, ads, etc.
- Entry/exit pages – these are the pages to which users enter and after visiting which they leave the site.
If we talk about metrics – numerical indicators of views, purchases, visits, targeted actions and other things that web analytics tools track, the main ones include the following:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) – price per action.
- CPC (Cost Per Click) – price per click.
- ROI (Return on Investment) – The ratio of money invested in promotion to the profits obtained.
- CTR (Click-through rate) is a measure of effectiveness, the difference between the number of users who clicked on the ad to the number of impressions.
- CR (Conversion rate) – the number of users who performed the target action from the total number of visitors.
- CPL (Cost Per Lead) – the cost of attracting a lead (potential client). The metric shows how much money is spent to attract one user who left his contacts.
- CAR (Cart Abandonment Rate) – the number of users who have added items to cart, but haven’t made a purchase.
- ARPC/ARPU – the average income received from one user. It is the sum of income per client for a specified period.
- CR (Churn Rate) – the number of lost users, customers who stopped being such over a period of time.
- LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) – the total amount of revenue per customer for the entire period.
Whatever your site or project is, there is simply no metric that cannot be improved. This applies both when the metrics really need to be optimized and when things look good, but can always get even better. You won’t grow and evolve if you choose the “change nothing” strategy. But discovering weaknesses is exactly what will help analyze the resource. Web analytics is not just about collecting and analyzing data to optimize a resource, but also about finding connections and making decisions based on objective data.
