A lot of marketers and business managers deal with a lot of the website KPIs as more businesses are investing more money into online.
Important concept that people would have to understand is the differences in the common metrics and KPIs used in the site analytics industry. Following KPIs are examples defined in web analytics association's document.
These basic terminologies would be the best starting point to understand and generate KPIs that are actionable to your website business strategies.
KPI Definition Framework
- Count: Basic unit of measure, not a ratio. Ex) Visits, Page Views, Total Sales
- Ratio: Typically, a count divided by a count. Ex) Page Views per Visit
- KPI (Key Performance Indicator): KPI can be either a count or ratio, it is infused with business strategy, the set of appropriate KPIs typically differs between site and process types.
- Dimension: A general source of data that can be used to define various types of segments or counts and represents a fundamental dimension of visitor behavior or site dynamics.
Metrics can be applied to three different universes:
Aggregate, Segmented, Individual
Building Block Terms
Page:
Type - Dimension
Universe - Aggregate, Segmented, Individual
A page is an analyst definable unit of content.
Page Views
Type - Count
Universe - Aggregate, Segmented
The number of times a page was viewed.
Visits (Sessions)
Type - Count
Universe: Aggregate, Segmented
A visit is an interaction, by an individual, with a website consisting of one or more requests for an analyst-definable unit of content. If an individual has not taken another action on the site within a specified time period (typically, 25 to 30 min), the visit session will terminate.
Unique Visitors (New Visitor, Repeat Visitor, Return Visitor)
Type - Count
Universe - Aggregate, Segmented
The number of inferred individual people, within a designated reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to a site. Each individual is counted only once in the unique visitor measure for the reporting period.
Visit Characterization
Entry Page: Type - Dimension
Landing Page: Type - Dimension
Exit Page: Type - Dimension
Visit Duration: Type - Count
Referrer (Internal, External, Search, Visit, Original): Type - Dimension
Click-through: Type - Count
Click-through Rate: Type - Ratio
Page Views per Visit: Type - Ratio
Content Characterization
Page Exit Ratio: Type - Ratio
Single Page Visits: Type - Count
Single Page View Visits (Bounces): Type - Count
Bounce Rate: Type - Ratio
Conversion Metrics
Event: Type - Dimension
Conversion: Type - Dimension
If you are interested in how to utilize the web metrics/KPIs for analysis, check out the site traffic analysis section.
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