Basic Behavioral Metrics

Download a PDF that illustrates unique visitors, visits, page views and bounce rate. Right-click or option-click the link and choose "Save As" or "Save Link As."


Video:  Web Analytics Overview



By themselves as simple counts (e.g., number of page views per month), behavioral metrics are not usually KPIs. Counts don’t put numbers into context, so they don’t allow you to understand the dynamics of an action enough to act.  KPIs are usually percents or ratios.

1. Unique visitor:  A single visitor who may have multiple visits in a defined reporting period, e.g., day, week, month.  Unique visitors are measured with cookies, so "unique visitors" are really "unique computers."  In other words, this metric is just an inference.
   
   Unique visitor counts should always be associated with a time period. You should always see labels such as "unique visitors for the week of May 24."
   
   Also, you can't add up unique visitor counts; you have to just pull the number out from your web analytics software (e.g., Omniture, Google Analytics).
   
   If your target audience uses a lot of public computers, such as those at a library or a school, your unique visitor count may be undercounted.  Web analytics software only picks up "unique" computers, not people. 
   

   Conversely, if your target audience uses multiple computers (e.g., businesspeople who use computers at work, home and hotels), your unique visitor count will be overcounted.
   
   Unique visitor counts will also be undercounted if a lot of your audiences delete their cookies. 
   

   
   New visitor:  A unique visitor who has visited a site for the first time
   
   Return visitor:  A unique visitor who has visited a site during a previous reporting period
   
   



2. Visit: A single instance of any visitor arriving at a website. A visit is defined by a time limit set by each news organization; most use 30 minutes.



3. Page view: A page on a website. 
   
   Pages with dynamic content generated by software such as Ajax, Flash or widgets will not be counted by web analytics software.  So, your page view counts may be undercounted.
   



4. Entry page: The first page of a visit



5. Landing page: The first page of a visit based on a refer from outside the site or other source (e.g., search engine, newspaper, TV commercial, banner ad, link from another site).
   
   Usually used with a specific, unique URL to track a campaign.



6. Bounce: A visit that has one page view

Based on the Web Analytics Association 2008 Standards Definitions (Volume 1).