The Analytics portion of your monthly website care reports provides a snapshot of who is visiting your site, how they’re getting there, what they’re looking at and more!

Learn more about each section of your Analytics report below.

Questions about your Analytics report?  Contact us.

Analytics
Site Sessions

Site sessions are the total number of times someone visited and engaged with your site during the reporting period.

Sessions do not measure the number of people who visit your site, but rather the number of times people visit your site. For example, if Bob visits your site 5 different times during this reporting period, all 5 “sessions” of his will count.

Sessions give you a general idea of how frequently users are interacting with your website.

Benchmark: The number of site sessions will vary based on your industry, the season and even the day of the week.

Page Views

Page views are the total number of pages viewed on your site.  This number is typically larger than site sessions, as it counts every page Bob views when he’s on your site.

For example, if Bob has 5 “sessions” on your site this reporting period, and looks at 3 pages each time he visits, he will have 15 page views counting toward your total.  This includes pages he might have viewed multiple times during the same session.

Benchmark: This number will vary based on the amount of pages on your site. It will always be equal to or greater than the amount of sessions.

Pages Per Session

Pages Per Session tells you how many pages your average user views during a session on your website.  So if Bob looked at 10 pages during his visit and Mary looked at 2, the average pages per session would be 6.

Benchmark: This number will vary based on the amount of pages on your site. Generally any number higher than 2 is a good number (meaning that on average, the user is looking at least 2 pages.)

New Sessions

The New Sessions metric estimates the percentage of first-time visits to your website during the reporting period.

Since Bob visited your site regularly before this reporting period, his sessions would not be considered “new,” but the friends he told about the website who had not visited previously will have their sessions counted as “new.”

Benchmark: This number will vary based on your site’s content and your industry as a whole. Depending on your audience, you may be seeking a very high or a very low new session %.

Referrers

Referrers show the top 5 sources of traffic for your website.  You’ll see a mixture of search engines, social media pages and other sites that link to your website in this list.

Benchmark: All referrers are not made equal. The higher ranking/’more popular’ sites you can get traffic from – the better. With this report, you’re likely to see mostly search engines & social media platforms as your top referrers.

Keywords

Keywords gives you some of the top keywords that brought visitors to your site.

Keep in mind that since 2011, Google doesn’t provide keywords from users logged into their Google account when searching (unless you’re tracking paid search results).  So while this list of keywords gives you some data, it may not be an accurate sample of the top keywords that are actually leading visitors to your site.

Benchmark: Unfortunately, with Google & other search engines not providing usable information – you’re likely to see brand-specific terms in this area. While this isn’t helpful for seeking out those people that aren’t aware of your brand – it is helpful to see the varied ways that people type your name into the search engines.

Pages

Pages shows a list of the top 5 most-viewed pages on your website.  It calculates every time that page was viewed during a user session, which means if Bob looked at your home page 3 times during his visit, all 3 of those views would be counted here.

Note:  “/” (without a page name following it) represents your home page.

Benchmark: Your home page is almost always your most viewed page. Aside from that – your results may vary from report to report.

Countries

This metric shows where your visitors are located.  It counts “sessions,” so it represents the number of times visitors from those countries visited your site.

Benchmark: Depending on your audience, you might see higher percentages of out-of-country viewers. Thanks to spammers, you’ll see countries like Russia, India & South Korea show up. Those are generally not real people.

Time On Site

This gives you an average by calculating the amount of time visitors spend on your site divided by the number of total sessions during the reporting period.

While this is a nice snapshot, it isn’t a perfect calculation. Google calculates the average time on your site based on the last page a visitor clicked on (unless you set up more complex metrics).  So if Bob visits your site at 10:00 a.m. and clicks on a second page at 10:05 a.m. – his time on your site will be calculated at 5 minutes, rather than including however much time he spent on the second page.

The monthly snapshot you receive indicates whether time on site is increasing or decreasing with a green or red arrow, respectively, and indicates the change over the last reporting period.

Benchmark: This number will vary based on your site & site’s content. Usually you’re looking for a number higher than a minute or two.

Bounce Rate

This tells you what percentage of your website visitors get to your website and then “bounce” off before venturing further into the website.  Google calls these “single-page sessions.”

So if Bob visits your home page and doesn’t click any further, he would be considered a bounce.  Likewise, if someone goes directly to your contact page and gets the information they need without interacting any further, they are considered a bounce.  A high bounce rate might mean you’re not serving up enough valuable content to engage your visitors and warrants deeper investigation.

The monthly snapshot you receive indicates whether bounce rate is increasing or decreasing with a green or red arrow, respectively, and indicates the change over the last reporting period.

Benchmark: Typically, any number less than 70-80% is considered a good bounce rate percentage (meaning that 7/8 out of 10 users didn’t click any links on your site before leaving).

Organic Search

This metric indicates how many visitors reached your website through organic search, meaning they searched for your name or related terms and found your site through a search engine.

The monthly snapshot you receive indicates whether organic search is increasing or decreasing with a green or red arrow, respectively, and indicates the change over the last reporting period.

Benchmark: Getting organic traffic from search engines is a very important part of your overall traffic patterns. What drives these results is an always evolving answer, so if you have more questions about it, please contact us.

Social Media Sessions

This metric indicates how many visitors reached your website through social media referrals, meaning they clicked on a link shared through a social media channel.  These could be links set within your social media profiles or articles/content that were shared by others.

The monthly snapshot you receive indicates whether social media sessions are increasing or decreasing with a green or red arrow, respectively, and indicates the change over the last reporting period.

Benchmark: Depending on how visible your brand is on social media, this number can vary wildly from month to month. A more focused social media marketing approach should give this number a steady increase over time.