Glossary

Key terms

Glossary of web analytics terms

Third-party data is info collected by external entities and used by businesses for marketing or targeting.

A single customer view compiles data from various sources to create a comprehensive customer profile.

Server log analysis uses web server records to improve site performance while cautiously handling personal data.

PHI refers to an individual's health-related data, requiring strict privacy measures in analytics contexts.

PII is data that identifies an individual, requiring responsible handling and privacy protection in analytics.

An IP address is a unique identifier for devices online, enabling communication and access to websites.

First-party cookies are data stored by a website to remember user preferences, enhancing user experience.

An attribution model is a framework or algorithm that is used to identify and attribute credit to the various marketing channels

Adblockers are software programs that block or filter ads from being displayed on a web page

Assisted conversions are conversions that happen after someone interacts with a company's online or offline advertising but does not directly lead to a conversion.

Data activation involves using collected data to improve business aspects, driving better decision-making.

Website visitors are individuals who visit a website and whose actions on the site are tracked and analyzed through website analytics.

Website traffic refers to the number of visitors and page views a website receives over a specific period of time.

User-agent is a term used in website analytics to refer to the software agent (such as a web browser) used by a user to access a website.

UTM codes are tags that are added to a URL in order to track the source, medium, and campaign of website traffic in analytics tools.

Unique Visitors are the number of distinct individuals who visited a website within a specified time period, as measured by analytics software.

A URL identifies a webpage for internet access and tracking in website analytics.

Trend lines are lines drawn on a graph to show the overall direction of a data set over a specific period of time in website analytics.

Traffic rank is a measurement of a website's popularity in comparison to other websites, typically determined by the amount of traffic the website receives.

Time On Page is a metric in website analytics that measures the amount of time a user spends on a specific page during their visit to the website.

Time decay refers to the decline in the value or relevance of data over time.

A subdomain organizes website sections and is used in analytics to track specific traffic data.

A session is a group of user interactions with a website that takes place within a given time frame.

Sensitive website analytics data includes private or personal information, like finance or health, protected by laws.

Search Analytics analyzes website performance on search engines for visibility, traffic, and conversions.

Scrolled percentage is the percentage of a webpage that a user scrolls through during a visit to the website.

RSS Feed is a subscription service that allows users to receive updates from a website in a standardized format.

Robots.txt instructs search engines to avoid crawling certain pages to control website analytics data.

A referrer is a previous webpage that is linked to the current webpage being analyzed in website analytics.

Referral traffic is traffic that comes to a website from another website, typically by clicking on a link on the other site that leads to the first site.

Privacy Shield is a framework for protecting the privacy of personal data transferred between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US).

Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data that could potentially be used to identify a specific individual.

Personal data is any information related to an identified or identifiable individual.

PECR sets UK rules for electronic communications, including website cookies.

Page visits refers to the number of times a specific page on a website has been accessed by users.

The page title is the text that appears in a web page's browser tab or window title bar.

Page speed measures how quickly a web page can be loaded and displayed in a web browser.

Organic search ranks websites through unpaid methods on SERPs.

An OS manages hardware and services for computer programs.

Manual tagging is the process of manually assigning tags or labels to digital content or data to help organize and classify it.

In the context of website analytics, locations refer to geographical locations where website visitors are accessing the site from.

Live visitors are users who are currently visiting a website or using an online service in real time.

Legal bases are the grounds under which an organization or individual is permitted to process personal data according to data protection laws.

Landing pages are standalone web pages for marketing campaigns that visitors reach by clicking a link.

GDPR consent requires clear, informed, and unambiguous agreement to process personal data.

GDPR regulates data protection and privacy for individuals in the EU and EEA.

The first interaction model in website analytics refers to analyzing how a user interacts with a website for the first time.

The e-Privacy Directive is an EU law that regulates the use of cookies and similar technologies for tracking website visitors' online activity.

Direct traffic refers to visitors to a website who arrive at the site by typing the URL directly into their browser

In website analytics, devices are types of devices used to access a website, like desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

The Data Protection Act sets rules for personal data use and protection, including transfers outside the EEA.

A data processing agreement outlines personal data processing terms for a company.

Data localization is the practice of storing data within a specific geographic region.

Cookies store user data for tracking and identification purposes.

A cookie banner is a message that is displayed to website visitors to inform them that the site uses cookies

Conversions refer to the completion of a desired action by a user on a website,

CRO optimizes website elements to increase desired actions by visitors.

A conversion funnel visually represents a customer's progress from awareness to desired action.

CTR measures online advertising effectiveness by dividing clicks on a link by the number of times it was shown, expressed as a percentage.

CCPA is a California privacy law that grants residents the right to request businesses disclose and delete their personal information.

A call to action (CTA) is a prompt or request for the audience to take a specific action

A web browser is a software application that allows users to access and view websites and web pages on the Internet.

Branded search refers to searching for a company or brand name in a search engine

Bounce rate is a website metric that measures the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page.

Auto-tagging is the process of automatically assigning tags or labels to content or data using algorithms.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source HTML framework that enables web developers to create fast-loading, mobile-friendly websites

500 Internal Server Error is an HTTP status code that indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition while trying to fulfill the request, and the server was unable to complete the request.

404 Not Found is an HTTP status code that indicates that the server cannot find the requested resource. It is often used when a user attempts to access a webpage that does not exist on the server.

403 Forbidden is an HTTP status code that indicates that the client cannot access the requested resource on the server.