Conscious Solutions' Guide to Google Analytics Jargon Busting.
When a user visits your website, it is called a session. If at least 30 minutes have passed, either by being stationary on the website or leaving the website a new session would be created.
Someone who visits your website. They are purely unique views within the time selected.
When a user visits a webpage, each page they click on to will generate a page view, unless they have already viewed that page during the session.
Avg Session Duration
The average time a session lasts for.
Bounce Rate
When you visit a website and leave without visiting another page.
% of New Sessions
The difference between sessions and users.
New vs Returning
The difference between a new user and an existing user.
Frequency and Recency
How often a user revisits your website.
Engagement
How long a user has been engaged on your website.
Browser and OS
This shows you which browsers and operating systems are being used by users. It also shows the screen resolution the website is being viewed in and the network being used by the user.
Mobile Overview
This shows you what percentage of desktops, mobiles and tablets are being used when users visit your website.
Devices
This gives you a breakdown of the types of devices being used when users visit your website.
Channel
A source/medium where a user finds your website e.g. organic search, paid search, direct, referral or social.
Organic Search
Anything searched through a search engine such as Google and Bing.
Paid Search
Any paid ads on search engines. This only works on Google Analytics if you have Google AdWords set up with your account.
Referral
Traffic from a link that isn't on a search engine e.g. a directory.
Direct
When a user visits your website directly from a URL.
Source/Medium
This is what brings traffic to your website.
Acquisition Overview
This shows you how each channel is doing.
Behaviour Overview
This shows you how long users are spending on your website and what they are doing on it.
% Exit
This is the percentage of users who leave your website.
Site Content
This shows you how popular each webpage is on your website.
Landing Page
This is the page a user lands on when they visit your website.
Exit Pages
This shows which pages on your websites are performing the worst.
Multi-Funnel Channels
This shows the relationship between channels and how well they are converting.