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Google Analytics Basics

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1 Your launchpad in Google Analytics is the Audience Overview. This will show you the most commonly referenced basic traffic statistics.

Google Analytics Audience Overview

Traffic Statistics


  • Sessions - to most people, this is what's referred to colloquially as a "Hit" on your website. Total number of Sessions within the date range. A session is the period time a user is actively engaged with your website, app, etc. All usage data (Screen Views, Events, Ecommerce, etc.) is associated with a session.
  • Users - users that have had at least one session within the selected date range. Includes both new and returning users.
  • % New Sessions - an estimate of the percentage of first time visits.

Engagement Metrics


  • Pageviews - the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
  • Pages/Session (Average Page Depth) -  the average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
  • Avg. Session Duration - the average length of a Session.
  • Bounce Rate - the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).
2 Another important thing to know is where your traffic is coming from. The Acquisition area will break down your website traffic sources.

Google Analytics Acquisition Overview

Acquisition Sources


  • Organic Search - traffic that came to your website through a search engine query.
  • Referral - traffic that came to your website through a link on another website.
  • Direct - traffic from a user typing your website directly into the browser's address bar.
  • Social - traffic that came to your website through a link on a social media site.
  • Landing Page - the page through which a visitor enters your website, implying which pages are performing the best in search engine rankings.
3 Other tools like the Behavior Flow can show you what Landing Pages users are entering through, where they are going while on your site, and from what pages they are leaving your site.

Google Analytics Behavior Flow
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