Google Analytics Terms That Legal Marketers Need To Know

Most people know that Google Analytics is a powerful tool. But unfortunately many don’t take advantage of the robust reporting Google Analytics offers because they don’t know where to start.  To help you feel more comfortable with all things Google Analytics, we’re breaking down the terms that legal marketers need to know. 

Acquisition – This metric shows where your traffic is coming from, whether that’s organic searches, social media, or links from other websites. 

Average Session Duration – An average length of time that a visitor spends on your website in any instance. It’s helpful for measuring the effectiveness and quality of your website content. 

Average Time on Page – The average length of time that visitors spend viewing a specific page or group of pages. 

Bounce Rate – A bounce is one single-page website visit, and so a website’s bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits that your site has. Generally, your goal is to keep a bounce rate as low as possible, but the nature of some sites (such as those with standalone pages) leads to naturally lower rates. 

Direct Traffic – A visitor that comes to your website directly by typing the URL into their browser’s address bar or using a saved bookmark falls into this category. Therefore, direct traffic indicates how many people know your company URL. 

Event – This is a specific “hit” that tracks user interactions such as clicks, downloads, or other desired activities. 

Exit Page – The last page a user visits before exiting your website altogether. 

Related: What Law Firms Need to Know About Google Analytics 4 [An On Demand, Complimentary Webinar]

Filter – These are tools that allow you to include or exclude specific data points in your reporting. For example, when filtering direct traffic you might exclude internal employees so that you get a more accurate representation. Many people use this feature to exclude known bots. 

Goal Conversion – When someone completes an activity on your website that is important to your business objectives, that is a goal conversion. Examples of this are signing up for things or completing forms, and they must be set up in advance for Google to track them. 

Landing Page – This is the first page that someone “lands” on when they come to your website. Most often it’s the homepage. 

Organic Traffic – These visitors come to your website from natural and unpaid search engine results. These figures provide insight into search terminology and performance. 

Pages/Session – The average number of pages a user viewed in one visit to your website.

Pageviews – The total number of website pages viewed. For example, if someone visits your homepage and then a services page, that counts as 2 pageviews. 

Referral Traffic – This traffic came to your website through a link on another website, such as LinkedIn or a website that references some of your content. 

Returning Visitors – These are people that have previously visited your website (tracked on a single device). 

Search Traffic – Visitors that came to your website through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

Sessions – One session equates to a single continual active viewing period by a visitor. That means if a user visits your website several different times in a single day, each of those visits counts as a session. 

Source/Medium – Grouped together, source is the origin of traffic (such as bing or twitter) and medium is the category of the source (such as organic or social).

Unique Visitors – The number of unduplicated users who come to your website (where each is only counted one time). 

Unique Pageviews – This information combines the pageviews from the same user in the same session, counted as one unique pageview. 

Users – This number refers to the number of people that have visited your website at least once during a given time period. If a user has multiple sessions, they will still be considered a single user. 

% Exit – This ratio measures exits to pageviews. It’s an indication of how often users leave your webpages compared to how many pages they view. 

Takeaway

Google Analytics can provide really meaningful insights if you take the time to understand everything. Your marketing programs and specific campaigns can reap tremendous benefits. If you need any help deciphering your findings or getting set up with Google Analytics so that you can properly track your firm’s digital efforts overall, let us know. We can help you to measure and make the most of your digital marketing strategies. Contact us today for a free consultation.