WordPress® All-in-One For Dummies®

Understanding Key Analytics Terminology

One of the reasons that people find analytics programs so overwhelming is their obscure terminology and jargon. Here, we've taken the time to define some of the more popular terms (we even spent the time putting them in alphabetical order for you; you can thank us later):

• Bounce rate: The percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person leaves your site from the entrance page. This metric measures visit quality — a high bounce rate generally indicates that visitors don't find your site entrance pages relevant to them.

  In the eyes of e-commerce, bounce rate speaks to the quality of your entrance page. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors stay on your site and convert into purchasers, subscribers, or whatever action you want them to complete. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each ad that you run (in the case of businesses) or to the audience based on the referring (for example, if you create a special bio page for your Twitter profile). Landing pages should provide the information and services that the ad promises.

  When it comes to blogging, a high bounce rate from a social-media source (like a social news site like Digg) can tell you that users didn't find the content interesting, and a high bounce rate from search engines can mean that your site isn't what users thought they were getting. In blogging, having a low bounce rate really speaks to the quality of the content on your ...